Transformative learning through the prism of environmental sustainability-online meeting

Transformative learning through the prism of environmental sustainability

2nd transnational project meeting – held Virtually (due to covid-19 emergency) 18-19 January 2021

The partners of the project “Transformative Learning through the Prism of Environmental Sustainability (www.terralearning)” met virtually on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 January 2021 for the Stage 2 of the

Transformative learning path in 3 stages “let’s create the climate for…change” with the goal to present and debate in detail the works they carried out. The partners of the project also focused on how to identify and exchange those good practices based on the preservation of cultural heritage as enhancement of environmental, social, cultural and economic sustainability. Originally planned in Brussels (Belgium), at the end of September 2020, it’s been held in video-conferencing due to the persisting covid-19 Emergency, in the afternoon of Monday 18th and in the morning of Tuesday 19th January 2021.

The project has been conceived and implemented by the following Partner Organizations: Ten For Sustainability (Project Coordinator, Italy), along with Fondazione Ki An (Belgium), Asociatia Edulifelong (Romania), Tudás Alapítvány (Hungary), Europski klaster Alpe Adria Pannonia (Serbia) and Nordic European Mobility (Sweden). The project is co-financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.

During the 2nd transnational project meeting the Participants exchanged their analytical work on the good practices based on the following topics:

1. connections between the preservation of cultural heritage and the enhancement sustainability at local or National context;

2. how such connections can be relevant to lifelong learning institutions;

3. state of the art as regards innovative teaching-learning processes through the narrative environmental sustainability, along with strategies to embed them in existing training methods.

Furthermore, unique professional and scientific background and experience have been shared by the two external keynote speakers invited to join the meeting, as follows:

Mr Gian Paolo Meneghini (Head of the Communication Unit at DG Infrastructure and Logistics in the European Parliament) presented and shared his experience within the European Parliament in Brussels, where he uses to be a staffer attached to the Conference of Presidents and Liaison Officer (within EPLO) of the European Parliament with U.S. Congress in Washington D.C., describing the peculiarities of the European Parliament, its differences with the national parliaments as well as other parliaments outside Europe.

Mr Ferrante De Benedictis focused his speech on the new perspectives for environment, underlining in particular the emerging environmental and energy challenges in the European Union. The presentation, based upon a renovated “ethics of the Earth” drew a map of the stakeholders involved within the most relevant environmental issues at global level (global warming, water quality, forests, to name a few), their evolving interactions, critical aspects, risks and priorities. The presentation remarked how natural environments ought to be considered as communities to which human communities belong themselves, and, as a result, natural ecosystems cannot be preserved and valorized if not along with the simultaneous preservation and valorizations of human historical and cultural community (cultural heritage).

The third and final transnational project meeting are planned in Stockholm (Sweden) in summer/fall 2021.