The project brings together four European organisations working in the fields of environmental education and learning for active citizenship with adults. They are: Transformative Education, Wandelwerk, Védegylet and Col•lectiu Eco-Actiu, based in the UK, Germany, Hungary and Spain. We start from the premise that meeting the enormous environmental challenges we face requires the engagement of civil society and active citizens. A vibrant and dynamic civil society with high levels of active citizenship and volunteerism in support of pro-environmental behaviour and action are crucial. Adult education has already proven itself effective in supporting pro-environmental behaviour. Environmental education can raise ‘problem-awareness’, encourage a sense of ‘perceived responsibility’, and strengthen a sense of ‘self-efficacy’, all of which have been seen to promote pro-environmental behaviour by individuals (Matthies, E. 2005). However, most educational interventions promoting pro-environmental behaviour tend to stop with supporting in individual behaviour change. There is very little environmental education designed to motivate and sustain the community-based initiatives, environmental volunteerism and the collective action or active citizenship needed to meet the scale of the challenge we face. This leads to the key challenge this project seeks to address: The lack of wide-spread knowledge, methods, and resources to support adult education capable of supporting pro-environmental active citizenship and fostering environmental citizenship. Meeting this challenge, we will innovate a learning framework and curriculum for Education for Pro-Environmental Active Citizenship (EPEAC). We will combine experience from our diverse areas of expertise to develop new understanding about the how environmental adult education can help motivate and sustain community-based initiatives and collective forms of pro-environmental active citizenship. The project will include an innovative cross-disciplinary exploration, bringing educational methods from active citizenship education together with three areas of environmental education: Nature Connection Education; Environmental Psychology; and Ecological Literacy. We will produce knowledge, methods and resources required to enable educators to acquire competences related to the provision of EPEAC. We will develop new training and guidance for adult educators to integrate these innovations within their work. Taken together, these project objectives will lead to enhancing the quality and reach of relevant adult education across Europe. Our primary target group is adult educators, trainers, and facilitators engaged in promoting pro-environmental behaviour and active citizenship. Our secondary target group will be other change-makers, activists, civil society organisations promoting sustainability, and seeking to address climate change through adult learning opportunities.
We wanted the project to innovate through cross-disciplinary exploration, bringing educational methods from active citizenship education together with three areas of environmental education: 1) Nature Connection Education, which strengthens motivation for pro-environmental behaviour, and supports physical & mental health and emotional resilience. 2) Environmental Psychology, which researches environmentally friendly behaviour and motivations behind it. 3) Ecological Literacy, which helps learners to recognise the connectedness between things, humans and the natural world. In bringing together these areas of expertise by our different international partners, we wanted to produce knowledge, methods and resources to enable educators to acquire competences related to the provision of EPEAC. We especially wanted to innovate methods and resources to strengthen ecological learning practices able to motivate and equip active environmental citizenship. And, in doing so, fulfil our aim to enhance the quality and reach of relevant adult education across Europe. Particularly with a transnational cooperation which enabled us to innovate and disseminate at a scale and with the expertise that none of the partners could have done on their own.
Adult education has proven itself effective in supporting pro-environmental behaviour. Environmental education can raise ‘problem-awareness’, encourage a sense of ‘perceived responsibility’, and strengthen ‘self-efficacy’, all of which have promoted individual pro-environmental behaviour (Matthies, E.2005). However, most educational interventions promoting pro-environmental behaviour tend to stop with supporting individual behaviour change (such as recycling, environmental consumerism, etc). There is very little environmental education designed to motivate and sustain the community-based initiatives, environmental volunteerism and the collective action or active citizenship needed to meet the scale of the challenge we face with regards to climate change. This leads to the key challenge this project sought to address: The lack of wide-spread knowledge, methods, and resources to support adult education capable of supporting pro-environmental active citizenship and fostering environmental citizenship. Meeting this challenge, we carried out research, innovated a learning framework and curriculum for Education for Pro-Environmental Active Citizenship (EPEAC), developed a trainer manual and repository of online learning resources.