- We wanted to foster new cooperation between adult education organisations and green grassroots intiatives, activists and social movements, to explore how we could build partnerships and work together towards a more sustainable society. The experiences we gathered can be used in planning further cross-sectoral cooperation. - We wanted to do something practical with the initiatives, and keep a flexible attitude about where this cooperation will take us, to foster genuinely new ideas. We explored peer learning, action-based learning, and how learning about sustainable lifestyles can happen outside traditional classroom setting. This gives the ALE sector ideas how to plan more learner-centered and innovative learning offers on sustainability. - While benchmarking the innovative practices of the green grassroots initiatives, we wanted to empower them and help them in reaching their goals to create greener communities or improve people's relationship with nature. - We wanted to explore the circumstances where transformative learning can take place, as it's not easy to create these conditions. We wanted to learn from it, so we can better foster these conditions in adult learning and education.
The Tale project addresses the pressing need to foster a more climate-friendly and sustainable society. It also aligns with the priorities of the New European Agenda for Adult Learning, which emphasises the need for a green transition within the adult education sector. The agenda highlights the importance of addressing environmental attitudes, cultivating sustainable mindsets, and creating new learning environments to support the green transition. Achieving these goals requires a holistic approach to adult learning and inter-sectoral collaboration—the Tale project is a great example of both. While people may have knowledge about sustainable lifestyles, making lasting changes in environmental attitudes and behaviour doesn't happen easily. It requires a process of transformative learning, which involves critically questioning one’s beliefs and actions. This kind of learning results in a greater sense of agency to make changes. We know from previous projects and adult education research that participation in social movements and grassroots initiatives can effectively foster transformative learning. This is why the Tale project has benchmarked the innovative practices of grassroots initiatives.