PhD scholarships in Education for Sustainable Development ESD

Two PhD scholarships in educational issues in relation to climate change and sustainable development - position in Copenhagen

Deadline Friday 2 January 2009

The Danish School of Education, University of Aarhus, Copenhagen Campus, invites applications for two PhD scholarships attached to the Department of Curriculum Research and the Research Programme for Environmental and Health Education.

The scholarships are for two independent PhD projects. The successful applicants will be able to draw on and cooperate with an ongoing international comparative research project, ’Climate Change and Sustainable Development: The Response from Education’, which the Danish School of Education is conducting under the International Alliance of Leading Education Institutes. Read more about IALEI and the project here: http://intlalliance.org/ and http://www.dpu.dk/site.aspx?p=12847

The projects must be formulated within the area of ’climate change and sustainable development as an educational challenge’. They may thus cover issues such as:

The relationship between universal ideas about education and cultural diversity within the field of Education for Sustainable Development.

Comparative studies of similarities and differences in national implementation of the concept of Education for Sustainable Development. E.g. potentials and obstacles related to curricula in the Danish primary and lower secondary school and Danish educational policy – compared with the similar situation in other countries.

Climate change and sustainable development as a challenge in relation to educational theory and practice. E.g. with a focus on change in knowledge development, management and participatory approaches in society as a challenge for educational approaches based on concepts about action competence, participation and whole school. Or with a focus on entrepreneurship or mental ownership as educational approaches.

Evaluation of Education for Sustainable Development. E.g. about what counts as evidence in different approaches.

The projects may fall within the following areas: primary and lower secondary education, youth education, university education and general education. The projects must be formulated so that they fall within the description of the Department of Curriculum Research: The Department of Curriculum Research deals with the targeted stimulation of learning in the relationship between teachers or communicators, learners and more or less given subject matter.
The scholarship holders will be enrolled as PhD students at the Danish School of Education. Applications should be aware that scholarship holders are obliged to carry out allotted work at the university school to an extent corresponding to a total of 810 working hours in the case of an employment period of three years. This work will include teaching and communication tasks. Office facilities will be provided.

Salary and the terms and conditions of employment are pursuant to the protocol to the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC) on PhD scholarships.

Applications should include:
The completed application form (can be found on the Doctoral School homepage). (See below).
A project description of a maximum of five pages written in English or Danish (see guidelines on the Doctoral School homepage).
A detailed CV, including information on and documentation for previous employment, research and teaching experience, copies of examination certificates and any letters of recommendation.
A list of publications, indicating the title, any co-authors, number of pages and year and place of publication.
Publications (maximum five). Three copies of each publication should be sent together with the application.
A list of all material being submitted with the application. Each item should be numbered and marked with the applicant’s name.

Additional information about the scholarships can be obtained from Bjarne Bruun Jensen, Head of the Research Programme for Environmental and Health Education, tel. (+45) 8888 9138, e-mail bjbj@dpu.dk, or Anne Holmen, Chair of the PhD Study Board, tel. (+45) 8888 9869, e-mail anho@dpu.dk.

More information about student guidance services for the PhD programme at the Danish University of Education can be found on the Doctoral School homepage: http://www.dpu.dk/site.aspx?p=3950

The Danish School of Education, University of Aarhus encourages all interested candidates, regardless of personal background, to apply. Applicants may be invited to an interview.

Application deadline
The application deadline is Friday 2 January 2009. Applications marked: PhD application and addressed to the Dean of the Danish School of Education, Lars Qvortrup, should be submitted together with all enclosures in three copies to:

The Danish School of Education,
University of Århus,
Personnel Department,
Tuborgvej 164,
2400 Copenhagen NV
Denmark

Welcome to Education for Sustainable Development - ESD

In 2007 we are in the third year of UN's Decade for Education for Sustainable Development which should be regarded as a very, very important initiative for everybody.

In this blog I will add what I can to help facilitate this initiative as I am working with issues linked to Education for Sustainable Development profesionally and have been doing so for many years.

The really important point is that it is so much needed to take a pedagogical point of departure concerning ESD when dealing with general education.

But more about that in future postings.

Please bookmark this site, and I hope you will not be dissapointed :-)

Soren Breiting