{"id":4088,"date":"2013-06-26T08:46:28","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T07:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=4088"},"modified":"2013-06-26T08:46:28","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T07:46:28","slug":"review-of-the-weec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/06\/26\/review-of-the-weec\/","title":{"rendered":"7th World Environmental Education Congress \u2013 a review"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the advantages of SEEd<\/a> membership is that you get to know what CEO Ann Finlayson's been getting up to. \u00a0Last week she was at the 7th World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC \u00a07). \u00a0The pic shows UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner telling delegates how important environmental education<\/a> is.<\/p>\n

Here are Ann's comments, taken from the latest SEED News.<\/p>\n

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I have just returned from the World Environmental Education Congress in Marrakech \u2013 well someone had to go! \u00a0It did make me feel proud of how well organised our own conferences are \u2013 as this one was not. However, there were 1300 delegates present (they think \u2013 he number changed every day). \u00a0 They tried to do everything paperless \u2013 but with only 16 computers and the 4-day agenda changing daily, plus the internet unable to cope with us all, I ended up sitting in \u00a0 a room and hoping for the best. \u00a0Turns out this serendipitous approach was \u00a0 being adopted by all! \u00a0Furthermore, there was an alternative agenda approach <\/span>\u2013 you met someone, chatted, asked them when they were presenting and then trotted along having filled your own calendar this way. <\/span>The only workshops I wanted to attend either didn't happen or I couldn't find. \u00a0One of the best ones, however, was where we all decided to make the most of it, discuss the topic and share experiences \u2013 fabulous! \u00a0It really made me think that in education it is not always good to plan and map everything \u2013 one of the best learning happens in other unexpected ways.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This sounds rather like WEEC 1 & WEEC 2 which became by-words for dis-organisation and chaos, though Marrakech does seem to have been especially poor. \u00a0Comments I've had from others attending bear this out. \u00a0For example, ...<\/p>\n

\"The programme chaos unsured that I met\u00a0several very interesting people I might not have talked with, and since it\u00a0was so hard to figure out the programme, I ended up going to just one theme \u00a0\u2013 it was obviously the same way for many since there seemed to be a cohorrt that sat in many of the same sessions.\"<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I noted<\/a> last week, I didn't go. \u00a0In fact, I've only been to one of these, and then only because I was invited. \u00a0This was the rather well-organised event in Durban in 2007 where prices and accommodation had been so arranged that a multitude of local teachers, activists and others from across Southern Africa\u00a0were able to attend, which added considerably to its vibrancy and success. \u00a0Inevitably, there was also much singing and dancing, which even a jaundiced and staid European appreciated.<\/p>\n

The 2007 congress also had one of the most memorable foot-in-mouth moments of any gathering I've been to. \u00a0It was opened by a very big cheese \u2013 the Deputy State President no less \u2013 who was impressive in every possible sense. \u00a0Unfortunately, in her speech, she said that when she was at school she'd found \"environmental education boring<\/em><\/span>\". \u00a0It was not the endorsement the organisers had hoped for. \u00a0On reflection, my keynote (later published in EER<\/a> 15[2]) suggesting that EE hadn't had much impact over the years was probably seen in a similar vein. \u00a0Sadly, the DSP wasn't around to hear it; she'd left ages ago, bodyguards in her wake. \u00a0I wonder how much of WEEC \u00a07 all those princesses<\/a> who were attending actually heard \u2013 assuming, of course, they ever found the right room.<\/p>\n

July 5th Post-script<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

An upsurge of fair-mindedness impels me to note that ENSI thought weec<\/strong><\/em> a success. \u00a0See here<\/a> for details, and a link to Call of Marrakech, <\/em>which is a manifesto, of sorts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the advantages of SEEd membership is that you get to know what CEO Ann Finlayson's been getting up to. \u00a0Last week she was at the 7th World Environmental Education Congress (WEEC \u00a07). \u00a0The pic shows UNEP Executive Director...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}