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ESD Congress Grant

                               

Projects with Children (Birth – 8 years) for Sustainable Development


OMEP Sweden invites practitioners all over the world to a competition by telling about a project or theme work within Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) from their Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) practice.

 

The Congress Theme is Children – citizens in a challenged world and Education for Sustainable Development is one important strand.

OMEP Sweden hereby announces a competition by which you can win a grant that will enable you to present your winning project during a congress seminar. The grant will

 

  • cover the congress participation fee and/or
  • your travel expenses and/or
  • your cost for lodging

Aim

The overall aim of the competition is
- to collect inspiring and instructive examples from practitioners all over the world on  Education for Sustainable Development among young children, from birth to eight years.

 

OMEP strives

 

- to enhance the awareness among children and teachers about sustainable development

 

- to collect methods linked to the everyday world of young children that can empower children and their teachers with confidence and action competence to address sustainability challenges in their own teaching and learning environments.

 

Background

The United Nations 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, refers to the ‘interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars’ of sustainable development as social development, economic development, and environmental protection. ESD also recognizes the humanity’s dependence on a healthy biosphere. Participation and involvement are necessary components of ESD, with an emphasis on empowerment and agency for active citizenship, human rights and societal change.

 

Children of today are competent, active agents in their own lives. They are affected by and capable of engaging with complex environmental and social issues. They steer away from romanticized notions of childhood as an arena for innocent play that positions all children as leading exclusively sheltered, safe and happy lives untouched by events around them.

 

Early Childhood Education has strong traditions of integrated curriculum approaches embedded in children’s everyday lives and of child participation - this aligns well with ESD.

 

 Last date for submitting your competition entries was March 17, 2010.

 

 Jury Members are  

OMEP World President, OMEP Sweden President, representatives of SWEDESD (Swedish International Centre of Education for Sustainable Development) and GMV (Centre for Environment and Sustainability)  and professor John Siraj Blatchford, UK. 

 

 Thank you for your applications. We have received 31 applications.he jury has decided to give grants to five applications outside of Europe:

“Learning together to inhabit our earth today and tomorrow”, Mariela Losso, Argentina

”Water purification at Elimu daycare kindergarten”, Rosslynne Waiyigo Kiragu, Kenya

”Urban Jungle, Shankar Musafir, Indien 

”Young children’s questions and concern about ESD”, Han Chunhong, China and

“Guardians of the environment with environmental awareness”, Elba Domaccin, Ecuador

 

From Europe, we have chosen four applicants where the grant will cover the congress fee:

"Early Years ESD - A case study of children's centre", Kimberley Smith, England

"Ecological project - Peaceful Place", Anna Wróbel and OMEP,  Poland 

"Working together - Acting together World Environment Day", Theodora Avgeri, Greece

"The Polar Bear Project", Agapi Liapaki, Greece.

 

 The decisions about which projects were awarded the grants are based on   

the following criteria:

 

  • the project involves children (birth – 8 years)
  • all three ESD pillars are present (environment, economic and social)
  • children are active participants in the project

the result can be presented as Learning for change

 

 

 

Ingrid Engdahl

President OMEP Sweden

Further reading:

Pramling Samuelsson, I and Kaga, Y. (Eds.) (2008). The contribution of early childhood education to a sustainable society, Paris, UNESCO. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001593/159355e.pdf

The Gothenburg Recommendations on Education for Sustainable Development (2008)

http://www.chalmers.se/gmv

http://www.ipd.gu.se/english/OMEP/projects/sustainable_development/curriculum_development_site/  un site internet lié à l’OMEP proposant des lectures supplémentaires sur le développement durable.