Engaging Research on ESD
ENSI enforces promising new researchers and developers in the field of ESD to pool their expertise in a small researchers network under the umbrella of ENSI.
The objective of the project is to harness the energy and enthusiasm of a new generation of researchers, committed to education for sustainable development and involve them in ENSI in an active and meaningful way. ENSI offers therein experience in researcher collaboration and networking in the fields of Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development in school systems since 1986.
Report 2010 - development 2011
After the very successful Junior Researchers meeting 2008 in Switzerland, partially funded by the Council of Europe, and the intensive participation of the JR group in the preparation and conduction of ENSI's international Conference in Leuven 2009 (11 members participated, with 10 of them in the role of WS leader or WS rapporteurs), the group had no further the possibility to meet , due to several difficulties. Nevertheless a PhD thesis concerning ENSI was proposed by Michael Duggan (Australia) - Facilitating Education for Sustainable Development through a Decentralised Global Network - and a consistent group of the JR continued to stay in contact with ENSI, both nationally and internationally, contributing to research projects as to SUPPORT and LEARN - and to the preparation of the new Lifelong Learning project CoDeS.
New perspectives of collaboration with other research networks in ESD have opened for 2011.
The contact between ENSI and the research world has always been one of the pillar of the ENSI network, often mediated by the National Educational Authorities members of the ENSI network. In this phase of the ENSI network it seemed particularly important to reinforce the connections with the world of research, in some cases also independently from the national educational authorities.
The main aims of the JR group for the near future are the dissemination of the ENSI research methods and achievements within the research world, and the possibility for the ENSI network to maintain fresh and alive its research side with the contribution of a new group of researchers.
The experience done in the last 2 years shows that these aims are practicable, and ENSI agreed to organise at least one meeting every year devoted to the sharing and discussion of the research results and questions of the participants to the group (mainly PhD or Master students, but also researchers in the field). Michela Mayer will lead the project, and the group, in 2011.
Schedule 2011:
- ENSI has agreed with Daniella Tillbury, Gloucestershire University and UNESCO chair for the monitoring of DESD, to participate in the organisation of a Marie Curie Conference in Cheltenham, addressed to the PRISM and to the ENSI research network, the 19th of May and to offer to the participants a Research ENSI seminar the 20th. www.glos.ac.uk/research/iris/prism/Pages/default.aspx
- ENSI has been invited by Per Sund, University of Upssala, to participate to the International GRESD (Swedish National Graduate school in Education and Sustainable Development) graduate students research meeting from 17 to 19 of May www.did.uu.se/gresd/conf_eng_81_start.lasso?-session=ACCESS:42F947420766722350Ywt110067B
Because the 2 invitations correspond to the same period, the annual ENSI Engaging on Research Seminar will not take place in 2011 and the JR group has been invited to split between the 2 events described before, to present their research findings, and to maintain contacts through a dedicated web site.
ENSI plans to propose a common event at the beginning of 2012. For further information or for joining the group, contact Michela Mayer.
Project leader
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Michela Mayer
Tel/Fax: +39 06 5110949