Sustainability beyond borders: TAP-TS Autumn Academy brings together European stakeholders in teacher education

The third and final TAP-TS Summer School took place as an autumn academy from September 27 to October 1, 2024 under the motto "Beyond borders: Whole school approaches to sustainability education for secondary level educators". The event brought together secondary school teachers, principals and teacher educators from all over Europe to discuss education for sustainable development "beyond borders" from the perspective of the Whole School Approach. This approach to education for sustainable development was highlighted using the example of the Friedrich-Schiller-Gymnasium Pirna (FSGP) using a mosaic principle developed by the school itself. Other interdisciplinary pedagogical approaches were discussed in other innovative workshops.

© Jake Weldon

The Autumn Academy took place at Friedrich-Schiller-Gymnasium Pirna, the host of the five-day face-to-face event. The school directed by Dr Kristian Raum is the partner school in the TAP-TS consortium and plays a leading role in the development of holistic school concepts. It is located close to the Czech-German border and known as a bilingual school and is committed to democratic, anti-racist and sustainable education. In addition to the events at the school, workshops were also held at extracurricular learning locations. Activities were carried out in the region that offered practical experience in sustainability education and insights into this ecologically and culturally unique border region.

© Jake Weldon

Participants critically examined various TAP-TS learning and teaching materials in different teaching contexts. In addition to interactive workshops and reflection sessions on whole-school approaches, there were also workshops on sustainability education and decolonization, entrepreneurial education, digitality and serious games. The program of the TAP-TS Autumn Academy included the following workshops, which were based on the five of the seven Learning Teaching Packages (LTP) developed in the TAP-TS project:

• "Whole School Approach at FSG: a mosaic"(LTP 6):
• "From Colonialism to Code. Decolonizing perspectives on the relationship between sustainability and digitality"(LTP 2):
• "Language beyond borders: Multilingual education and sustainability" (LTP 1):
• "Places Of Learning And Resources" (POLAR) (LTP 6):
• "Building climate crisis resilience through serious games" (LTP 4)
• "Critical media education: dealing with climate disinformation" (LTP 4)
• "Sustainable entrepreneurship education" (LTP 7)

The LTPs are available for download on the Moodle platform TAP-TS as free Open Educational Resources. As TAP-TS enters its final year, the focus is shifting to the visualization and dissemination of project materials and findings. As part of this work, the ZLSB at TU Dresden will host a multiplier event for European teachers and teacher trainers in June 2025.