Innovative and Sustainable Aesthetic Methods for Citizenship Education - Climate Challenges (2022-25)

Project summary

Teacher Education Network (TEN) is a Baltic-Nordic network which include the following institutions: UCC-Copenhagen Denmark, VIA-DK Århus, Stockholm University, Daugavpils University (Latvia), University of Latvia, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, University of Iceland, University of Helsinki, and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.

TEN-activities gives a special focus on the aesthetic subjects in teacher education and has successfully organized several interdisciplinary intensive courses and mobility/exchage over the last 40 years. All institutions recognize 3 ECTS course credits. The current 3 year project Innovative and Sustainable Aesthetic Methods for Citizenship- Education – Climate Challenges (ISAMCE - CC) gives intensive courses with both Baltic-Nordic and global perspectives on Climate Challenges (2022-25):

1. Connect (Estonia, 2023). Keywords: glocalization, migration, digitalization

2. Consider (Riga, 2024). Keywords: reality, values, tradition and innovation

3. Change (Helsinki, 2025). Keywords: ourselves, future, culture, a threatened Earth

Overall goals and expected learning outcomes:

* Innoative art-based approaches in aesthetic teaching and learning processes, connected to science based knowledge on current climate and environmental issues

* Knowledge and experience in transdisiplinary collaborative teaching and learning

* Make teacher training students and teachers explore and experience the particular potential in aesthetic methods to achieve emotional connection, critical reflection and action

* Methods for enhancing international educational cooperation, and transnational understanding and solidarity

TEN contributes to a joint meta curricular aim: The ability to reflect upon oneself as a member of a wider community, locally, nationally and globally and develop the understanding, that one’s own resources and talent can serve a bigger and common good.

ISAMCE-CC’s 2^nd part, Consider, will take place in Riga in 2024, based on the keywords Reality, Values, Traditions, and Innovation, which gives a new approach to the citizenship education’s core of the project. The objectives aim to activate and anchor our understanding of responsible citizenship linked to the environmental challenges by asking how we can strengthen our personal and social engagement through international communication and collaboration in education. The working methods include research based lectures, participation by discussion and critical thinking, workshops and group-based work in an aesthetical collaborative learning approach.

The hosting of courses rotates between institutions, but the coordination and leadership is executed from North Western University of Applied Sciences by Aslaug Furholt.

The planning and outline of the project and each course are created by a project committee formed by representatives from the different partner institutions. Each institution in the network is supposed to have a particular strength within the aesthetic and pedagogical subjects involved.

The project committee for the course 2022-23:Kristi Kiilu (host of part 1), music, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Hanna Olafsdottir, arts and crafts, University of Iceland, Ilze Briska, arts and craft, University of Latvia, Susanne Skov and Gorm Bülow Karrebæk, music, DK-University College, Aleksi Ojala, music, University of Helsinki, Karen Foss, dance and Aslaug Furholt, coordinator, North Western University of Applied Sciences.

 

Method

Method - Organization and implementation

The main pedagogical and didactical approaches are daily workshops in the different aesthetic expressions:  music, drama, dance, visual art and multimedia – separately and combined. The workshops include collaborative and democratic devising strategies where the teachers are used as facilitators and tutors.  The teachers are responsible also for the warmups of the participants each day and for the summing ups and evaluations at the end of each day. Keynote lectures by specialist teachers will be followed up by thought provoking activities in groups intended to deepen understanding of the topics at hand.

Assessment will be both formative and summative. Informal concurrent assessment practices will be applied as well.

Students’s tasks:

1. Presentations and discussions/reflections of the aesthetic, transdisciplinary and multimodal expressions (eg. video, performance, installations) during the course.

2. A written individual report reflecting on the general experiences as well as the aesthetical and pedagogical working methods implemented during the week in relation to the applicability into the teacher/pedagogue profession. This report has to be approved by the local partner representative before awarding credits for the course.

Students will receive on-site assessment and feedback of participation during the course for their presentations, artistic work and group collaborations.