The idea to establish cooperation between the Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE) and State School of Higher Education in Chelm (SSHEC) was born in May 2012 when representatives of the two institutions met during the 10th JTEFS/BBCC conference in Savonlinna, Finland.

On 8 May 2013 the Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE) welcomed visitors from the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland. The delegation, whose trip to Daugavpils University was supported by Erasmus staff mobility framework, was led by the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Malgorzata Suswillo. The visitors discussed current educational issues with ISE staff and described the practice of teacher training at the Faculty of Social Sciences in their university. The prime asset of the University of Warmia and Mazury is its capacity to offer prospective educators an exceedingly broad spectrum of specialisation which includes early childhood education, social work, special education, rehabilitation and exceptional education as well as school pedagogy with elements of entrepreneurship. The research direction pursued by the faculty is tied to appraising the ways in which Polish education system raises to meet the complex challenges inherent in systemic, global changes of the modern times. ISE staff highlighted the orientation towards sustainability as a way in which education can be remodelled to respond to these transformations.

On 18-19 April 2013 Professor Ilga Salīte attended an international conference “Education for Sustainable Development in the Local Polycultural Education Area” which was hosted by Pskov State University in Russia. In acknowledgement of her renowned expertise in researching the sustainability of education, a formal invitation to deliver a keynote speech at the conference had been issued to Professor Salīte by the Faculty of Education and Social Technologies of the host university and endorsed by its rector.

On 17-18 April 2013, SWEDESD network celebrated another episode in the series of efforts spearheaded by this organisation to promote education for sustainable development across Scandinavia and the Baltics. In close association with the Embassy of Sweden (spokesperson Ms Gaļina Aizvakara) and the Centre for Sustainable Business at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (delegate Ms Maija Kāle), SWEDESD hosted a seminar on education for sustainable development to a cohort of fifty stakeholders that included teachers of all subject areas and school administrators from all regions of Latvia. The Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE) was represented by its director associate professor Dzintra Iliško who shared the institute’s expertise with the educators present.

The highlight of the weekend of 23-24 March 2013 at Daugavpils University was first-year Master students of education (programme director ISE researcher Eridiana Oļehnoviča) having their second intensive learning session in the study course “Theoretical foundations of environmental and sustainable education” delivered by guest lecturer Dr Nick Clough from Bristol, UK. 

On 14 March 2013 Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE) was proud to host an academic discussion with delegates from College Capital Blaagaard-KDAS in Denmark. Associate professors Eva Roenn, Birgitte Henriksen and Helge Kastrup’s visit to Daugavpils University (DU) was financially supported by ERASMUS Lifelong Learning Programme.

Institute of Sustainable Education in cooperation with the Centre for Sustainable Business at SSE Riga invited teachers and other educational staff to attend the conference “Education for sustainable development” which was held, for the first time in the Baltics, on 21 and 22 February in Riga. The objective of the conference was to promote debate on how to efficiently integrate the principles of sustainable development in the content of training of educational curricula.

During 5-8 February 2013, the Institute of Sustainable Education was represented at the 5th World Conference on Educational Sciences. The fifth edition of this landmark scientific forum was held in Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. Ever since its inception in 2009, the conference aims to bring together educational researchers, administrators, teachers and other experts as well as graduate students and NGO representatives to discuss pressing educational concerns and share their insights on ways to spearhead new developments in the field. 

Crucially, discussions at conferences such as this, however valuable in terms of lessons learned for direct participants, cannot remain just that. A follow-up with a broader outreach is a vital component in the life-cycle of any conference so that key insights arrived at can be communicated to stakeholders beyond immediate attendees.

In the course of her academic career, Professor Ilga Salīte has displayed outstanding achievement in science. Her invaluable contribution to the researching and advancement of teacher education and education for sustainable development both in Latvia and abroad has long gained global recognition.

On 25-27 November 2012 Kaunas Technological University hosted a partners' meeting in the project "Synergetic approach with eLearning, TV and mobile technologies to promote new business developments", shortly known as eBig3. Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE) implements this project jointly with Riga Technical University (lead partner), Liepaja University, Latvia University of Agriculture, Kaunas Technological University, Siauliai University and Utena Labour Market Training Centre. The project is funded by Latvian-Lithuanian cross-border cooperation programme 2007-2013. It aims to promote technologically facilitated learning that would contribute to the development of entrepreneurship in the Latvia-Lithuania borderland. The unique input of the project is tapping into the complementarity of computer-assisted e-learning with TV and mobile communication technologies. Thus, the project suggests an innovative solution to the challenge of learner recruitment and subsequent retention which is often evident in high dropout rates in traditionally implemented e-learning courses.  

