Where: Association for World Education
Area of Solutions: Youth, Sustainable cities and communities, Climate adaptation and resilience
One of Association for World Education’s members, Flakkebjerg Efterskole, a Danish boarding school, has established a World Goals Festival, "Faelles Forandring" (meaning Collaborative Change Maker), for students. This festival combines the richness of meeting around an important issue with interpersonal exchange of ideas, interdisciplinary teaching, sustainable education and youth-to-youth learning.
In the months leading up to the festival, students immerse themselves in an issue related to one or more of the SDG’s to present a workshop that provides the power to create change in relation to specific challenges locally or globally. Workshops are often focused on Human Rights and Climate Action.
In the first festival in 2019, 6 schools with about 550 students participated. In 2020, the festival went digital because of Covid-19. 3 regions,18 schools, and about 1700 students participated. In 2021, the festival will be digital again, but has also grown again. Now 7 regions, 25 schools, and about 2400 students are participating. The UN's SDG have become part of the curriculum for 25 Danish schools. The student-engaged, project-oriented and interdisciplinary teaching based on the UN's 17 SDGs is now being integrated at all participating schools. 4650 students have gained an in-depth knowledge of the visions described by the UN's SDGs. 4650 students have gained experience in preparing workshops that provide insight and courage to create concrete changes for sustainable development locally and globally.
One challenge has been the difficulty in engaging more schools as it is a time-consuming project. It has required a wide range of teaching materials, a digital platform and courses for both teachers and students. In addition, it is expensive to run festivals across many different schools and geographical regions in a country. This challenge was overcome with the appointment of the national coordinator in collaboration with the national boarding school association, Efterskoleforeningen, and the Danish Foundation, Turborgfonden.
Photos provided by Association for World Education
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