BildungsCent – transformative learning for all age groups
With innovative and action-oriented learning formats BildungsCent e.V. strives to transform places of learning into spaces of opportunity where people of all age groups are empowered to shape society.
BildungsCent is a Berlin-based German NGO in the field of education for sustainable development. The organization’s goal is to make important socio-political issues – e.g., climate change, participation or democracy – an integral part of everyday school life and beyond. Since 2003 BildungsCent has implemented more than 40 programmes reaching target groups of different age groups throughout Germany. The organization receives funding and support from public agencies, foundations and other civil society organizations.
Putting ESD into action
With its various programmes BildungsCent enables transformative learning through dialogue and interaction for learners of all ages. The programmes contribute to the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially to SDG 4 (Quality Education) as key to all other goals as described in the UNESCO global ESD programme “Education for Sustainable Development: Towards achieving the SDGs (ESD for 2030)”.
BildungsCent has received several awards in the field of sustainability and ESD and has been nominated for the UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development in 2018 and 2021.
Dialogue enables learning
Dialogue enables learning. Guided by this premise, the BildungsCent programmes aim at opening up various opportunities for dialogue and interaction to reach the SDGs and to create a just and sustainable world. This objective is pursued in various ways:
- students and teachers are encouraged to change their roles and their point of view. By putting themselves into different roles they understand complex situations and explore new ways of acting
- climate topics are introduced to the staff of day care institutions, thus shifting dialogue towards climate change
- dialogue on eye level between students and experts is facilitated
- spaces for intergenerational dialogue between young and old people are created
Transformation requires disruption
All BildungsCent programmes have in common that they create cognitive dissonance and critical reflection. Thus, they offer new narratives and images of transformation towards a more just and sustainable world.
Such transformation necessitates a certain level of disruption. BildungsCent’s dialogue and interactive formats aim to cause disruptions and invite learners to challenge their usual way of thinking and acting.
Learners are given the opportunity to
- ask critical questions
- challenge their own standpoints
- experience other realities
- develop creative skills and find new solutions
- experience collaboration
- practice empathy
This encourages learners to undertake transformative action and to actively shape a desirable future and to develop and implement own project ideas.
Innovative approaches beyond traditional teaching
BildungsCent programmes offer learners the opportunity to experience self-efficacy that goes far beyond traditional teaching and simple knowledge transfer. They are encouraged to change perspectives and to think out-of-the-box. This empowers learners of all ages to find new solutions and motivates them to undertake transformative actions for sustainability.
BildungsCent’s innovative approaches include:
- programmes are designed by the target group themselves
- radical participation is enabled
- all participants – students, teachers, parents, older people – are addressed as learners
- non-formal and informal learning environments are as relevant as formal education
- digital spaces are established as spaces for dialogue and learning
- whole institution approach as a guiding principle
- learners are brought together with experts on eye level
Selected BildungsCent programmes
- Energy and climate protection in childcare institutions (Energie und Klimaschutz in Kitas)
- Students meet experts, go on expeditions and take actions for climate protection (Nachgefragt3)
- Students train their teachers on the issue of plastic waste in the oceans (KursWechsel)
- Students train their teachers on the connections between climate change and our food system (foodture)
- Cooperative simulation game for students on the topic of marine litter (Müll im Meer – der Runde Tisch Meeresmüll als Planspiel für Schüler*innen)
- Students and NGOs enhance their climate data literacy (KlimaDatenSchule)
- Intergenerational dialogue to reduce the distance between the generations (Generationen im Gespräch)