by Franz Rauch & Diana Radmann (Klagenfurt University, Austria)

Franz Rauch introduced PARRISE to the Scientific Board of OEKOLOG members at the OEKOLOG Conference, which took part from 10-12 November, at Graz. His presentation included general information about PARRISE like what does PARRISE stand for, the objectives of the project as well as some facts about the PARRISE consortium. During his presentation he also distributed the local PARRISE brochure.

The Board of OEKOLOG members consist of regional representatives from all of the 9 Austrian provinces. They transfer relevant projects, topics and results within their local networks, which consist of provincial school boards, colleges of education, environmental departments of provincial governments, NGOs, etc. At that event around 20 people were present.

What is OEKOLOG? OEKOLOG is the first and the main Austrian programme for schools at the interface of Environmental Education and school development. It is a contribution to the UN-Decade of Education “Education for sustainable development in Austria”, initiated and supported by the Ministry of Education. 456 schools, 118.000 pupils, 14.000 teachers and 6 Colleges of Education (Pädagogische Hochschulen) are members of the Eco-School-Network.

The aims of the Eco-School-Network are:

• to offer a platform for information, communication and continued exchange of experience

• to ensure visibility of achievements by disseminating good-practice examples via the homepage, newsletter, as well as awards for pupils, etc.

• to offer relevant support like teacher training courses, consultation, materials, etc.

PARRISE was also presented at the regional network meeting, which took part from 6-7 November 2014 at Bad Gastein (Salzburg). The presentation was delivered by Franz Rauch, and Peter Holub, who is the teacher network coordinator of the University of Teacher Education in Carinthia, in the PARRISE project.

Thirty-one participants from the regional IMST-Networks, regional Didactic Centres, institutions who were rewarded with the “Regional Educational Competence Centre”- label, were present at that event.

The presentation included general information about PARRISE as well as  the goals of the project. During the presentation the local PARRISE brochure was shared with all participants.

For more Information: www.oekolog.at, www.imst.ac.at