Tomorrow Today

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] 96

Changes

(2006 & 2007) published by the Institute in

collaboration with its international partners. These

volumes represent an interdisciplinary view of research-

ers from various countries on the theory and practice

of education and sustainable development, inspiring a

complementary approach and modelling the frame of

reference for implementation of the holistic concep-

tion of sustainability in education. In spring 2010 the

Institute established a new scientific journal,

Discourse

and Communication for Sustainable Education

(DCSE),

an international, peer-reviewed journal that provides

a forum for the examination of policies, theories and

practices related to discourse and communication for

sustainable education. The diversity of this journal is

apparent in the variety of its theories, methods and

approaches, and its avoidance of limitation to one

school, approach or academic branch. It welcomes

papers that explore inspirational ideas in sustainable

education and are written and presented in innovative

or experimental ways.

In 2005 the Institute established the Baltic and Black

Sea Circle Consortium in Educational Research (BBCC).

The consortium was created as a network for discourse

and communication in the international collaboration

regarding teacher education and research in education

for sustainable development. It unites teacher educa-

tion and educational research institutions, initially

drawn from the countries around and near the Baltic

Sea (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland and Germany)

and the Black Sea (Hungary and Turkey). In 2005,

representatives of BBCC contributed their experience

to the ‘UNESCO Educational Sector Guidelines and

Recommendations for Reorienting Teacher Education

to Address Sustainability’, the preparation of which

common aim of sustainable development and to apply these insights

to enhance the dimension of sustainability in education. Orientation

towards sustainable development is compatible with the notion of

hope, which is a uniquely human capacity and emerges through

personally relevant experience as an orientation towards sustainable

goals in future aspirations.

The path chosen for the Institute’s development required a sound

scientific basis. For this reason, in 2002 the Institute established

the

Journal of Teacher Education and Training

. In time, the Journal

expanded its scope, gradually acquiring the dimension of education

for sustainable development, and in 2007 it adopted a firm focus on

sustainability in teacher education. Since 2007, the Journal has been

known as the

Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability (JTEFS)

It has become a forum for the meeting of different views, ideas and

research to promote the further development of studies and practice

of teacher education in all areas of formal and non-formal education

in relation to sustainability. The articles published in JTEFS explore

the content and forms of professional and academic teacher educa-

tion, problems and tasks of teacher in-service education and other

issues to help teachers to become responsible mentors for sustain-

able development.

The editorial board of JTEFS unites more than 40 experts in the

field of teacher education and sustainability from such countries as

Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Germany, Hungary, the

Netherlands, Malta, USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica

and South Africa. Over the years, JTEFS has gained international

recognition and is now available in the electronic databases CABI

and SCOPUS and, since 2009, on the electronic platform VERSITA.

Presently JTEFS has positioned itself and become publicly known as

a scientific journal dedicated to the topic and mission of reorienting

teacher education to address sustainability.

More diverse scientific research and practical sustainability-related

experience has also been reflected in the two volumes of collected

articles

Education and Sustainable Development: First Steps Toward

BBCC president Ilga Salite and ISE director Dzintra Iliško at the opening of the 7th

JTEFS/BBCC conference “Sustainable Development. Culture. Education”, 2009,

Daugavpils, Latvia

Welcoming Anita Pipere, the first editor of JTEFS journal, at the 7th

JTEFS/BBCC conference in Daugavpils