Club of Reykjavik alliance with FutureTHINK Press –
“Active Hope for a Sustainable Future”
Background
This blog
results from the coming together of an initiative within a European network for
educational leaders with FutureTHINK Press, a Canadian-based publishing and
knowledge enterprise. The sequence of events started in 1991 with the creation
of ENIRDELM leading up to this blog’s initiation in the autumn of 2012:
ENIRDELM ---> EL4SD ---> CoRk ---> CoRk/FTAlliance
·
(ENIRDELM) The European Network for
Improving Research and Development in Educational leadership and Management was started in 1991 to bring
together practitioners, researchers and
developers across Europe – see its
website www.enirdelm.org for a full history
·
(EL4SD) The Educational Leadership
for Sustainable Development Initiative ran within ENIRDELM from 2007 to 2011 conducting a
comparative study of school leaders’ values.
·
The Club of Reykjavik (CoRk) evolved from EL4SD following the September 2011 ENIRDELM Conference in Iceland
as a wiki space forum – see the wiki space tab on the ENIRDELM website
·
(Cork/FTA) The CoRk/FutureTHINK
Alliance was
established following the first CoRk Symposium held in Silesia, Poland in July
2012.
Why this blog?
There is now a burgeoning discourse
about the future of human impact on nature under the general, but confusing use
of the term ‘sustainability’. In what is
now called the ‘Anthropocene Era’ in which human activity has an exponentially
increasing impact on the global environment, the term ‘sustainable growth’ is
frequently used by economists and politicians, but many see this as an
oxymoron. The earth is a finite ‘Space Station’ on which our species has
evolved and the laws of physics do not allow for infinite exponential growth in
a finite space.
Climate change concerns have received
great publicity and have created much controversy, as have other issues such as
population growth, the instability of the global financial system, the
depletion of many resources, sources of energy in particular, in addition to
the destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity. While these are all areas of
inquiry, they are also areas for political action, serious discourse and
challenge. Education for a Sustainable Future (ESF) is concerned with exploring
such issues that have universal relevance across all cultures and countries.
We are
seeking to bring together highly-informed opinion-makers to produce readable
and inspiring short blogs, with the aim of changing thinking about education’s
role in promoting active hope and action
for a sustainable future. These regular
blogs from a variety of perspectives will be spread through notices on
Facebook, Linked-in and Twitter and other social networks. They may become the
basis for published anthologies as they accumulate. FutureTHINK Press has the
editorial capacity to support the CoRk initiative with both print and e-book
publications. The annual international ENIRDELM conference workshop will
provide each September, a face-to-face meeting space for participants and for
further disseminating its future-oriented thinking.
Strategy for 2012-2013
FutureTHINK
|
FutureSHARE
|
FutureACT
|
·
25
international bloggers (825 words x 50 per year)
·
Open access
commentaries (registered and monitored)
|
·
Regular web-logs and commentaries from many perspectives
·
Wiki space for
dialogue and ‘can-do’ resource catalogues
|
·
Published
anthologies
·
Local seminars
with international links
·
Annual CoRk workshop
at ENIRDELM Conference
|
Some key phrases = ‘grand challenges’
or ‘wicked problems’, global and local’; ‘resilient human and natural systems
in harmony’; ’tackling educational inertia’; ‘adaptation’ and ‘innovation’ for a ‘sustainable future’;
‘maintaining both change and active hope’; ‘multi-perspective dialogue’
Who Will Be the Bloggers?
This initial
list of invited contributors will be added to as the initiative spreads:
Blogger and Location
|
Perspective
|
Mike Bottery, UK
|
Professor of education with many years of scholarship and many
publications about values relating to ESF and educational leadership
|
David James, Bristol, UK
|
A free thinker and contrarian, currently working in higher education,
and having a particular interest in economics, psychology and culture
|
Jon Torfi Jonasson, Iceland
|
Professor of education, proposing educational
policy to take action to overcome inertia to reforms addressing future
‘grand challenges’
|
Jaroslav Kalous, Czech Republic
|
A futurologist who is innovating with educational leadership
programmes in Charles University
|
Pawel Kojs, Poland
|
Director of Silesia Botanical Garden where an innovative
environmentally-based holistic approach to ESF has been developed and
implemented
|
Jan Moeller, Germany
|
Teacher and INQUIRE Project member practically engaged in
implementing ESF in botanical gardens
|
Leigh Morris, Scotland
|
‘Hands on’ Director of Learning at the Royal Botanic Garden,
Edinburgh managing a shift to ESF
|
Stephen Murgatroyd, Canada
|
A future-oriented educator, consultant, blogger, publisher and journalist experienced in applying social networking to the dissemination of
ideas
|
Pasi Sahlberg, Finland
|
Critic of the Global Educational Reform Movement (GERM) and proponent
of cooperative learning based on
Finnish educational success
|
Julia Willison, London, UK
|
Director of Education for Botanical Gardens Conservation
International , heading a world-wide network for education in botanical
gardens
|
Who Will Be
Our Readers?
Our audience is intended to be those who are passionate
about a mindful and active education for a sustainable future. These can be
those engaged in both formal and non-formal education of young people,
committed life-long learning professionals, organizations committed to a
sustainable future with concerns about education, students and their parents
and partners, or others who have policy responsibility or are concerned
citizens. They can comment, react and share. They can also be invited to
contribute. We see the blog as a learning space for those committed to change
and development.
We are also interested in sharing stories of educational
leadership and action – of specific activities intended to promote active hope
for a sustainable future. Examples of educational innovation which demonstrate
a commitment to this purpose will be shared in this space.
Sign up to receive updates from this site and begin to share
the ideas and respond. Let us develop an active international CoRk community.
