In September 2025 concluded an important phase of the ACT4SDGs project “Professionalisation of Academic Teaching to Infuse SDGs in Latin American Universities,” funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ program. The Earth Charter Center for ESD at the University for Peace in Costa Rica is the regional coordinator of this project.
In this phase, a training of trainer process took place within the 10 Latin American universities participating in this project. The objective was to offer to a committed group of professors from these universities the knowledge and skills associated with education for sustainable development, to lead a process of curricular transformation in these universities, introducing the dimension of sustainability into courses in various disciplines. The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and the Earth Charter were used as a framework to clarify the concept of sustainability. There was an emphasis on what transformative learning is and the competencies associated with education for sustainability, such as systems thinking and critical thinking. Teaching strategies associated with education for sustainable development were shared and put into practice, including active participation, interdisciplinary dialogue, and reflection on teaching practice.
Two methodologies called DeCore+ and CARE were shared with universities as tools for curriculum transformation to integrate sustainability into study plans. These tools were created by colleagues from the University of Crete in Greece, who are part of the ACT4SDGs project.
Between February and September 2025, six training workshops were held:
1) Costa Rica: February 3–14, 2025. A workshop was held for all participating universities in this country: University of Costa Rica, National Technical University, National University of Costa Rica, and regional coordination by the Earth Charter Center at the University for Peace.
2) Mexico, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico. February 24–March 3, 2025.
3) Mexico, Michoacan University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo. March 3–14, 2025
4) Argentina: August 11–14 and 18–26, 2025. A workshop was held for the two participating universities in Argentina: University of San Andrés and Austral University.
5) Colombia, EAFIT University. August 25–29, 2025.
6) Colombia, University of Santander. September 1–12, 2025.
Alicia Jiménez from the Earth Charter Center at University for Peace participated as a facilitator in the last workshop at UDES, with the aim of offering content related to the Earth Charter, pedagogy and skills associated with education for sustainable development, worldviews and transformative learning, and whole institution approach for sustainability.
The project’s expectation was to train about 40 to 45 teachers in this first phase, but this goal was exceeded, with more than 150 teachers participating in this training for trainers in all universities.
The next phase is to replicate what has been learned at each university through online professional development courses, diploma programs, and other ways to encourage many teachers to incorporate the perspective of sustainability into their courses.
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