Adult educators supporting eco-social agency

<< Background >>Adult education organisations and educators play a crucial role in supporting adult learners to become and act as environmentally and socially responsible citizens. The current and wicked ecological and social challenges, such as global warming, overconsumption of natural resources, political instability, and inequality, highlight the urgent need for transformative and critical pedagogy also in adult education. In this project we wanted to learn how we can best integrate eco-social sustainability and education into our trainings. The project was applied to have resources and benefits of transnational cooperation to deepen our conceptual understanding on the topic and on the needs and challenges of adult educators and learners. The project was designed to address these needs: 1.Deepening Conceptual Understanding: Expanding knowledge on eco-social sustainability and its relevance in adult education.2.Needs assessment: Mapping the perspectives of adult educators and learners to inform future educational strategies and pedagogies.3.Testing and developing pedagogical methods through pilot workshops with adult educators.The project constributed directly also to wider strategic goals of the partner organisations. << Objectives >>The project aimed to improve the competence of educators and other adult education staff in eco-social sustainability and education. It had three main objectives (expected outcomes): 1) Adult educators have enhanced pedagogical skills in eco-social sustainability and education.2) Adult educators have increased understanding on how to support their educational target groups as eco-social agents.3) The participating organisations have established a common understanding of eco-social sustainability and education.These objectives contributed to our overall goal of supporting adult learners, who participate in our trainings, as eco-social agents. We have identified that both our educators and learners would rather be active agents in addressing ecological and social challenges such as climate change as opposed to denying them or passively giving in to them. This can be best done in our organisations by increasing the understanding of the matter and from there developing new pedagogy towards transformation.The project contributed to horizontal priorities of Erasmus+ programme by addressing common values, civic engagement and participation as well as environment and fight against climate change. << Implementation >>The project consisted of four main activities:Activity 1: Mapping the needs and the challenges of adult educators and learners to act as eco-social agents- developing a joint conceptual framework on eco-social sustainability and education in a joint workshop in Finland- gathering information on the needs and challenges of adult educators and adult learners in the topic: questionnaire and focus groups interviews in Finland, Iceland and Lithuania and summarising the outcomes Activity 2: Workshops with adult educators on eco-social sustainability and education - planning on the content and pedagogy for the workshops in a joint workshop in Iceland - national workshops for adult educators in Finland, Iceland and Finland and summing up the results Activity 3: Analysis, harvesting and sharing the results - Harvesting and summing the results of the project in a joint workshop in Lithuania.- Planning the next steps - Sharing the results in each country with relevant target groups and jointly in EPALE Activity 4: Project management- monthly online project meetings- monitoring- financial management<< Results >>Activity 1: Mapping the needs- Transnational workshop in Finland with 6 participants - Joint definition on eco-social sustainability and education- Questionnaire and focus group templates on national languages and in English - 41 adult educators answered the questionnaire (target 30-45)- 19 adult learners shared their views in focus group interviews (target 5-12)- Collected data summarised and analysed. Activity 2: Adult educator workshops - Transnational workshop in Iceland with 6 participants - An outline and plan for national workshops produced- National workshops conducted on 6.8.24 in Iceland, 11.9.24 in Finland and on 21.11.24 in Lithuania with country-specific adult educator participants and programme. Iceland 10, Finland 10 and Lithuania 12 participants (target: 10-15 for each country)- Participants rated the workshops as useful - Summary of each workshop and a joint summary Activity 3: Analysis and sharing - Transnational workshop in Lithuania with 6 participants- Results of the project assessed and summarized- Project results shared in EPALE, social media and events - A plan made for future cooperation Activity 4: Project management - Project implemented timely and efficiently