{"id":5964,"date":"2014-04-11T08:17:56","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T08:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=5964"},"modified":"2014-04-11T08:17:56","modified_gmt":"2014-04-11T08:17:56","slug":"the-eu-and-our-money-are-soon-parted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2014\/04\/11\/the-eu-and-our-money-are-soon-parted\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU and our money are soon parted"},"content":{"rendered":"

UE4SD<\/strong> \u2013 University Educators for Sustainable Development<\/i> \u2013 is a new project on professional development and ESD in universities, working across Europe \u201cto locate and capture recent efforts to support the development of ESD capabilities of university teaching staff.\u201d \u00a0The aim is<\/p>\n

\u201cto draw on best practices, new initiatives and usable tools for professional development in ESD for university educators \u2013 and to use these findings to develop international strategies for building capability in this area.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a 3-year Erasmus networks project with 55 university partners across 33 European countries, drawing on the UNECE ESD educator competences framework published in 2011. \u00a0Experience suggests that these two equations apply:<\/p>\n

33 countries + 55 universities = complete unmanageability<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

professional practice + UNECE ideas = conceptual incoherence<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That said, it will all be a great success; all such projects have to be as it\u2019s a condition of funding.\u00a0 As a \u20acurocrat once explained to me:<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think we waste our money funding projects that won\u2019t succeed?\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note well the \"our money\". \u00a0Happily, this strategy saves \u20aczillions on a decent evaluation for which there is no need. \u00a0 It's such unassailable logic, with outcomes and satisfaction always guaranteed. \u00a0Equally certain is that dumper truck loads of \u20acs will be spent on air flights, hotel rooms, food and wine \u2013 as they are in all such projects with economic stimulus and GPD growth being ever-present bottom-line objectives.<\/p>\n

As to whether anything actually useful will emerge in relation to universities and student learning, that seems highly unlikely.\u00a0 After all, if that were the aim, they\u2019d not be stating with the UNECE competencies whose limitations I have commented on<\/a> a number of times. \u00a0 I\u2019m not involved, of course, having given up this sort of junketting a long time ago having toiled in the \u20acuroproject vineyard for too long to such little effect.<\/p>\n

However, whether we\u2019re in the 55 or not, we are all invited to take part.\u00a0 The first phase of the project involves each country mapping its existing professional development opportunities for university educators to construct a picture of national and institutional initiatives, schemes and activities.\u00a0 These are the questions being asked of UK university educators:<\/p>\n

1. Does your University\u00a0have specific strategies, plans or policies<\/i> to promote ESD?<\/p>\n

If so, please describe in no more than three sentences and provide a weblink if available.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2. Does your University have a dedicated programme or incentive stream<\/i> that supports professional development of teaching staff in ESD?<\/p>\n

If so, please describe each activity or initiative in less than three sentences and provide a weblink if available.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

3. Is ESD included in your institution\u2019s Postgraduate Certificate in HE<\/i> as part of its central academic staff development offering?<\/p>\n

If so, please explain how ESD fits in the programme in less than three sentences and provide a relevant weblink if available.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

4.\u00a0Are you aware of any externally-provided staff development activities in ESD<\/i> that your teaching colleagues participate\u00a0in?<\/p>\n

If so, please name these activities or programmes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

5. Are you aware of\u00a0any UK HE\u00a0staff development activities that are using the UNECE ESD Educator Competences Framework<\/i><\/a>?<\/p>\n

If so, please name these activities and provide details in less than four sentences. Please provide relevant weblinks if available.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

... and so the reification of ESD continues, aided now by Erasmus. \u00a0Your answers should go on an e-postcard please, to ingridmula@glos.ac.uk<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UE4SD \u2013 University Educators for Sustainable Development \u2013 is a new project on professional development and ESD in universities, working across Europe \u201cto locate and capture recent efforts to support the development of ESD capabilities of university teaching staff.\u201d \u00a0The...<\/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-5964","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\/5964","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=5964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}