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From personally relevant experience
to action research for sustainable education
Ilga Sal
ī
te, Inga Gedž
ū
ne and Ginta Gedž
ū
ne, Institute of Sustainable Education, Latvia
T
he origins of the Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE)
can be traced back to 2003, when a group from the Faculty
of Education and Management (Daugavpils University,
Latvia) founded it as a scientific research structural unit of the
Faculty. The founders of the Institute sought to establish a plat-
form for scientific inquiry which has now become a globally
recognised institution, working in international cooperation on
reorientation of teacher education to address sustainable devel-
opment and development of educational research for education
for sustainable development (ESD).
There were three historical preconditions for the establishment of
ISE as a research and academic learning environment in order to
seek insight into ESD:
• From its establishment (1996), the Faculty accumulated experi-
ence in action research that was used as a basis for programme
design and development of a holistic approach to educational
research
• The Institute’s staff had personal and professional interest in a
highly developed inquiry into reorientation of teacher educa-
tion to address sustainable development, which was especially
strengthened after the Faculty’s involvement in
the global UNESCO University Twinning and
Networking Programme (UNITWIN) teacher educa-
tion project (2000)
• Establishment of the Institute was accepted by its
staff as a unique opportunity to realise their mission
– participation in the creation of new knowledge
that would make education more sustainable with
a focus on seeking wisdom about how to live in
harmony with the world.
When the Faculty shifted its focus to environmen-
tal education, sustainable development and teacher
education for sustainable development, the next step
was to broaden the research methodology from mainly
quantitative studies, adopting an orientation towards
action research. In recent years, action research carried
out in the Institute has been based on learning from
lived experience and reflection on personally relevant
experience. It has permitted the development of trust
in the group’s ability to learn and find insights for the
Images: © Ilga Salite
Latvia’s Institute of Sustainable Education at UNESCO World Conference on
ESD, 2009, Bonn, Germany
Agreement to hold the Eighth JTEFS/BBCC conference at
UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France