Abstract:

Long before the 2030 Agenda, when sustainability and education for sustainable development were not mainstream themes, Giornalisti Nell’Erba started to use journalism as an educational tool to promote knowledge and awareness about sustainability, media education, transferable skills and competencies.
Giornalisti Nell’Erba (gNe) is a journalism and educational project that aims to promote clear and scientific information on sustainability and environmental issues.
The project – held by Il Refuso, a not for profit Italian association – has reached over 9000 kids and students from 3 to 29 years old, and hundreds of teachers and educators in Italy since 2006.
Today Giornalisti Nell’Erba stands out for its educational approach where journalism meets science, education and sustainability.
The project consists of a journalism prize, an online newspaper (giornalistinellerba.it, UN accredited media), a national teachers network (Rete nazionale Docenti gNe) and many activities addressed to both young and adult learners, teachers and journalists. The latest one is Be a data scientist, a national citizen science research project about the dynamics of information among young people and their educators. This is held by Giornalisti Nell’Erba and the researchers association Frascati Scienza.
A large network of journalists, teachers, scientists and sustainable companies are involved in all parts of the project. This is in order to generate mutual exchange of skills, ideas and points of view.
Teachers and students play a big role in the project. Teachers have been experimenting in education for sustainable development and innovative teaching practices through journalism by introducing in their classrooms skills and technologies from the newsroom. Students get empowerment out of journalism, learning to create and analyze information, fighting fake news, and doing work experience, service learning, for communities.
The final objective of this transdisciplinary work is to help children grow their critical and ethical conscience so that they are able to face and deal with issues in global warming such as mitigation and adaptation in a proactive way.
As a result, in 2019 Giornalisti nell’Erba signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MIUR (Ministero Istruzione, Università e Ricerca). This was for the dissemination of education for sustainable development through Giornalisti Nell'Erba.
After 14 years in the field, Giornalisti Nell’Erba has developed an educational method, as described in the ebook “Il metodo Giornalisti Nell’Erba. Una cassetta degli attrezzi per l'educazione allo sviluppo sostenibile" by Giuditta Iantaffi and Ilaria Romano, published in June 2019 by Il Refuso. Iantaffi is a teacher with over 25 years of experience; she has been the first teacher to experiment with the Giornalisti Nell’Erba method in schools. Romano is a journalist and a teacher teaching Italian, History and Geography through journalism as a way to enhance inclusivity and sustainability in her classes.
"For 2020 Italian schools teaching Civil Education must include the themes of environmental sustainability and 2030 Agenda. The teachers of Giornalisti nell’Erba network have been working on these issues for many years now and the reform in progress will be a further incentive to continue using a method that has proved successful.
References:
[1] giornalistinellerba.org; giornalistinellerba.it; https://www.youtube.com/user/giornalistinellerba/

Keywords:

Climate change, sustainable development, innovations in education, journalism, transdisciplinarity.