At the end of 2022, Djapo released the theoretical framework 'The school as a place for practice'. With that framework we determine what role ESD and GCE can play within education. Essential is that we do not see ESD and GCE as separate areas of learning, but as an integrated approach to strengthen our education. In this article, we explain the strength of this vision and its impact on our organisation.
With 'The school as a place for practice', we provide various elements to integrate ESD in a curriculum: tools for teachers and schools to work with the explicit aim of giving pupils the opportunity to build experiences around societal issues. These elements have been tested against scientific research and our many years of field experience in schools and class rooms.
Authentic societal issues can provide a valuable, relevant learning context for pupils. A lot of schools struggle with demotivated pupils who do not know why the curriculum is important to them. In that regard, it is relevant to link your curriculum to societal issues that potentially have an impact on their lives. That's how you build a bridge between your curriculum and real life.
A second element specific to authentic societal issues: there is no one-size-fits-all answer. If you want to encourage pupils to think for themselves, you need something that triggers them, something they can think about without the teacher coming up with the only right answer afterwards. The corona crisis is a good example: it had an impact on society at various levels. Some students will look at the situation mainly from an economic point of view, for instance because one of their family members was temporarily unemployed. Other pupils may know people who have been severely ill from the virus and will stress the importance of physical health. And for others, mental health takes precedence.
Such a complex issue motivates pupils to listen to each other and explore different points of view. They will also be more motivated to question issues and shape their own opinions. Thus, as a teacher, you work on democratic values without explicitly talking about democracy.
Dealing with societal issues also helps students learn to navigate uncertainty. We are overloaded with information every day, but not all the information we receive is correct. Moreover, some information is subjective: what applies to you does not necessarily apply to me. At school, pupils can gain experience with uncertain situations, giving them tools to deal with a certain degree of uncertainty and unpredictability even outside the school walls.
We want to invite teachers to pay attention not only to specific learning objectives, but also to the creation of a learning environment that focuses on societal issues.
Before 2022, we mainly focused on the competences systems thinking, philosophising and creative thinking. But 'The school as a place for practice' offers us an opportunity to better respond to teachers' current questions and challenges. Societal issues can respond to the increasing demotivation of pupils, for example. But it also provides an answer to the need for more cross-curricular and project-based learning, because societal issues give us a rich learning context where different themes, interests and experiences come together. This is also why we have refocused and expanded our educational services to teachers and schools.
In addition, we also want to invite teachers to focus not only on specific learning objectives, but also on creating a learning environment in which societal issues play a central role. To support teachers in this, we offer concrete tools that we provide through our training and educational materials.
To conclude, we do emphasise that our vision is not set in stone. It's an invitation to dialogue with other experts about quality education. In doing so, Djapo explicitly wants to keep an open mind. Teachers working with our material, partners in research projects, colleagues from other organisations: we invite everyone to exchange visions and experiences. To reflect together on how to strengthen our education.
Would you like to exchange thoughts on the subject? Or would you like to book us for a lecture?
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