20th January 2021
Good wishes to all those working to make education and learning relevant to and effective towards securing a safe future in these troubled times. Our work has never been more important.
At last – and I really mean that! – there are signs that many policymakers and educators are waking up to the fact that education/learning really has to be fundamentally re-thought if it is going to make a positive difference to the profound challenges we face at local and global levels. For example, UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative is to be welcomed https://en.unesco.org/futuresofeducation/
Apologies to those who had been keeping an eye on this website in 2020 and seen little change!
I experienced a close family tragedy in the spring of 2020, which led me to step back from professional engagements for some months. In addition, as with many people, Covid 19 had a major negative effect on my work progamme. That said, I kept fairly busy, particularly from the autumn.
This work included:
- October. Podcast talk for Earth Charter, ‘Transformative Learning and Education for Sustainable Development’ https://earthcharter.org/podcasts/stephen-sterling/
- 16th November: Global Bioeconomy Summit 2020, on-line talk for conference: ‘Towards sustainability through systemic change in education’.
- 17th Talk/webinar for CIES/Earth Institute ‘Positive dis-illusion and everyday consciousness – breaking through to regenerative education in ten propositions’. https://ciesesdsig.wixsite.com/esesig/workshops
- 30th November, Keynote talk for Lifelong Learning Week 2020 ‘Towards sustainable education and learning’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSRU9odCKPA&list=PL-alwtxqu7HEKj5U6rmi5pY-vpV7R3i4E (starts at 26 minutes)
- 11th December, ‘Concern, Congruence and Contribution – re-purposing higher education in unprecedented times,’ talk and symposium for Institute for Curriculum Enhancement, Lancaster University.
Amongst other things, I am currently working as a co-editor on a special issue of the Frontiers in Sustainability journal, with the title ‘Re-purposing Universities for Sustainable Human Progress’.
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/14778/re-purposing-universities-for-sustainable-human-progress
You will – at last! – find a new blog posted on my site. It’s on why our idea of ‘the environment’ can be really problematic in our challenge to secure the future.
I will endeavour to write blogs more often! And hopefully, update and amend the ‘Bite-size Sterling’ page which summarises my key ideas.
If you have any comments on anything on this site, do get in touch, thank you
– Stephen