BBCC president professor Ilga Salīte and director of the Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE) associate professor Dzintra Iliško participated in the 3rd international conference "Baltic Sea Strategy: Regional Co-operation, Tourism and Cross-Sectoral Initiatives for Sustainable Development of the Baltic Region" held on 22-23 November in Riga, Latvia.

 During 13-15 November 2012 professor Ilga Salīte visited the Qatari capital city of Doha to participate in the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE 2012). Vice-President of Education of the Qatar Foundation, His Excellency Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, PhD, had extended a personal invitation to professor Salīte to attend the global educational forum in her capacity of the president of BBCC (Baltic and Black Sea Circle Consortium in Educational Research).

On 7 November 2012 Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE) welcomed a group of faculty from Siedlce University of Natural Science and Humanities in Poland, Siedlce. The Polish delegation was made up by representatives from the University's Institute of Pedagogy (Faculty of Humanities): Dr Ewa Brodacka-Adamowicz, Dr Alicja Antas, Dr Sergiy Nikitin and Dr Beata Trebicka-Postrzygacz.

We are proud to announce the beginning of online registration for the 11^th international conference "Sustainable Development. Culture. Education" organised by Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability (JTEFS) (http://versita.com/science/education/jtes/) and Baltic and Black sea Circle Consortium in educational research (BBCC) (www.ise-lv.eu). All those willing to participate in this educational forum, which every year aims to bring together researchers and practitioners dedicated to making the vision of United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014 a reality, are welcome to submit their online registration proposals on conference website http://young-mind.ru/en/reg.php Registration and abstract submission will be open till 15 January 2012. 

Recently director of the Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE) associate professor PhD Dzintra Iliško and professor Dr.paed. Ilga Salīte attended the global SWEDESD conference "The power of ESD: Exploring evidence and promise", which was held in Visby (Sweden) on 24th-26th October 2012. The forum brought together practitioners of formal, non-formal and informal education, researchers of education for sustainable development (ESD) and policy makers from all parts of the world. The participants represented the Baltic Sea region (Sweden, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Belarus) as well as more distant countries such as Switzerland, France, Austria, Ukraine, Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, Nepal, Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Uganda and Nigeria. The conference was structured in 24 seminars and 10 workgroups, and provided a valuable opportunity for all in attendance to discuss key issues in educational research and practice, evaluate transformations in educational policy and review current changes in education directed towards its orientation to sustainable development.

This year, the end of October is a busy and exciting period at Daugavpils University - it is the week of the 7th annual Science Fair. As always, Institute of Sustainable Education (ISE) takes active participation in the various Science Fair events which, this time, run under the umbrella topic of Energy. Most notably, on November 29 ISE hosted an interactive presentation session "The energy of sustainable values in international projects: Green spiritual energy and collaborative energy efficiency". During the session, all those in attendance could learn about the experience of ISE staff in the management of and participation in a number of international projects that seek to bring together inspiration, innovation and initiative from both near and far to search for sustainable solutions to issues of immediate concern for individuals, communities and ecosystems.

On October 17, 2012, within the UNESCO week the Institute of Sustainable Education was invited to share its vision and experience and participate in the presentation of UNESCO report on global monitoring 2012 „Youth and Skills" which was combined with reporting on the progress in reaching the goals of "Education for All" that were set forth at the Dakar forum in 2000.

On October 3-4, 2012 the Institute of Sustainable Education (Daugavpils University) attended the partner seminar within the Latvia-Lithuania cross-border cooperation programme (2007-2013) project "Synergetic approach with eLearning, TV and mobile Technologies to promote new business developments - eBig3" which was held in Siauliai (Lithuania). The project is lead by Riga Technical University and it involves six universities from Latvia and Lithuania as well as a labour market training centre.

Professor of the Institute of Sustainable Education Ms Ilga Salīte attended a European experts’ conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) which was held at the University of Bern (Switzerland) on 3-4 September 2012. The conference was focused on analysing indicators for ESD.

In the middle of June 2012 Daugavpils University had the pleasure to host a meeting of seven educational institutions from Latvia and Lithuania who for the second year running cooperate within the project "Synergetic approach with eLearning, TV and mobile technologies to promote new business developments", also known as eBig3. The project builds on three complementary, technologically-grounded ways of learning: (1) eLearning via computer and/or Internet, (2) tLearning via television and (3) mLearning via mobile devices. An integration of these three modes of learning in an innovative cross-media learning system will support already familiar Interned-based learning solutions.

