New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Reconnecting with nature

Email user
Beatrix.broda-kaschube@ifp.bayern.de

Basic information
Initiative title
Democracy and Sustainability - Education

Full initiative Title
Education for democracy and sustainability - strengthening of leadership skills in ECEC

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
A training trip to the Netherlands focusing on sustainability in day care centres: In addition to theoretical knowledge, initiatives for sustainable design of day care centres were presented and practical implementation was made tangible through job shadowing in different day care centres.
The project is embedded in a larger mutual learning initiative, which organises learning processes on many levels and includes further training trips on other topics, e.g. Democracy Education.

What was the geographical scope of your intiative?
Cross-border/international

Where was your intiative implemented?
Location 1
Netherlands

Location 2
Denmark

Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries
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If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Netherlands: Amsterdam, Almere, Utrecht, Delft (May 2022)
Denmark: Sonderborg (April 2023)

Does your initiative address mainly urban or rural issues?
It addresses urban-rural linkages

Does your initiative refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)

Has your initiative benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
Yes

Which fund(s)?
ERASMUS

Here you can provide more details about the name of the specific programme, strand/action line as relevant, and the year
Erasmus + Key Action 1 - Learning mobilities of Individuals, Programme 2014 - 2020, application 2020

Has your initiative won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

Does your initiative has a minimum level of maturity? The minimum level of maturity is exemplified by stakeholder/ initiative promoter commitment to implement the initiative in practice and a clear methodology /approach.
Yes

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): IFP - Staatsinstitut für Frühpädagogik und Medienkompetenz / State Institute for Early Childhood Research and Media Literacy
  Type of organisation: Public authority (European/national/regional/local)
  First name of representative: Fabienne
  Last name of representative: Becker-Stoll
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Germany
  Function: Director
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Winzererstr. 9
  Town: München
  Postal code: 80797
  Country: Germany
  Direct Tel: +49 89 998251936
  E-mail: fabienne.becker-stoll@ifp.bayern.de
  Website: https://ifp.bayern.de/
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
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In case my initiative is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my initiative in the channels of the European Commission.
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
Information from the National Agency

Description of the initiative
Please provide a summary of your initiative
The project is a follow-up to one already running from 2018 to 2021 and follows the same concept of individual and collective learning as the first project. Coordinated by the State Institute for Early Childhood Research and Media Literacy (IFP) teachers and managers from 13 day care centres, together with IFP staff, will improve their professional and implementation skills through job shadowing and courses.

The focus is on education for sustainable development and education for democracy, two topics that should be central to Early Childhood Education.

In May 2022, an educational trip to the Netherlands took place on the topic of sustainability. Accompanied by our cooperation partner, we acquired theoretical knowledge and got to know initiatives for a sustainable design of day care centres. By visiting six nurseries we were able to see concrete examples of implementation. Highlights included the handling of animals and plants, the transport of children with cargo bikes and the importance of playing outside.

In addition to the content, particular attention was paid to the design of the learning architecture. Learning processes on different levels should be initiated and linked.

Through particular preparation, joint documentation and reflection, transfer considerations and individual learning diaries, competencies are to be developed and transferred. This means improving expertise as well as implemetation skills.

The development of competences initially takes place at the individual level, but is reflected in the team and in the development of the nurseries through the incorporation of the learning outcomes. Through evaluation in the network of participating institutions, a common understanding is developed and ideas for implementation are developed.
The experiences are used to advise other day care centres and for further training. They are made available to as many day care centres as possible through publications.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
Sustainability

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Democracy

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Leadership Skills

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Learning together

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Role of Nature in Day Care Centres

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of sustainability and how these have been/will be met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The objectives of sustainability concern two levels: Sustainability in day care centres as a subject and sustainability of learning processes.

The aim of the training trip to the Netherlands was to get as many concrete ideas as possible on how to implement sustainability in the day care centres, but also on sustainability as a subject of education.

