The LIFE SHARA project has organised the virtual course “The university in the face of climate change: teaching challenges and possibilities for action”, a training in which almost 50 teachers from universities from different parts of Spain have participated and which has served to analyse the role of the university and its teaching staff in this phenomenon.
On September 14, 16, 21 and 23, the virtual course “The university in the face of climate change: teaching challenges and possibilities for action” was held within the framework of the LIFE SHARA project. A training in which almost 50 teachers from universities from different parts of Spain have participated and which has served to analyse the current scenario in the face of climate change and the role of the university and its teaching staff in the face of this phenomenon.
The course, taught with the collaboration of the Spanish Office for Climate Change, the National University of Distance Education (UNED) and the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE), has made it possible to advance in the integration of climate change into the university academic curriculum, as well as providing an update of knowledge about it. In addition, the training has served to provide teachers with new resources in the field of adaptation to climate change.
The training has been given to teachers from different parts of Spain whose teaching activity addresses various topics, from economics to sociology, through education or environmental issues, which is a plus for this course, since climate change has to be addressed in a multidisciplinary way from various fields of knowledge.
A total of 12 speakers participated in the course, in a mixed format of presentation and dialogue in two. On the other hand, the development of the practical workshops has had the collaboration of a facilitation team of the CRUE Sustainability-UNED made up of 12 people.
Collaborative spaces between teachers
The training has also generated collaborative spaces, as teachers have created affinity groups to work on topics of interest to them in relation to the new National Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change 2021-2030 and its areas of work and cross-cutting aspects, which cover topics such as health or social vulnerability, among others. The teachers who have taken the course themselves have highlighted the value of this training in order to continue deepening the phenomenon of climate change and to update the knowledge acquired.
This training activity arises from theneed to increase awareness of climate change in university centers and train young people for a professional performance according to the needs of a reality to which a response must be given from all areas of knowledge.
The course is part of the actions planned in the LIFE SHARA project, which is coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) and which has among its partners the Spanish Office for Climate Change (OEEC), the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the Autonomous Agency of National Parks – through the National Centre for Environmental Education (CENEAM) – and the Portuguese Agency for the Environment.
