Conference EEASA – Mauritius Institute of Education

Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) International

Online Conference 21-24 June 2021

Rethinking Education for Sustainability in an Era of Uncertainty: Opportunities and Challenges

Welcome to EEASA’s second online conference on 21-24 June 2021

Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE) is hosting the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) 39^th International conference on the 21 -24 June 2021.

EEASA’s 2021 Conference is themed “ Rethinking Education for Sustainability in an Era of Uncertainty: Opportunities and Challenges”.

Important dates:	Keynote Speakers
Preconference Workshop – 21 June 2021	Professor Charles HOPKINS, UNESCO Chair, York University, Canada Advisor to the United Nations University´s Global Network of Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD Co-Director of the Asia-Pacific Institute on Education for Sustainable Development in Beijing, China
Opening of conference – 21 June 2021 The Hon Mrs. Leela Devi DOOKUN-LUCHOOMUN Vice-Prime Minister Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology The Republic of Mauritius	Professor Lesley LE GRANGE , Distinguished Professor of Education, Stellensbosch University, South Africa
Closing of conference – 24 June 2021 Hon Kavydass Ramano Minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change The Republic of Mauritius	Dr Shepherd UrenjeProgram Specialist in ESD SWEDESD -Centre for Research and Education on Learning for Sustainable Development University of Uppsala, Sweden
	Conference Convenor Dr Ravhee Bholah Associate Professor Mauritius Institute of Education

The world is facing unprecedented environmental changes which are impacting living organisms including human beings. Climate change, food insecurity, improper waste management and poverty are some of the major global environmental issues and are key components of the sustainable development goals (SDGS). The current COVID-19 pandemic is spreading among global populations and is significantly contributing to the current uncertainties already created. This disease has decimated people and severely affected the various sectors including tourist, industrial and education of most countries leading to various societal problems. COVID19 pandemic has revealed to the whole world the importance for governments, research institutions and more importantly the role of science and technology to collaborate in the struggle against the pandemic and any other disaster. Thus this pandemic is a wakeup call for educational institutions to move forward the SDGs and to rethink education for sustainability. This conference seeks to elicit engaged dialogue and deliberation on the above environmental issues.

Subthemes of EEASA 2021

The sub-themes guiding conference engagement include:

1. Rethinking Education for Sustainability towards SDGs: Formal education settings and systems: Higher Education, Secondary and Primary Education, Technical and Vocational Education and Training, and Early Childhood Education

Revisits educational landscapes and explores how education for sustainability equips learners at different education levels with knowledge, skills, values and attitudes or motivation to shape and create a future that is life-sustaining.

2. Sustainability in Formal and informal Education: Complement or Compete

Explores the opportunities and challenges of collaboration between the formal and informal educational sectors with a view to continue education for sustainability during and post pandemic.

3. Social Justice and Education for Sustainability

Reviews how social justice and education for sustainability are catered for and can work in a synergistic way during the pandemic; and explores ways to ensure that learning continues under challenging circumstances.

4. Green Skills and Sustainability

Discusses how education for sustainability supports TVET and other education sectors in addressing the demand for green skills and also for greening the economy. Also explores how policies, funding and other support mechanims promote green skills.

5. Transformative learning and other pedagogical innovations

Discusses how transformative learning and innovative pedagogical approaches help to advance change towards sustainability

6. Education for Sustainability during and in the post COVID-19 era: role of Science and Technology

Focuses on the role of Science and Technology in the world during and beyond the pandemic and the contribution of education for sustainability.

7. Research methodologies for Education for Sustainability

Reflects on research methodologies adopted to study different phenomena contributing to the advancement of education for sustainability.

8. COVID 19 as a driver for education to respond to the SDGs

Explores how COVID19 acts as a catalyst for transforming education to promote SDGs for a better and sustainable future.

