Networking for Education for Sustainable Development in Austria: A ca...

As with human rights, sustainable development may be regarded as a regulatory idea. Such ideas do not determine how an object is made up but serve as heuristic structures for reflection. They give direction to research and learning processes. In terms of sustainability this implies that the contradictions, dilemmas and conflicting goals inherent in this vision need to be constantly re-negotiated in a process of discourse between participants in each and every concrete situation. This implies a great challenge but also has considerable potential to enhance innovative developments in education and offers a fruitful ground for Action Research.

Ecologizing Schools (ECOLOG) is a key action programme and network for the greening of schools and education for sustainability in Austria. It was developed in 1996 by an Austrian team of teachers working on the international project Environment and School Initiatives (ENSI) and developed into a national support system with the aim of promoting and integrating an ESD approach into the development of individual schools and attempts are being made to embed the programme in each of the nine Austria′s federal states through regional networks.

Action research is deployed to empower teachers, teacher groups and whole schools to cope with these challenges, to carry out and assess innovations, i.e. to further develop their professional practice in Education for Sustainable Development.

In the presentation the development of the Ecologizing Schools Network will be described and critically reflected based upon a range of evaluation and action research data.