Kick-Off event for the Erasmus-plus project TAP-TS

The Teacher Academy Project- Teaching Sustainability (TAP-TS) kick-off event took place on June 7th, 8th and 9th, hosted online by the ZLSB. The event marked the start of the first year of the project, a phase dedicated to ‘drafting, resourcing and piloting’.

TAP-TS is one of 11 Erasmus plus Teacher Academies, which run for three years from June 2022 until May 2025. The project aims to strengthen pre-service and in-service primary and secondary school teachers’ competences for teaching sustainability, with a focus on environmental sustainability, social inclusion, digitalisation, entrepreneurship and pedagogical approaches.

To achieve this, TAP-TS will design, pilot and validate Learning and Teaching Packages (LTPs) through engagement with teachers and teacher educators and build professional networks and communities to ensure their widespread dissemination and use.

The project consortium includes ten partners from seven European countries:

• TU Dresden, Deutschland (TUD)
•  University College Dublin, Irland (UCD)
•  Pedagogical institute Santarem, Portugal (IPS)
•  Cyprus Pedagogical Institute, Griechenland (CPI)
•  Pädagogische Hochschule Wien, Österreich (PHW)
•  CorEdu, Leipzig, Deutschland (CorEdu)
•  Eummena, Belgien (EUMMENA)
•  Kings Hospital School, Dublin, Irland (KHS)
•  Friedrich-Schiller-Gymnasium Pirna, Deutschland (FSGP)
•  K und R Education, Schweden (KRE)

The kick-off event began with a welcome from Prof. Axel Gehrmann, followed by introduction presentations from each institution, and informal discussion around partners’ expectations for the project. The five remaining workshops each centred on one of five Work Packages (WP).

Work Package 1: Project Management and Coordination, was moderated by TUD the lead for WP1. The session included an overview of WP1 tasks, milestones and deliverables. Information about administrative and financial management and the project management and governance framework was presented. Partners also discussed their hopes and concerns for the project, their expectations for project coordination and modes of communication for the consortium.

Work Package 2: Teacher Education Materials and Approaches, was moderated by Pedagogical University Vienna, the lead for WP2. The session included brainstorming around teaching sustainability competences and materials. The European Commission’s GreenComp framework was introduced, using a film about GreenComp produced by PHW as a TAP-Ts resource. A roadmap for preparation of Learning Teaching Packages was presented. Partners discussed the design and content of the LTPs, and ways to involve teachers in their development and piloting.

Work Package 3: Online Workshops, Active Learning Events and Summer Schools was moderated by EUMMENA, the lead for WP3. In the session, the TAP-TS Moodle platform was presented. Initial ideas for Online workshops, Active Learning Events, and Summer Schools were discussed, including the connection to the LTPs and target audiences for each of the formats. The TAP-TS moodle platform was presented, as a space for partners to develop LTPs and course activities and then to engage with teachers and teacher educators directly.

Work Package 4: Quality Assurance and Evaluation, was moderated by K and R Education, the lead for WP4. In the session, the Theory of Change (ToC) approach, which will be used to guide the external evaluation of TAP-TS, was presented. The ToC approach helps to ensure that project activities and outputs lead to desired outcomes and impacts, by engaging stakeholders in mapping the relationships between these key project elements. Participants reviewed the TAP-TS ToC, then drafted a ToC for each Work Package. Finally, information about the Project Advisory Group (PAG) and Pedagogical Advisory Board (PAB) was presented. The PAG are experts external to the project, who will act as critical friends by providing feedback annually. The PAB comprise pedagogical experts from each partner institution who will work together to ensure the quality and coherence of pedagogical content and methods.

Work Package 5: Communication, Dissemination, Exploitation and Legacy, was moderated by University College Dublin, the lead for WP5. The session began with an overview of WP 5, followed by a statement of objectives and a timeline of tasks, milestones and deliverables. Partners discussed ways of engaging teachers and teacher educators in their institutions, regions and across Europe within and beyond the life the project.

The kick-off event closed with an invitation for all partners to meet in Dresden on October 5th, 6th and 7^th, 2022.