THE MERGER OF ASSEMBLED EDUCATIONS

The Integration of Assembled Educations

Under pressure to modernise, innovate, fulfill stakeholders' expectations, follow policies or political whims, schools are found to decorate themselves as if they are Christmas-trees, generate stand-alone projects and series of activities parallel to the real of the education they offer to comply with standards, curricula and examinations demands. Suffering under layers of bureaucratic fog and commercial interventions, they are found to be deluded by preachers of progress that incur floods of change, breaking on their shores where own initiatives are too often washed away and erode own transition capacity. Following ESD-based Education, the OPEDUCA-concept sees to an integration of loosely organised 'assembled' educations, merging them as the natural whole their are.

Environmental Education

Environmental Education in the OPEDUCA-concept is close to the original joint complex of ecology and human life, a notion which seems to have withered away from present day Environmental Education. A development not corrected but worsened by weak interpretations of ESD, presenting social issues which may or may not be related to the environment (Kopnina, 2012). Although promoted by ESD-experts, we for example consider the installation of solar cells on a schools’ rooftop as a most dramatic example of contra-productive ESD. The academic discourse and from there policy-development which seeks to inform a practice overwhelmed by (semi-)commercial (NGO-)offerings, appears to make the dimension Earth into an afterthought, not linking environmental protection to intrinsic values of non-human species (Johannesson, Norđdahl, Oskarsdottir, Palsdottir, & Petursdottir, 2011).

STEM

Although we acknowledge technology rests in the core of many phenomena, we do not consider it the core of education. Experiencing dozens campaigns on the local, regional and national level from nearby, STEM appeared dominatingly present in terms of advocacy, funding and time programmed in schools. A push for a STEM-agenda not per definition meeting the needs of employers and graduates, nor in the interest of students (A. Gough, 2021).
In OPEDUCA we see the consequent development of scientific thinking and reasoning, Science as (academic) field of expertise and work, science as collective term for disciplines and subjects, technology in the sense of ‘hardware’ (tools, machines), technology in the field of ‘Information and Communication’, ICT (overlapping embedded ‘hardware’ technology) and engineering as the design of technological constructs and processes.

from Ideas, over thinking to Action

Entrepreneurship Education

The development of youngsters' capacities to turn their ideas into action and by doing so develop entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, is an integral part of the OPEDUCA-concept. BusinessClass focuses on these qualities and the general capability to transfer thinking into action in a socially responsible way. It is the innovative, self-conscious and responsible student who can determine a more sustainable development of our society.
Moreover, we acknowledge that developing entrepreneurial skills, attitude, competences and behavior can as such and in turn contribute significantly to the quality of education.

OPEDUCA BusinessClass promotes entrepreneurship inside education, for students, teachers and school management. In OPEDUCA Entrepreneurship is seen as the will and ability to turn ideas into action, to create, to see and manifest something that has not been there before. To boldly go ...

building 'We' through the 'I'

(Global) Citizenship Education

The students’ understanding of one’s own region is seen as a composing part of global society. Therefore the concept expands the working of the various instruments to enable students to study the fabric of society from local to global, learning from educational sources beyond one’s own region, gradually growing understanding of a global reality and citizenship.
Understanding that social consensus on what is considered (un-)sustainable and what constitutes progress can differ across cultures, countries and regions, it is an essential component of ESD to have students experience how objective the ‘knowing’ about these is, if (normative) valuations play a role, how people (re-)act towards sustainability.
Todays' youth are obviously requested to not only understand the interconnected world in which they live and the complexities of the global challenges faced, but also see a way forward and become competent to interact and bring about effective change.