Abstract:

Sustainability approaches in education call for integrating innovation in both method and content when training the current and future generation of workforce. It is not a matter of “if” but rather “how” this ambitious challenge has to be achieved in all areas of life and along all age spans. Education has always played a key role in the society and continues to be expected to do so. Expectations are so many, so diverse, so complex, so changing and come from so many sources that put educational institutions under extreme pressure, having no alternative but facing transformation. Managing this transformation implies integrating innovation that ultimately affects teachers, trainers, educators as key pillars at the heart of the system and eventual executors of change.

While current education is expected to address future problems, selecting the focus areas of transformation is not trivial. Although some consensus exists that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 providing a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet (UN, 2020) are priority areas for education, taking the agenda at a more operative level and setting priority on some goals remains a challenge. Taking a closer look at the seventeen goals, SDG3 namely “good health and wellbeing” equivalent with ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, is crucial due to its transversal nature and magnitude. While much progress has been achieved in global areas (life expectancy, reducing maternal and child mortality and fighting against leading communicable diseases), still much has to be done. When considering concrete targets and indicators it is evident that occupational health together with safety matters have to radically improve and future targets are current ambitions. An even more articulated gap exists when willing to set an optimal roadmap to integrate some of previously agreed novelties. If there is consensus is one aspects that refers to the fact that schools and educators have to assume and promote the change.

Addressing these gaps, the present contribution aims to describe the design, configuration, development and evaluation of a community of practice aiming to integrate novel approaches in their teaching habit. This approach is tested when aiming to focus on occupational health and safety in the secondary school level education. The model proposed was designed and is currently tested in the framework of the Mind safety – Safety Matters project, which is a pan-European project involving five countries, a strategic partnership initiative awarded by the ERASMUS+ program under the key action of cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practice ongoing between September 2018 – August 2021 (MSSM, 2020).

The different points that will be covered in the results sections are:
i) What is the configuration of the teacher community of practice and how it connects with the wider eco-system?,
ii) What is the roadmap to follow when willing to integrate novel approaches into teaching?,
iii) What is the perceived usefulness and impact of the followed approach?.

Expected positive impacts can be a powerful argument towards further implementation, community expansion, further replication and scalability in similar and other contexts.

Keywords:

Occupational Health and Safety, Training, Innovation, Education.