Education for Sustainable Development is still mostly unknown and unused in schools around the world, yet it is a SDG 4.7 and its implementation is urgent! EduGems Finland is an online Learning Academy for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) helping teachers all over the world to transform teaching and learning by combining STEAM and ESD with motivation and confidence!
But where did it all start? Dr. Juntunen conducted a four year research ending 2015 which led to an e-book of ESD in holistic science education and was translated into four languages. Dr. Juntunen found out the World lacks holistic science lessons aligning with sustainability and pedagogy typical in Finland – trusting the capabilities of learners. According to her research, schools globally could empower their learners to a higher extent to use their capacity to understand wicked, systemic global challenges. Dr. Juntunen noticed a global need for training programs that are based on Education for Sustainable Development and future skills pedagogy. This and Covid-19 resulted in a women-led online learning academy called EduGems Finland.
Using the reputation Finland has on being a world leader in education and the fact that Finland already has successfully incorporated holistic ESD to its curriculum, Finland is currently taking the lead in making this transformation possible worldwide, and EduGems Finland is leading the way!
Our mission
EduGems Finland’s mission is to inspire and help teachers around the world in integrating Education for Sustainable Development into all areas of education. The emphasis is on empowering schools to be ambassadors for the change – by coaching them to plan their own ESD practices – only then they will own their own change and innovate a direction towards the better!
Adults are responsible for the change that has to start with the educators themselves. EduGems Finland supports the transformation of teaching and learning by giving teachers concrete tools and ideas for how to use student-centered project-based and phenomenal approaches. These collaborative methods involve improving teachers’ and students’ (and even soon their parents’) holistic skills. In practice, this means learning systems thinking and 21st century skills, which are vital in designing a positive impact for local circumstances, which differ all over the World. Principals and teachers need encouragement to apply the most crucial scientific and pedagogical knowledge: systemic planetary boundaries and ESD.