By learning about sustainability initiatives and visiting selected day care centres, we were able to get ideas about
- Growing up in nature, especially gardening (vegetable and herb beds) and handling and caring for animals (including pigs, cows and chickens).
- The importance of nature for children's learning
- The important role of outdoor play, also through the appropriate design of outdoor areas
- Sleeping outdoors as a healthy practice
- Environmentally friendly transport of children from school to nursery using cargo bikes
- The link between wellbeing, health and affordability in implementing sustainability in day care centres
- Innovative, architectural and ecological construction of day care centres
- Architectural design to facilitate learning
- Certification concepts for sustainable day care centres

The aim and benefit is to show pragmatic tools for day care centres to get started with sustainability, to keep the big picture in mind and still be able to start with small things.

As part of the learning together, there was also a theoretical examination of the Agenda for Sustainable Development and what sustainability means for day care centres. The participants then reflected on what can be implemented in the participating day care centres and what individual centres have already done (purchase of cargo bikes, installation of an outdoor construction workshop and an outdoor kitchen).

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
For all participants, the personal experiences that can be made on site are very profitable, as they are holistic in contrast to purely theoretical knowledge.
In particular, being able to engage in direct exchange with colleagues on site and to ask questions directly contributes to the individual increase in knowledge.
However, the exchange in the group also has a high quality of experience, which is of great importance in the context of the training trips and which is guaranteed by joint reflection rounds and shared meals.
In addition to the increase in knowledge related to the topic, there is also an enormous increase in knowledge through getting to know another culture and other day care centre systems, which is very motivating for the participants.
This experience was particularly pronounced in the Netherlands because we were accompanied by a cooperation partner who had a lot of additional information ready for us.
All in all, the exchange contributes a lot to feeling even more European.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The initiative is accessible to all, with a strong emphasis on sharing knowledge as widely as possible.
Participants are encouraged to report their findings to the children, the team, the responsible body and the parents, for example at parents' evenings.
They act as multipliers and are available for consultations in their day care centres, as well as for training and other meetings, such as management conferences.
Reports on the websites are also possible. Detailed information about the project is available on the Institute's website.
The greatest reach is achieved through the in-house publication, which is sent to 10,000 Bavarian day care centres and is also available online. It presents the experiences and findings in a low-threshold and practical way and makes them accessible to a large target group.
In the context of the overall project, the implementation of inclusion has already been a topic (project 2018-2021, in Sweden and Italy) and will be considered as a cross-sectional topic in each training journey.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the initiative and civil society have been/will be involved in the initiative and what has been/will be the impact of this involvement on the initiative
This is a shared learning initiative. The knowledge gained by the group of participants should be made available to as many people in the field as possible (see above). This concerns the specific (sub-)content of the project, in this case sustainability in day care centres for children. The experiences will be published and thus made available to civil society. However, it mainly concerns teachers and parents. Society is not directly involved in the initiative.
In the medium term, however, there will be an impact if the topic of sustainability is already well implemented in the day care centre, as the children are part of society and the adults of the next generation.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
Thirteen day care centres took part in the training trip. Eight of them are members of the IFP Practice Board and were involved in the first project. Another five nurseries applied specifically for this project. As the State Institute is a Bavarian authority under the Ministry of Social Affairs, this is a regional project.
In the Netherlands, contact was made with the Ministry of Education, which referred our enquiry to a freelance government consultant on day care for children. This cooperation partner organised a training session with stakeholders in the field of sustainability (Warborgfonds, Groen Cement, Boink, University of Amsterdam) and selected the day care centres.
This involved both national and regional authorities, relevant institutions and local day care centres.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your initiative. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
Representatives of science, administration and practice are involved.
The IFP staff are mainly psychologists and pedagogues. On site, contacts are made with other researchers as well as with representatives of the administration who are familiar with the day care system in the country. The practice is represented by the accompanying teachers and the teachers of the host institutions.

Special emphasis is placed on theory-practice transfer.
The results are presented at the Institute's scientific colloquium and are incorporated into the design of new projects, in particular the development of the curriculum.
The day care centres involve other day care centres, the team, the responsible authority and other colleagues (see above).

