UMAPAZ spearheading EC Teacher Training Programme in schools of Sao Paulo

Earth Charter Promotion Programme

Since 2007, UMAPAZ* (the Open University of Environment and a Culture of Peace) has operated an awareness raising and education programme in schools of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The purpose of the programme is to promote the values and principles of the Earth Charter within the municipal education network – contributing with the understanding of the sustainability vision and of social-environmental issues. The aim was to engage teachers with this vision in order to have them incorporate these principles as part of their teaching and somehow bring the Earth Charter to all schools in the city of Sao Paulo.

The project involved over 13 workshop sessions held between 2007 and 2008 and engaged 877 participants (teachers or administrators) of approximately 1,300 schools. Each of these sessions involved theory and practices that were used to deepen the understanding of the key themes of the Earth Charter. Many of these participants have been bringing their new skills and knowledge to their schools. Over the past year UMAPAZ have been collecting the results of that and exploring ways to continue this effort.

The enclosed report, in Portuguese, represents a synthesis of the work undertaken.

Earth Charter in Action Course

From August 2009 until January 2010, UMAPAZ will offer a second course on “The Earth Charter in Action”. The main objective of this course is to gather people willing to reflect on the different dimensions of sustainability, to develop their own observation capacity, share knowledge about sustainable urban life styles and generate change.

The course is composed of 120 hours of which 20 of them are dedicated to the EC Basic Module and 60 hours to the Specific Modules on Human Diversity and Sustainability, Culture of Peace and Sustainability and/or Ecological Integrity and Sustainability. The course uses the Earth Charter as its inspiration and structure and offers an opportunity to deepen in the aspects dealt within the Earth Charter. 

Find here more information about this course.

*UMAPAZ functions under the Environment Secretary of the city government of Sao Paulo and this teacher training programme is part of the implementation of an agreement between the Municipal Secretary of the Environment (Secretaria Municipal do Verde e do Meio Ambiente [SVMA]) and the Secretariat of Education (Secretaria Municipal de Educação [SME]) of the city of Sao Paulo to use the Earth Charter as an educational instrument.