The aim of this project is to develop a Global School Partnership for Sustainability. The project began with a collaboration between Oulun Lyseon Lukio in Oulu, Finland and Ullens School in Kathmandu, Nepal.

In 2009 there was a visit by 2 teachers from Oulun Lyseon Lukio, Dr. Timothy Bedford and Ros Cooper,  to Ullens School to share ideas on a partnership for sustainable development. The process of co-creating a web-based learning environment (SUSNET*) was started to provide resources on sustainable development issues and indicators, transformative pedagogy, media literacy, action research and distance education, as well as teaching materials, courses, and activities within and between the schools.

The web environment connects the teachers and students of the two schools by providing messaging and chat facilities. In addition, the schools have been exploring the possibility for synchronous distance teaching using videoconferencing and whiteboard technology.

Students from both schools have attended a filmmaking course with the aim of producing short documentaries related to sustainability. The documentaries are shared in the web-environment to promote a dialogue between the Nepalese and Finnish students.

The project enables teachers and students to gain more knowledge of their partner country, the South-North relationship and global sustainability.

A process has begun to invite more schools to be part of a Global School Partnership for Sustainability. In May 2011 teachers from 7 schools in Paro, Bhutan attended a Transformative Education for Gross National Happiness (GNH) leadership training course. The course was facilitated by Dr. Timothy Bedford and Rosalind Cooper. By the end of the training the participants had developed a transformative action research plan to implement GNH in their schools. Supported by the Royal Education Council, these GNH seed schools will become a beacon for promoting GNH in other schools in Bhutan as well as engaging internationally in a South-North sustainability dialogue.

In the future small clusters of schools from other countries will be invited to join the partnership, so that eventually there is a group of schools from each continent. The new schools will develop the capacity to implement Education for Sustainable Development/Gross National Happiness, using an action research approach similar to that used in Bhutan.

Schools will also undertake training to learn how to use SUSNET, videoconferencing and documentary filmmaking in international projects with other schools. The schools will then be connected locally as well as  internationally to each other as part of a Global School Partnership for Sustainability. The partnership will provide a means for schools to engage globally and act locally on sustainability issues.

*Note: Access to SUSNET (User account: avisitor; Password: aguest)