Cycles are part of life, and it resembles a circular path the fact that we are now, as researchers and science education professionals, seeking to get outside the classroom in pursuit of innovative ways for meaningful education.
Open schooling wants to reach beyond the walls of the classroom and its school, and create a beautiful entanglement with the communities that inhabit its territory. It will be in the establishment of these relations where discoveries and the sense of meaning have more chances to flourish.
This is why on June 3rd two European projects, SEAS - Science Education for Action and Engagement towards Sustainability - and FEDORA - Future-Oriented Science EDucation to enhance Responsibility and engagement in the society of Acceleration and uncertainty - got together to dialogue and see the possible synergies between both approaches. While SEAS is in its final stages, FEDORA has just begun. This enables SEAS and its team to inherit their learnings and frameworks to the new and energetic FEDORA team.
In the words of Alfredo Jornet, member of the SEAS coordinator team from the University of Oslo, “we’ve been studying the disentanglement between knowledge and action, and finding the ways to bring them back together: knowing and understanding with acting and doing”. On the other hand, Olivia Levrini, FEDORA's Coordinator, stated "Learning from SEAS experience and findings will enrich our approach and it will certainly help overcome the disparities".
How does an Open Schooling approach will help to address the complex challenges posed to our societies? What types of scientific knowledge and skills do the future generation need to confront and make a change to dealing with contemporary challenges?
The joint SEAS-FEDORA approach to Open Schooling envisioned STEM education as a powerful driver of social change with high transformational potentials.
The next steps, shared by Giulia Tasquier, who is involved in both projects, will be organising focused working groups and keeping the conversations flowing among both projects.
