Universal Education Foundation (since 2005 and ongoing)

Type of project/activity:

The EIESP is an operational partner of the Universal Education Foundation ( www.learningforwellbeing.org ) with which we have been working since 2005.

Objectives:

The vision of the UEF is: Learning for Well-being.

Background:

UEF is an international foundation established in the Netherlands in 2004 by Marwan Awartani and Daniel Kropf. The current Chair of the Board is Raymond Georis, one of the founders of the EIESP. The vision of UEF is ‘Learning for well-being’, which emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to education and of engaging children and young people in shaping their learning environments (e.g. in the education system, through media and ICTs and in the health system). The purpose of the Foundation is to inspire and engage people in making learning environments more conducive to the well-being of children and youth. UEF defines well-being as realizing one’s unique potential through physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social development … in relation to self, others, and the environment.

The EIESP joined the partnership of UEF in 2005 and has been involved since then in the development and piloting of the Foundation’s programme. During 2008 and 2009 the work of the EIESP with UEF included building a network of European foundations under the umbrella of the European Foundation Centre. In 2008, UEF convened two workshops, one in Paris (co-organised with the Evens Foundation) and prepared by the EIESP, and another later in the year in Berlin (hosted by the Bertelsmann Foundation) in which 21 representatives from ten foundations in Europe and the Middle East met to discuss how to work together and what concrete actions they wished to undertake with a view to making children’s and young people’s learning environments more conducive to their well-being. In preparation for the Berlin workshop, a survey of 12 foundations was carried out between August and October 2008 by UEF with the EIESP to form a shared baseline of information and understanding about how each other’s work contributes to children’s and young people’s well-being.

Partners:

The current partners of the UEF are: Academy for Educational Development (Washington, USA), Education Development Center (Boston, USA), European Institute of Education and Social Policy (Paris, France), GAID - Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN), International Partnership Network, Madariaga European Foundation (Brussels, Belgium), Media in Education Trust (Durban, South Africa), SYNERGOS (New York, USA), United Nations Fund for International Partnerships, World Education (Boston, USA)

Main activities:

The work carried out with the group of foundations convened by UEF, led to the establishment in 2009 of a Consortium of foundations: ‘Learning for Well-being’. The EIESP coordinates the Secretariat of this Consortium. In 2009, the Consortium supported the first stage of work to develop indicators of children’s and young people’s well-being in their learning environments that reflect their personal (or subjective) perception of how their different learning environments impact on their well-being, on their holistic and positive development. It was a stocktaking report on existing data sets and indicators drafted by Jean Gordon, Linda O’Toole and Gloria Arjomand to provide a baseline of information about the field of child data and indicators to enable the Consortium to have a sound basic understanding that can inform their work on the children’s personal perception of well-being in their different learning environments. In the summer of 2009, UEF convened a workshop on this theme which was hosted by the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation in Brighton and repapered by the Secretariat. In 2010, the Consortium has launched work on a Policy Glossary on learning for well-being that will provide a conceptual and strategic framework and the basis for a common language for policy makers at all levels in Europe. The glossary will be presented at an international conference to be organised in Brussels in 2011.

In 2008 and 2009 EIESP continued to be a member of the core team of the Universal Education Foundation and, in addition to housing the Secretariat of the Foundation, provided support on aspects of design, planning, implementation and dissemination of specified activities in the work programme, taking special responsibility for the European Operations.

Outcomes / reports:

For all the reports available and for more information about the programme of the UEF www.learningforwellbeing.org

Publications:

Jean Gordon, Linda O’Toole & Cheryl Vince Whitman,” A sense of belonging as part of children’s well-being”, Early Childhood Matters, Bernard van Leer Foundation, November 2008, Number 111.

Marwan Awartani, Cheryl Vince Whitman & Jean Gordon, The Voice of Children, Student Well-Being and the School Environment. Middle East Pilot Preliminary Survey Results: Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon, Universal Education Foundation, Fall 2007 (www.learningforwellbeing.org)

Marwan Awartani, Cheryl Vince Whitman & Jean Gordon, “Developing Instruments to Capture Young People’s Perceptions of How the School as a Learning Environment Affects their Well-Being”, European Journal of Education, vol. 43, no. 1, 2008


For more information: Jean Gordon gordon@eiesp.org and Gloria Arjomand arjomand@eiesp.org