Two Twinning projects for FSS

The aim of the project is to establish the Central and Eastern European Security Cooperation Cluster - CENTREPEACE, based at the International Institute of Political Science at Masaryk University in collaboration with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Aleksanteri Institute at the University of Helsinki (UoH).

“The overall contribution of the research will be to unify threat perceptions across regions in order to promote inter-regional security cooperation. The cluster will also examine whether and how countries in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe can effectively cooperate with third countries or international institutions, including NATO,” said Zinaida Bechná, the project's principal researcher from the Department of International Relations and European Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Masaryk University.

Perhaps you've also found yourself in a situation where you realize your mistake just as it's too late. For instance, when intending to sweeten your coffee, and instead of sugar, salt starts pouring out from the shaker. You know that you won't be able to drink the coffee, not because it's already salted, but simply because the salt has unfortunately started falling.

The HARP (Hopeful and Resilience Perspective in Climate Change Education) project team believes that we have either slept through, or are still partially asleep, on the issue of climate change. Climate change education is a crucial component in awakening and responding adequately to this critical environmental challenge. To put it more precisely, we are already experiencing a touch of the salt of climate change in our coffee.

How can we inform and, above all, educate at different levels of schools about climate change in a way that will ultimately lead to active efforts to address it? How can we assist individuals in coping with the emotions arising from the awareness of the depth of the problem, coupled with the realization of our sleepwalking and the slow societal response to this threat? Furthermore, how are the emotions evolving in individuals whose occupations involve constant exposure to the knowledge that climate change exists and that it will be a significant co-determiner of the well-being of our descendants?

These are questions for which, together with the University of Vienna and Utrecht University, we will seek answers on pedagogical, sociological, and socio-psychological levels.

And what is our goal? To contribute to the development of climate education by incorporating critical feedback and not shying away from evaluating its results. We consider it to be essential that it does not neglect the emotional component of our relationship with the world. Additionally, we aim for Masaryk University to meaningfully and visibly participate in improving the quality of climate change education.

Such effort makes sense to us, and we look forward to it.

On a purely factual level, the project involves the Department of Environmental Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies, at Masaryk University; the Center for Teacher Education at the Austrian Educational Competence Centre for Biology, at the University of Vienna; and The Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, at Utrecht University. The project is slated to last for three years, and we aspire to continue its efforts with additional research collaborations. The project achieved success in a competition that included 173 projects in the Twinning Green Deal call.

Bohuslav Binka