Innovation - exploring new paths of education for change

In a world where business-as-usual becomes more and more a road to perdition, innovation has to mean more than doing the same things better. In pursuit of profound systemic changes that are needed for a future worth living for all beings on the planet, Innovation for us means doing other things and doing things differently. It means experimenting with the impossible and extending the horizon of our own imagination.

In terms of Global Citizenship Education, it is an invitation to challenge the narrow concepts of what we think education is, of what we believe change is and even of what we feel we are on this planet. It starts with humbling ourselves that we do not have all the answers and that there are no quick fixes to complex problems. Along with Bayo Akomolafe’s saying, “the times are urgent, we have to slow down!, we feel urged to take a step back, ask new questions and embrace sitting with the discomfort of an unknown future. Being innovative in that sense also calls for being brave, daring to do weird things, failing horrendously – and learning from it. It requires being together, involving everybody with radical love and building connections where there are divides.

How Bridge 47 built innovative capacity

Bridge 47 aims to foster new and innovative approaches to Global Citizenship Education (GCE), being aware that there is more than one answer to how it can be done. Through our capacity building activities we offerd learning spaces and supported CSOs and educational change makers in engaging in meaningful and potentially transformative Global Citizenship Education.

• With our Sub-Granting-Mechanism “Share your Innovations” we supported small innovative educational projects with a grant, accompanied by design thinking coaching and networking with other grantees. We disseminated these approaches to tell many stories about GCE, mainly in the form of Innovation Stories - regular blog posts from our sub-grantees that showcase their innovative projects. All the stories can be found here.

• We invited educational activists from all over the world to embark with us on our Transformative Learning Journey, an intensive 8-month long experiential and experimental training course on transformative education for systemic change, that involved the head, the heart and the body.

• We offered Train-the-Trainer Seminars across Europe catering for the needs in the respective context. The topics were as diverse as the field is, ranging from Decolonial and Critical GCE, Advocacy for GCE, Working with New Target Groups, Creative Civic Action, GCE and SDGs to Theatre and Storytelling as a Method.

• Through many National GCE Events, we sought to reach out to new, unexplored and difficult to reach target groups, experimenting with different appealing formats and locations.

• We also developed an Online Game, trying out the possibility of gamifying educational content.