A new project has started!
From 2023 to 2026, twelve European partners, including Vilniaus kolegija, combine their strengths within the subsidised Partnership for Excellence – Erasmus+ Teacher Academies project “Social Change Through Sustainable Communication in Lifelong Learning in Schools and Society” (TASC). This project focuses on sustainable communication. From October 4 till October 6, the partners from seven different countries met at VIVES University of Applied Sciences, which is coordinating partner. At the campus in Kortrijk, they held the kick-off of the three-year project, symbolically on World Teacher day. During the kick-off, formal and informal encounters are the main focus, while the baselines and the content of the Teacher Academy takes more shape.
“The aim of this teacher academy is to provide future and current European teachers with the necessary skills to become reflective and agile European teachers capable of preventing, or eliminating violence, discrimination, polarisation, exclusion and bullying. We summarise these skills as sustainable communication skills. Bringing sustainable communication into schools can be the start of the social change we want. That is also why we want to kick off the project on World Teacher day, a profession in which communication is key,” say Nele Mestdagh and Els Callens, coordinators from VIVES within TASC. “This sustainable communication focuses on connection and on restorative and intercultural communication. In addition, teachers are encouraged to engage in sustainable communication while working together. Reflection and awareness are also important skills”.
The TASC wants to develop competences of teachers in sustainable communication and will enroll in a joint training programme on sustainable communication. TASC wants to enable and fully integrate mobility models in initial teacher education and continuing professional development education in a green and inclusive way. The TASC wants to develop a European sustained and structured partnership between the providers of initial teacher education and continuous professional development. Finally the TASC wants to formulate guidelines for policymakers to implement sustainable communication as a crucial cross-cutting competence for teachers and teacher trainers.
The consortium established for the TASC involves 12 partners from 7 different European countries (Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, and Spain). There are in total 11 providers of initial teacher training and/or continuous professional development. There is also 1 school involved, linked to the local teacher training programme. In the near future, various initial and continuous teacher trainers and teachers and stakeholders from elementary and secondary schools will be invited to join the TASC in a ‘Teacher Board’ or a ‘Community of Practice’. Some of them will try out and experience the testing of the modules or the joint training programme hands-on.
The project coordinator at Vilniaus kolegija is Aušra Simoniukštytė,
+370 650 37243, email: a.simoniukstyte@pdf.viko.lt
Website: www.eutasc.eu (operational from October 30th).
