Development theories

Global education in Hungary, among the Hungarian minorities in Ukraine, Serbia, Romania, and in India (since 1977)

The Institute for Environmental and Sustainability Communication was founded in 1996. Today, it is part of the Faculty of Environmental Technology at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. The institute's academic staff carries out research, teaching, and knowledge-transfer activities related to environment and sustainability communication. Scientific analysis, theory elaboration, and concept development are the key components of all research projects carried out at this institute. Their objective is to promote the development of competencies at the individual, institutional, and collective levels in order to create a future based on the principle of sustainability. In the autumn of 2005, this institute was awarded the UNESCO Chair in Higher Education for Sustainable Development. The Chair's goal is to integrate the principle of sustainability into teaching activities and strengthen the institute's international orientation by establishing new cooperative ventures.

As Development Education Centre we aim to raise awareness of peace and environment related issues through information and education.

(wlp)° - the world lecture project is an online library for video lectures in any language and of any faculty from all over the world. The project is collecting all links to video lectures and their meta data in one freely accessible database. A search engine helps the users to find the lecture of their choice easily. They can search lectures according to various criteria: theme, faculty, country, language and others. Everyone can contribute to broadening (wlp)°'s lecture fund. Once registered it is easy to put new lectures onto the data base or to complete the data of the lectures that are already available. (wlp)° is looking for partners across the globe who contribute in facilitating the exchange and the access of knowledge for everyone – everywhere. The World Academy of Young Scientists (WAYS) and Young-People Platform in Agricultural Research (YPARD) for Development are already collaborating with (wlp)°.

FAIR for all generations FAIR education - Our campaigns are aimed at schools, kindergartens and day-care centres (Kitas), extracurricular actors in the greater Saarbrücken area and Saarland University. Several "Fair Kitas", "Fairtrade Schools" and "Fairtrade Universities" from the greater Saarbrücken area have already been awarded. School classes and courses from the Saarbrücken region have already received the award "Fair School Class - Fair Trade Class" more than 100 times. Through our young "Fair Trade Ambassadors" as multipliers and through our wide-ranging commitment, we reach a broad public. The guiding principle of our network is Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

We support teachers in Switzerland at all levels in their daily work by giving them impulses for their lessons which are directed towards a viable development in a global society. We sell and lend over 800 tried and tested teaching aids in German, French and Italian language. We provide teacher training. We inform and advise with relation to Global Education. We are part of a network of national and international organisations having similar aims.

The non-profit association "Bund für Bildung" translates socially relevant issues into educational projects. The focus is on issues of inclusion, participation and democracy.

Future dimensions of development education are widely unknown today. Our global living environment and everyday worlds develop in contexts which become more and more complex. Old certainties are dissolving; new orientations can rarely be identified. Thus, it becomes harder to find reasonable answers to the new challenges that are worthwhile for development education; answers which make it possible to impart knowledge and behavior for a future-oriented living.

The editors and the editorial board of the Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik (ZEP, Journal for international educational research and development education) have established a medium that, for more than thirty years, has been bringing development education and international educational research to the public.

Complex theoretical contexts are picked up and explained in the different issues while, at the same time, experiences and problems are discussed from a practical perspective in a way that they facilitate relevant impulses back to the scientific discourse.

The journal targets educationalists working in development education and scientists from neighboring disciplines as well as anyone who is interested in global learning and development cooperation in schools and elsewhere.