Week 10 of the ESD leadership training has finally arrived which means that this is the final week of training before the participants split apart and embark on their 10 weeks internships in India, Mexico or Germany.  This weeks training will be on the topic of implementing ESD into Education Policy and the facilitators for today will be Anne Mette, Joachim Borner and Andreas Behnsen.

The group this morning got an awakening in the form of a very lively (and at times aggressive) review of week 9. Andreas read out the instructions to the group who were divided into 3 teams which were named in  reference to the dimensions of Sustainable development; the Ecological, Economic and Social teams. The teams were provided with clues and were then sent out into the surrounding neighborhood  in search of additional clues which were handed out by the review team of Giovanni, Sma and Jenny at those points. The clues were based on aspects of last weeks training and once they found each member of the review team  they were given additional clues until they had ended up back in stratum lounge. Back in the lounge the teams were asked additional questions such as their greatest inspiration from the week.  After the excitement of the review they were calmed down with the presentation of the week ahead given by the trainers.

Now that the group were rejuvenated after their workout they were given the task of continuing the ESD culture project. The melody of the song has already been sent to the professional composers and therefore the participants were asked to come up with more lyrics for this. They were split up into country groups and each given a verse which was then prepared and presented.

The guest speakers for today’s training was Dr. Hannes Siege who was meeting with the group for the last time until around February. He started his talks with a presentation of what had been the outcomes of the experts meeting in India. This included the issue of Modern education (meaning globalization is to be taken into account) and how to add “Sweetness” to education (as ESD does). He then continued with a lecture on UNESCO and the decade for ESD and more specifically DESD in Germany. The participants were then asked to break again into their country groups and discuss what the situation (in relation to the DESD) within their own land is. They then presented this to the rest of the class.

To add even more excitement to the already lively day, the group would engage with  experts in ESD via the medium of Skype.  Dr Erach Bharucha, who works at the same institute as Shalini in India and Reiner Mathar, who is already familiar with the participants joined the group in a discussion on ESD and Education Policy. This involved questions for the experts from the future experts. The day was then concluded with a final input from Hannes Siege.

The participants enjoying the skype interface.