Collaboration mainly takes place at network meetings. All results are evaluated jointly, i.e. between the participating day care centres (practice) and the IFP staff involved (science), and a common understanding, common documentation and a common conclusion are developed.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
The innovative character lies in the overall concept of shared learning on which the whole 'Learning together' project is based and of which the example of the training trip to the Netherlands presented in this application is only one part.
There is a concept of individual learning and a concept of shared learning. Both are closely linked, so that learning processes take place on several levels (see below, methods).
The whole project consists of several training trips, each with a thematic focus. However, they are also linked to each other so that a wide range of topics and experiences in different European countries can be compared.

Please describe which elements of your initiative could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
The concept of the education project has a high degree of generalisation and can be transferred to many areas. This is especially true for the individual elements of the learning concept. They can also be applied individually, but only in combination does the holistic approach come alive.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
Both the sustainability training trip and the project as a whole are about the acquisition of professional competences (What is being done?) and the acquisition of process competences (How is it being done?).
Learning processes take place before, on site and afterwards, at individual level, in the network, in one's own nursery and in dissemination.
At the heart of the process are compulsory online learning diaries, specifically adapted to the activity and sent to the coordinator.
They are filled in beforehand in terms of expectations and objectives, daily on site and two weeks after the end of the activity for individual reflection.
Other elements and their interrelationships are
- Profiles in English provided to the host institutions
- Input for the participants on the expertise, system, country and people in the host country (also prepared by the participants)
- Specific questions from the participants' childcare centre
- Joint elaboration of objectives and guiding questions to be sent to the host institutions
- Joint exchange on site
- Joint documentation of the visits in small groups
- Joint reflection at the network meetings to develop a common understanding
- Joint development of transfer opportunities
- Development of a joint presentation for parents' evenings, reports and lectures
- Information material about the group and the Bavarian system for the hosts
- Learning processes for the hosts by addressing the key questions
- Making the hosts curious about a return visit
- Implementation of concrete ideas in their own day care centre
- Presentation at the Institute's scientific colloquium
- Publications to make the experience accessible to a wider audience

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
The main challenges are climate change and its impact on the sustainable design of early childhood centres, in particular sustainable construction and management.
Sustainability must also be an educational objective for children of kindergarten age.
Implementation will take place directly in the nurseries, based on the suggestions and joint exchanges, very locally and in small steps.
This includes the avoidance of plastic and waste, the reduction of energy consumption, healthy and sustainable nutrition and the appreciation of nature. This is not only implemented, but also discussed with the children, including in concrete projects with the children.
Very concrete examples from the training trip have already been implemented in the participating kindergartens (see above).
Ecological construction and innovative design of day-care centres is usually carried out in new buildings or renovations. If possible, this should be influenced.

Please detail the scope of progress in the implementation of the initiative. This can include already demonstrated results/outputs related to the chosen Prizes category, and the already achieved benefits from the initiative for direct and indirect beneficiaries. This can also include a development plan of the initiative, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application, and including envisaged results and benefits from the initiative
The described initiative on the topic of sustainability is one part of a large-scale project that includes several training trips on different topics.
The first project, "Strengthening of Leadership Skills in dealing with current developments", has already been completed and received the quality seal of the Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs in Germany. It was also awarded the European Innovative Teaching Award.
The follow-up project "Education for democracy and sustainability - strengthening of leadership skills in ECEC" follows the same project design and is already well advanced.
Reports on all previous training trips have been published, since December 2022 also on the trip to the Netherlands on the topic of sustainability.

Please provide documents that demonstrate the maturity level of the initiative and commitment to implement the initiative in practice (e.g.: evaluation report, final or mid-term initiative report, certification, publications, building permit, grant agreement, letter of support, partnership agreement, etc.)
Both
PDF
- pdf-1-14537.pdf
Web link
- https://ifp.bayern.de/imperia/md/content/stmas/ifp/ifp_infodienst_2022_web.pdf
- https://ifp.bayern.de/imperia/md/content/stmas/ifp/jahresbericht_2021_web.pdf
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
In the area of day care and education of very young children, the embodiment of sustainability values is particularly relevant, especially the values of sustainability and the promotion of nature.
This is part of the pedagogy with the children. Values are to be communicated, philosophised about together with the children and projects are to be carried out.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images or visual representations of your initiative to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below.
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed initiative has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the initiative and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their initiatives, initiative, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted initiative, initiative is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes