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Conference announcement : ‘The Next Step: Education for Social Change’ on Wednesday 19 June 2013 from 3.00 pm to approx. 7.00 pm at
, UOL University of Oldenburg. Registration and programme available at uol.de/diz/projects/esd-project/conference-the-next-step/ AR CHIVE Prof. Dr Michael Komorek, lecturer in physics education at the University of Oldenburg and head of the ESD Agency project, presented Resie Gaumann, supervisor of the pupil cooperative at the Fröbel School in Oldenburg, and Susanne Behrens, deputy headteacher of the Fröbel School in Oldenburg, the freshly printed guide ‘Sustainable Pupil Companies: Setting Up, Implementing, Shaping’. The pupil cooperative ‘miksmaks’ was founded at the Fröbelschule as early as 2006 – one of 450 pupil companies and cooperatives in Lower Saxony committed to sustainability.

People in the photo, from left: Prof. Dr Michael Komorek, head of the “BNE-Agentur” project at the University of Oldenburg; Jürgen Drieling, managing director of the association BNEAgentur Niedersachsen e.V., Westerstede; Resie Gaumann, supervisor of the pupil cooperative at the Fröbelschule Oldenburg; Susanne Behrens, Deputy Headteacher at the Fröbelschule in Oldenburg, surrounded by pupils from the ‘miksmaks’ pupil co-operative at the Fröbelschule in Oldenburg. Researchers from the Oldenburg University project ‘BNE-Agentur’ developed the guidance material in co-operation with Prof. Dr Gerhard de Haan, an educational scientist at the Free University of Berlin. It forms part of the nationwide project ‘Training Multipliers for Sustainable Pupil-Run Companies’ and is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs. The guide is aimed at teachers and non-school-based professionals who wish to set up and establish pupil-run companies or pupil cooperatives at their institutions. It contains guidance on setting up such organisations, provides information on the learning processes within pupil-run companies and explains the approach to sustainable business practices. It also outlines the possibilities for positioning pupil-run companies in the market and aligning them with environmental and social considerations.

“Pupil-run companies foster social skills and promote an understanding of environmental interdependencies and knowledge of business processes,” explains Komorek. They are therefore an outstanding element of career guidance and future-oriented education across all types of school. The “Lower Saxony Network of Sustainable Pupil-Run Companies and Pupil Cooperatives” will be distributing the guidance pack to schools with sustainable pupil-run companies in the coming weeks.

To obtain the guidance materials:

Jürgen Dreiling
BNEAgentur Niedersachsen e.V.
Kuhlenstraße 20
26655 Westerstede
juergen.drieling@bneagentur.de
Tel. 04488/77877.

The ESD Agency project at the University

The ESD Agency Lower Saxony e.V. is based at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (DiZ) at the University of Oldenburg. The agency promotes education for sustainable development in general and vocational schools across Lower Saxony and supports the UN Decade of ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD) proclaimed by the United Nations. The United Nations proclaimed the UN Decade of ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD) from 2005 to 2014. ESD encompasses an educational concept that focuses on integrating sustainability issues into all types of schools worldwide. The aim of this global educational initiative is to convey the principles of intergenerational justice and equity between different regions of the world, nations and cultures within schools. The University of Oldenburg’s ‘ESD Agency’ project aims to integrate sustainability issues more effectively into teacher training and professional development, and to put this into practice. The project was launched in 2009 by the ESD Agency of Lower Saxony e.V. in Westerstede. Since 1 September 2012, the agency’s responsibilities have been taken over by the University of Oldenburg. Further information on professional development courses in the field of Education for Sustainable Development can be found at www.ofz.uni-oldenburg.de/37282.html.