Whole School Approach of ENSI Network for ESD in Hungary – Achievements and Challenges

Author(s):

Attila Varga(presenting / submitting)Erika Saly Flóra Benkő Réka Könczey

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

30 SES 05 A, Investigating the "Whole School" Approach

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

13:30-15:00

Room:

K6.08

Chair:

Jutta Nikel

Contribution

ENSI is an international network which has supported educational developments, environmental understanding, active approaches to teaching and learning through research, connecting researchers with practice and policy makers and the exchange of experiences internationally on a whole-school approach basis since 1986 (Posch, 1999). Recently whole school approach is supported and promoted by various international bodies (EU, 2010) (UNESCO, 2016)) as one of the key factor for successful education for sustainable development. Supported by this rich international professional background and strong political recommendations whole school approach of education for sustainability is present at the all level of education in Hungary. The Green Kindergarten Award for kindergartens, the Eco-school Award for primary and secondary education, the COPERNICUS program for higher education offer a framework to implement whole school approach. All of these programs give appreciation and professional support but no extra funds for institutions.

The Hungarian Eco-School network was established in 2000 with 40 pilot schools based on the whole-school approach of the ENSI network and has continuously been increasing since then. Since 2005 Eco-School title in Hungary serves the highest governmental recognition of those schools that deal with the practical realization of education for sustainable development (ESD) in a carefully considered, institutional and systematic way (Réti, Horváth, Czippán, & Varga, 2015) . An eco-school differs from the average school in the fact that the principles of sustainability are not only present in education but in all fields of school life. Local environmental issues and problems are dealt with priority in the schools’ pedagogical work. These problems form part of the school’s pedagogical work embedded in the local pedagogical program. At present the network has almost 1000 members, approximately the quarter of all Hungarian primary, secondary and vocational schools. Schools could join the network on a voluntary basis by applying for the Eco-School title. (OFI, 2010)

For applying successfully for the Hungarian Eco-school title schools have to prove their effort in the field of educational and sustainable development by reaching a minimum points in eight areas of school life (basic documents, organizational conditions, pedagogical work, operation of the school, communication, co-operations, local community, specialties of the school).

The paper summarizes the results and obstacles of realization of whole-school approach within the Hungarian Eco-school network and try to identify effective methods for more effective spreading of it.

Method

The paper summarizes the result of three researches on the realization of the whole school approach in Hungarian eco-schools. A. a questionnaire study with 455 eco-school in 2016 B. on-situ visits including interviews with the eco-school co-ordinators and document analysis in 40 eco-schools in 2016 and 2017 C. document-analysis of application of 83 schools applying for eco-school title for third time in 2016, so working as eco-school at least for six years. The first two researches were conducted as the part of the monitoring system of the Hungarian Eco-school network. In order to follow the work of Eco-schools, to gain information about their developments and the obstacles they encounter a two-level monitoring system is operated. As the first level of the system each year an on-line questionnaire is sent out to all the schools having the title (Research A). The questionnaire consist of questions about the state of art in ESD in eco-schools, about their improvements in last year, the obstacles their encounter and support they need. Data collected by questionnaires are used to evaluate the work of the network and to identify areas where central support is needed. As the second level of the system on-situ visits, document analysis and interviews are executed on a more limited sample form schools having the title for at least for six years (Research B). These visits serve two goals: first to develop a deep insight into the work of the most successful eco-schools, second to make diagnoses for the schools which have serious problems according to their questionnaire data. Based on these diagnoses the schools receive professional help to overcome their problems. As an amendment to these regular researches a document analysis was conducted in 2016 in order to compare different aspects of whole school approach according the self-reported performance of the eco-schools (Research C).

Expected Outcomes

Results show that unless eco-schools in Hungary accept whole school approach of ESD as on overall goal and make continuous improvements on reaching institutional level ESD goals, there are significant differences between areas of school life in terms of realization of eco-school criteria on whole school level. Almost every eco-school have concrete goals and improvements in the area of the operation of school including in almost every case a more and more ambitious objective regarding selective waste collection. On the other hand, the most rarely realized and least targeted aspect of the whole school approach is the co-operation with the local community partly due to the fact that local community leaders are not always open for co-operation. Beside this overall picture of realization of whole school aspects in eco-school the researches also demonstrate a wide variety of effectiveness in eco-schools. There are several factors determining of the quality of a work of an eco-school. Distributed leadership combined with personal commitment of school leaders are needed for an effective involvement of the whole staff of the school. Sophisticated opportunities for professional communication and institutalisation of eco-school principles like embedding innovative methods such as pedagogical project and fieldwork into the yearly official workplan of schools are needed for a continuous professional development of the teachers involved in eco-school activities. As conclusion the paper argue that whole school approach could be useful as a compass, or direction for ESD school development but if considered as a short term expectation it could be startling and so harmful for ESD development. The evidence shows that successful eco-schools have introduced aspects of whole school approach of ESD gradually and even the most develop eco-schools do not realize all aspects evenly.

References

EU. (2010). Council conclusions of 19 November 2010 on education for sustainable development I. Official Journal of the European Union, 4. 12.(12), C 327/11- C 327/14. Letöltés dátuma: 2017. 01 11, forrás: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2010:327:0011:0014:EN:PDF OFI. (2010). System of Eco-school title,. Letöltés dátuma: 2017. 01 11, forrás: http://ofi.hu/system-ecoschool-title Posch, P. (1999). The Ecologisation of Schools and its Implications for Educational Policy. , 29(3), 341–348. Réti, M., Horváth, D., Czippán, K., & Varga, A. (2015). The challenge of mainstreaming of ESD in Hungary Schooling for Sustainable Development Volume. In R. Jucker, & R. Mathar, Schooling for Sustainable Development in Europe (old.: 201-219). Switzerland: Springer. Letöltés dátuma: 2017. 01 11, forrás: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-09549-3_12 UNESCO. (2016). GEM Report 2016: What is the ‘whole school approach’ to environmental education? Letöltés dátuma: 2016. 12 15, forrás: https://gemreportunesco.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/what-is-the-whole-school-approach-to-environmental-education/

Author Information

Attila Varga (presenting / submitting)

Eszterházy Károly University, Hungary

Erika Saly

Eszterházy Károly University, Hungary

Flóra Benkő

Eszterházy Károly University, Hungary

Réka Könczey

Eszterházy Károly University, Hungary

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.

Session Information

Contribution

Method

Expected Outcomes

References

Author Information

Search the ECER Programme

Navigation

Info for