General information and cooperation partners

In 2015, all 193 member states of the United Nations have adopted the "Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development". In doing so, they commit themselves to working towards the implementation of Agenda 2030 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at national, regional and international level. The PPH Burgenland takes up this commitment and has created its own well-equipped organisational unit for this area of responsibility in the form of the Centre for Education of Sustainable Development. It is the only teacher training college (in Austria and in the field of teacher training studies) to have a university garden.

"It is a pleasant business to explore nature and oneself at the same time, not to do violence to either nature or one's spirit, but to balance both with each other by a slight reciprocal influence".

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Learning and teaching, research and enjoyment in the university garden of the PPH Burgenland

After intensive preparations, the construction of a university garden at the University College of Teacher Education Burgenland was started in May 2013. The aim was to create a place of learning integrated into tertiary teaching, which enables interdisciplinary and action-oriented learning. The University Garden of the PPH Burgenland primarily serves as a learning space for garden pedagogy, nature and environmental education and education for sustainable development, but it also creates a stimulating learning space for social learning, health education and global learning.  The concept for the university garden provides for a versatile use of the garden. The individual target areas can be described as follows:

  • The university garden is a learning space for subject didactics, general didactics and human sciences, especially in the field of Education for Sustainable Development.
  • The university garden is used as a learning location in initial, in-service and continuing education for teachers, but also in elementary and after-school care education.
  • The university garden also serves as a recreational area for students and teachers.
  • The university garden serves as a kind of "laboratory" and thus expands the possibilities for research at the PPH Burgenland.

The areas of wilderness, kitchen garden and "green classroom" have been laid out on the approximately 800 square metre site, each of which contains different design elements (e.g. orchard meadow, vegetable beds, perennial beds, scented and medicinal plants or herb corner) due to their respective educational objectives.

In May 2019 the university garden of the PPH Burgenland was awarded the "Nature in the Garden" medal and the long-term cooperation with Uschi Zezelitsch (garden expert, host of garden centred shows on local TV) was announced.

Our seminars in the university garden can be found under the following link in the "further education"-section.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is based on the "Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development", which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. This programme is dedicated to five core concerns, which are also called the "5 Ps":

  •     People
  •     Planet
  •     Prosperity
  •     Peace
  •     Partnership

These core concerns are subdivided into 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), which will be promoted and implemented by 2030. The agenda also includes a commitment to anchor them in national education systems. In Austria the following definition is set out in the strategy "Education for Sustainable Development": "Education for Sustainable Development strives for a comprehensive, future-oriented orientation of education with the aim of enabling present and future generations to live together peacefully in freedom, prosperity and an environment worth living in. The foundations for this are humanistic educational ideals and critical reflection on the realities of life and social conditions. Individual responsibility and maturity play a central role here" (Austrian Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development 2008, p.7).

Further information can be found under the following link.

Global Citizenship Education (GCED)

  •     responds to globalisation by broadening the perspective of political education on world society.
  •     adopts the ethical values of peace education and human rights education.
  •     is based on the world societal perspective of Global Learning, which is not only concerned with global issues, but especially with the connection of the global and the local to the "glocal".
  •     connects above all these three pedagogical directions through the concept of global citizenship as political participation and involvement in world political events.

The initiative Education Above All, a globally active foundation from Quatar, whose goal is to increase the educational opportunities of disadvantaged children worldwide and which also cooperates with UNESCO, defines Global Citizenship Education "as an umbrella term covering themes such as education for tolerance and appreciation of diversity, conflict resolution and peace, humanitarian action, and introduction to the principles of human rights and humanitarian law, as well as civic responsibilties, as these themes relate to local, national and international levels" ( Education Above All 2012 ).

Further information can be found under the following link.