This EEASA conference will also provide a unique platform for environmental educationist, teacher educators, academia, researchers, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders to share, critically reflect and build upon their experiences of environmental education processes related to sustainable development over the last ten years and make recommendations for the future.

1. EEASA 2021 Brochure
2. Guidelines for Abstract Preparation and Submission(Extended deadline of Abstract submission: 16 May 2021 11.55 pm (MUT))
3. Abstract Template
4. Guidelines for E-poster preparation and submission
5. Submissions of Abstract, Short paper, Presentation and Publication
6 Poster: Art Competition
7. Academic Poster for conference
8. Virtual Exhibition
9. Poster Art Gallery (for competition)
10. Results of the Poster Art Competition – EEASA 2021 Int. Conf.

Submission

Submissions of Abstract and Short paper

Participants are invited to submit their abstract (oral, rountable, poster) with 200-250 words using the template provided on the conference website for acceptance before 16 May 2021. All abstracts will be blind reviewed.

The deadline for receiving original short papers (4 pages + references) for publication in the Conference Proceedings will be 30 October 2021. The papers will be blind reviewed. Guidelines for the short paper submission will be communicated after the conference.

Presentations

1. Oral

All Presentations will be for 10-15 minutes followed by 5 minutes for Questions.

1. Roundtable

We are propsing 2 options for the Roundtable as follows:

Option1: Participants who would wish to engage in a Roundtable on any of the 8 subthemes should provide a title within the selected subtheme, a brief of the discussion and the names and a short bibliography of the panelists (maximum of 3) by 16 May 2021 to the conference secretariat on eeasa2021secretariat@mie.ac.mu The session will be chaired by a moderator and the session will be of a maximun of 1h30.

Option 2: The organiser of the conference will propose a title for the Roundtable and will invite potential speakers to debate on the title. The speakers will then submit a short resumé of their contribution to to the conference secretariat on eeasa2021secretariat@mie.ac.mu. by 16 May 2021 and again there will be a maximum of 3 speakers and chaired by a moderator for a 1h30 duration.

1. E-Poster

All e-posters will be uploaded on a special webpage on the conference website.

All participants can visit eposters and access the videos. They can post their questions to eeasa2021@mie.ac.mu The presenter will answer to any queries during the parallel e-poster sessions.

Four Ways to Get Published with EEASA

1. All abstracts accepted for EEASA 21 will be included in the Conference Book of Abstracts.
2. All papers presented at the conference will be published in the Conference Proceedings.
3. Academic articles in the Southern African Journal of Environmental Education (SAJEE)

The SAJEE editors will review and publish selected papers from the EEASA 2021 Conference in the 2022 edition of this accredited, online open-access journal (https://www.ajol.info//index.php/sajee). SAJEE publishes research papers, think pieces and viewpoints. Contributors who wish to have their papers considered for publication in SAJEE are advised to follow the guidelines for SAJEE publication ( https://www.ajol.info//index.php/sajee) to write their papers. Deadlines for submission will be announced at the conference.

Informal articles and session reports in EEASA’s Environmental Education Bulletin. The Bulletin is published online on EEASA’s webpage, and includes informative articles on projects, news snippets, programme updates, letters, reviews of new resources and creative contributions. For more information on the Bulletin, please visit https://eeasa.org.za/home/publications/
Contributors are invited to contribute an article to the Bulletin in a language of their choice. They have to submit their items to the EEASA secretariat on eeasa@eeasa.org.za, copied to Dr Sirkka Tshiningayamwe, the EEASA Bulletin Editor, sirkka.ts@gmail.com, and can do so at any time.

Due to the Covid 19 Pandemic EEASA’s Annual Conference for 2021 will be an online conference. The online Conference is free and to attend this event, click here to register.

All presenters will also have to register for the above online conference and must join the EEASA as a member . Due to the pandemic the membership fees for this year have been reduced.

Once you have paid EEASA membership fees, please email and inform the same to the conference secretariat on eeasa2021secretariat@mie.ac.mu