Tomorrow Today

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was lead by UNESCO. Since then, it has grown to include Slovenia,

Slovakia, Poland, Greece, Italy and Spain and representatives of

other countries beyond Europe. More recently, BBCC has acquired

international, multicultural and inter-disciplinary dimensions, thus

permitting it to increase the number of coordinating countries and

share responsibility among them. It has become a close-knit family

of like-minded enthusiasts from universities, schools, preschools,

e-learning, media education and education management institu-

tions, as well as policy makers and art and institutional managers.

The BBCC family meets regularly during the annual JTEFS/

BBCC conferences. The next conference will be held in 2011

at Siauliai University (Lithuania), followed by the University of

Eastern Finland in 2012. These conferences allow for a great

diversity of contributions, with the main emphasis placed

on synergy between efforts made to reorient teacher educa-

tion towards sustainability and research in the field of ESD by

seeking to enrich research methodology and methods to be used

in the current context of ESD. The proposed sections entail a

wide scope of research and practice aspects initiated during the

previous conferences. Time is afforded for everyone in attend-

ance to exchange ideas, share research results and introduce new

research and development projects.

Around the nucleus of ISE and BBCC, through the annual host

conferences, JTEFS and the collection of articles, a fruitful discus-

sion and cooperation has ensued, which unites representatives of

various countries and disciplines. Teachers of various subjects at

different school levels, social workers, ICT specialists and policy

makers discuss the notions of sustainability, sustainable develop-

ment and education for sustainable development, establishing their

link with the respective disciplines and constructing a multicultural

and interdisciplinary view on these issues. Thus an opportunity is

provided for new members to make their first steps and discover that

sustainable education ought to unite metacontent (values, frames

of reference etc.) and content issues (ecological, social, economi-

cal and cultural dimensions and management of their

interaction), and the results of the research are reflected

in ISE publications.

The Institute’s activities are now implemented on

three levels:

• Impact on the national level (co-operation

with Latvian higher education institutions, the

Ministry of Education and Science and UNESCO

National Commission, schools and the

community)

• Coordinating activity for sustaining co-operation in

the established Baltic and Black Sea Circle Consortium

in Educational Research (BBCC)

• Active participation in global cooperation networks

(UNESCO/UNITWIN project network for reorien-

tation of teacher education to address sustainable

development, the global Earth Charter network

for development of teacher education and lifelong

education programmes, and collaboration with EU

and Pacific region networks).

The landmark event for the Institute in 2009 was

a presentation at the UNESCO World Conference

on Education for Sustainable Development in Bonn

(Germany). The Institute’s experience in build-

ing the capacity for international partnership in

ESD led to its recognition by the conference as

one of five successful experiences in education for

sustainable development in the region of Europe

and North America.

International audiences have

acknowledged the Institute’s outstanding practice

in the category of sustainability as a prime example

of successful international and national partner-

ship and collaboration to promote research and

BBCC members at the symposium of the International Network for Reorienting Teacher Education towards Sustainability, 2010, Paris, France