We are proud to announce the 11th international conference "Sustainable Development. Culture. Education" of JTEFS/BBCC (Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability /Baltic and Black Sea Circle Consortium in Educational Research) and UNESCO Network on Reorienting Teacher Education to Address Sustainability.

The first week of June was marked at the Institute of Sustainable Education by a visit from Dr Dasha Bargova representing the Faculty of Pedagogy (Civic Education Department) of Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia).

16-20 May 2012, York University, Toronto, Canada

During the fourth week of May, York University in Toronto played host to an international forum which already for the seventh time brought together delegates from the global network of teacher education institutions. This network is bound with strong ties to the UNESCO Chair on reorienting teacher education to address sustainability, established in the year 2000 at the university which now had the honour to become the venue for the seventh bi-annual meeting of network members.

On April 17-18 2012, within the framework of ERASMUS lifelong learning programme, Daugavpils University was visited by a delegation from the State School of Higher Professional Education in Plock (Poland). The group was led by the school’s vice-rector for studies doc. Dr Jan R. Kalinowski; among other delegates were institutional Erasmus coordinator Monika Fronczak, inter-faculty Erasmus coordinator Michal Panowski, lector Liliana Tomaszewska and public relations manager Agnieszka Grazul-Luft. The guests discussed the possibility of signing and inter-university agreement which would exantail organisation of joint conferences and seminars, joint publications, student and faculty exchange and creating joint practice placements for students.

University of Eastern Finland, Savonlinna, Finland

We are proud to announce the 10th international conference "Sustainable Development. Culture. Education" of JTEFS/BBCC (Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability/Baltic & Black Sea Circle Consortium in Educational Research) and UNESCO Network on Reorientation of Teacher Education towards Sustainability.
The first conference took place at the Daugavpils University in 2003 and it was closely intertwined with the establishment of the European Network of the UNESCO/UNITWIN project. From 2004 to 2011 the Conference was organized by the members of BBCC – Tallinn Pedagogical University (Estonia), Vechta University (Germany), University of Helsinki (Finland), University of Debrecen (Hungary), Anadolu University (Turkey), Daugavpils University (Latvia), UNESCO (Paris) and Siauliai University (Lithuania).
The association "Education for Sustainable Development" established in 2007 by the Institute of Sustainable Education (Daugavpils University, Latvia) will work in close cooperation with the host universities to ensure the successful work of the Conference.
Preliminary list of host universities and organizations: University of Eastern Finland (Finland), Daugavpils University (Latvia), Tallinn University (Estonia), University of Vechta (Germany), University of Debrecen (Hungary), Institute and Academy for Multimedia (Slovenia), Siauliai University (Lithuania).
All those institutions who feel that they can contribute to the making of the 10th JTEFS/BBCC conference are welcome to send in their proposals to the president of BBCC network prof. Ilga Salīte. The list of host universities and organizations will thus be complemented by and by as our other partners send in their proposals for co-hosting the Conference.

 On December 19, 2011 at the Faculty of Education and Management and Institute of Sustainable Education an open meeting was held in honour of the 20th anniversary of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO and the 90th anniversary of Daugavpils University. During the event the newest issues of the scientific journals of the Institute of Sustainable Education were presented: “Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability” (included in data bases Scopus, CABI, Educational Research Abstracts Online (ERA), The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (CEJSH), Higher Education Abstracts) and „Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education”. The students and candidates for the scientific degree of the doctoral study programme ‘Pedagogy” presented the results of their recent research. The event was also highlighted by the demonstration of a video prepared within the Year of Ethics of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO.

From September 11-23, 2011 the associate professor of DU Institute of Sustainable Education Inga Belousa participated in the international summer school “Implementation of Sustainability into Research and Teaching of Higher Education Institutions in Eastern Europe” which was held in Lüneburg, Germany. The summer school was organised by the Institute for Environmental and Sustainability Communication (INFU) of the Leuphana University Lüneburg and UNESCO Chair "Higher Education for Sustainable Development".

BBCC Mission – Reorientation of Teacher Education and Research in Education for Sustainable Development
May 18-21, 2011

Siauliai University, Lithuania

On February 11, 2011, Mr Alexander Leicht, Head of the Secretariat for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development from German National Commission for UNESCO, visited Daugavpils. He was accompanied by Ms Baiba Moļņika, the Education Programme Director of Latvian National Commission for UNESCO.
UNESCO officials attended an academic discussion at the Institute of Sustainable Education where future cooperation opportunities between UNESCO and the Institute of Sustainable Education were considered. One of the highlights of the meeting was the presentation of the book “Tomorrow Today” issued by UNESCO in November 2010 and containing the best practices of implementing the aims of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), including the story of the experience of the Institute of Sustainable Education.