International Conference: language education for sustainable development

Dr. Annette Kroschewski, Senior lecturer and researcher,
University of Wuppertal (Bergische Universität Wuppertal),
English Language Education
Research interests (selection):
Global Education: global citizenship, critical global diversity competence,
Education for Sustainable Development: curricula development, material and task design, hackathons in ESD, GE and (Critical) Language Teacher Education,
Plurilingual education, Language Awareness

Gerlach, David & Kroschewski, Annette (2023). Bildung für Nachhaltige Entwicklung im Fach Englisch. Hackathons und Professionalisierung. In:J ournal für LehrerInnenbildung 23(3), pp. 102-109. DOI: 10.25656/01:27979; 10.35468/jlb-03-2023-10

Kroschewski, Annette (2015). From British Diversity to Global Diversity: Perspectives for the EFL Classroom. In: Christiane Lütge (Ed.),G lobal Education: Perspectives for English Language Teaching (pp. 93-126). Wien: LitVerlag.

Kroschewski, Annette (2022a). Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung in curricularer Perspektive. In: Carola Surkamp (Ed.), Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung im Englischunterricht. Grundlagen und Unterrichtsbeispiele (pp. 147-163). Hannover: Klett/Kallmeyer.

Kroschewski, Annette (2022b). How can we make cities and communities more sustainable? Ein Hackathon im Englischunterricht ab Klasse 9/10. In: Carola Surkamp (Ed.),B ildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung im En glischunterricht. Grundlagen und Unterrichtsbeispiele (pp. 210-229). Hannover: Klett/Kallmeyer.

Kroschewski, Annette & Steffen, Ursula (2024). Interdisziplinäre und institutsübergreifende BNE-Kooperationen in der Lehrkräftebildung in NRW im Hochschulnetzwerk BNE: Zur Rolle von Kooperation, Kreativität und Hackathons im Kontext von BNE. In: Gemeinsamer Studienausschuss (Ed.), Newsletter Lehrerinnenbildung an der Bergischen Universität Wuppertal. Nachhaltigkeit in der Lehrerinnenbildung 02/2024, pp. 20-21.

Various aspects of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Education (GE) have been discussed in depth, also in the context of language education (cf. Cates 2004, Lütge 2015, Römhild 2023, Surkamp 2022, Matz & Römhild 2024, to mention just a few who have made highly valuable contributions to the field). Our research addresses not only several of these aspects but also and in particular the relevance of GE and ESD in (critical) language teacher education (CLTE) with a specific focus on using hackathons. There is still a
noticeable gap as far as hackathons in research and English language education are concerned. That is why the focus of our research is on the potential of using hackathons as research and learning opportunities in these contexts.
In this qualitative longitudinal study hackathons are used as a tool in the context of ESD, GE and CLTE. English language students, teachers and teacher educators act as participants and co-researchers. This is ongoing research with several parts that have been completed and parts that are still work and research in progress.
The major findings of the data collected and analysed so far show that hackathons are particularly revealing and suitable in the context of ESD, GE and CLTE. The remarkable value for students, teachers and teacher educators becomes visible. Creativity, communication, collaboration and solution-orientation which are characteristic of hackathons can be analysed in greater depth. Specific aspects of ‘twin sisters’ (Torres 2024) like ESD and critical diversity competence (Kroschewski 2015) or specific SDGs can be analysed in combination with different types of texts used.
Hackathons have proven to be successful and can make a significant contribution to CLTE, curricula, material and task design. This can fill the research gap as far as hackathons in the context of language education for sustainable development are concerned.