Elcra Project
ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY IN
HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT FOR
PREVENTING
VIOLENT RADICALIZATION IN CLIMATE ACTIVISM
Il Progetto
Background del progetto
Negli ultimi anni si sono diffusi movimenti che rappresentano per molti giovani, soprattutto studenti universitari, una forma di attivismo e protesta pacifica legata ai temi della sostenibilità ambientale e della lotta ai cambiamenti climatici.
Obiettivo Generale
Il progetto mira a prevenire la radicalizzazione nell’attivismo ambientale aumentando l’alfabetizzazione ambientale degli studenti universitari, coinvolgendoli nelle comunità di appartenenza e trasformandoli in attori del cambiamento.
Obiettivi Specifici
Comprendere il fenomeno della radicalizzazione legata a questioni ambientali e climatiche attraverso ricerche qualitative e quantitative su casi emblematici, atteggiamenti e opinioni degli studenti universitari
I risultati
Il progetto promuoverà l’alfabetizzazione ambientale degli studenti universitari, sviluppando le loro conoscenze e competenze e creando un legame tra loro e la comunità di cui fanno parte, aumentando il loro interesse e la loro conoscenza delle problematiche legate al cambiamento climatico.
Il progetto fornirà ai partecipanti una comprensione della complessità dei sistemi ambientali e sociali, oltre a una forte capacità di problem solving. Grazie a quest’ultima saranno in grado di intervenire con soluzioni innovative ed efficaci che contribuiscano ad affrontare meglio la sostenibilità ambientale e a combattere i problemi del cambiamento climatico, prevenendo al contempo la radicalizzazione violenta.
Il progetto promuoverà la crescita professionale dei partecipanti attraverso la creazione di una comunità di pratica sul tema della prevenzione della radicalizzazione violenta nell’attivismo ambientale. Il progetto unirà i contributi di diversi attori (accademici, studenti, realtà del terzo settore) migliorando l’impatto delle azioni di prevenzione della radicalizzazione violenta nell’attivismo ambientale e di lotta al cambiamento climatico.
Social
ELCRA
Behind five COIL courses in five different countries lies a piece of coordination that usually goes unseen. In this second interview, Professor David Varona Aramburu of the Complutense University of Madrid explains how ELCRA's COILs were organised. 🎥
A COIL, Collaborative Online International Learning, is the format ELCRA uses to have students from different European universities collaborate online. The training design was led by the project's Spanish research team at the Complutense University of Madrid: structure, duration, student numbers, timelines and content. 📋
It began with a shared opening session, with students and staff from every university involved, to define the aims and structure of the work. From there, the groups collaborated remotely. 🌍
The biggest hurdle? Language: it slowed the early sessions, then was gradually overcome. For most students the experience proved very positive, above all the chance to work with peers from other countries. 🤝
The most telling result is about people: it brought to the fore students with deep commitment, solid knowledge and real communication skills. These are the opinion leaders carrying the ELCRA message further. 🌱
ELCRA is an Erasmus+ project coordinated by the University of Siena to promote environmental literacy in universities and prevent radicalisation in climate activism.
🔗 www.elcraproject.eu
#ELCRA #ErasmusPlus #COIL #EnvironmentalLiteracy🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
@Università di Siena
OpenCom Italy
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
@Uniwersytet Jagielloński
@Socialinių ir humanitarinių mokslų fakultetas, KU
Instituto Jurídico da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra
@Erasmus Student Network Italy - ESN Italia
Erasmus Student Network Portugal - ESN PT
ELCRA
What is a COIL in the ELCRA project?
How do you bring together students from five European universities, have them collaborate remotely and turn them into environmental communicators? 🌍
In ELCRA, the answer is the COIL: Collaborative Online International Learning. In this interview, Professor David Varona Aramburu of the Complutense University of Madrid explains what COILs are and how they took shape in the project.
The mechanism: students from different universities meet online, follow a shared block of training, then organise themselves to develop a joint piece of work and present their findings. 💻
Five were run, one per partner country: Spain 🇪🇸, Portugal 🇵🇹, Lithuania 🇱🇹, Poland 🇵🇱 and Italy 🇮🇹.
Each brought together students of different nationalities, working on a key aspect of the project and turning it into an interactive visual narrative. 🎓
The COILs carried forward ELCRA's MOOC on environmental literacy and surfaced the most committed students, who went on to lead workshops on environmental communication as peer trainers.
ELCRA is an Erasmus+ project coordinated by the University of Siena to promote environmental literacy in universities and prevent radicalisation in climate activism.
🔗 www.elcraproject.eu
#ELCRA #ErasmusPlus #COIL #EnvironmentalLiteracy #ClimateActivism
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
@Università di Siena
OpenCom Italy
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
@Uniwersytet Jagielloński
@Socialinių ir humanitarinių mokslų fakultetas, KU
Instituto Jurídico da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra
@Erasmus Student Network Italy - ESN Italia
Erasmus Student Network Portugal - ESN PT
ELCRA
ELCRA is an Erasmus+ project built on a specific concern: that climate activism, under certain conditions, can shift towards radicalisation. Understanding those conditions — and how education can counter them — is the core of the project. Its COIL programme puts that understanding into practice through five modules, each led by a partner university.
The module coordinated by the University of Siena addresses the most delicate question in the series: how and why does environmental engagement sometimes turn towards violence? Students examine the mechanisms of radicalisation within climate activism, the factors that accelerate it, and the educational strategies capable of interrupting it.
The most concrete part of the module is also its most significant: each international group designs a micro-workshop or simulated educational intervention aimed at fostering forms of climate engagement that are informed, dialogical, and non-violent.
🔗 www.elcraproject.eu
🇮🇹 🇪🇸 🇵🇱 🇵🇹 🇱🇹 🇪🇺
#ELCRA #COIL #Radicalisation #ErasmusPlus #UniversityOfSiena #ClimateJustice
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
Università di Siena
OpenCom Italy
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Uniwersytet Jagielloński
Socialinių ir humanitarinių mokslų fakultetas, KU
Instituto Jurídico da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra
Erasmus Student Network Italy - ESN Italia
Erasmus Student Network Portugal - ESN PT
ELCRA
One of the central concerns of the ELCRA project — an Erasmus+ initiative on environmental literacy and the prevention of radicalisation in climate activism — is the quality of the thinking that underpins environmental engagement. Its COIL programme addresses this directly, with five thematic modules delivered by partner universities across Europe.
The module coordinated by Klaipėda University focuses on critical thinking as a practical skill. In a public debate saturated with competing narratives about the climate, the ability to assess information carefully, question assumptions, and reason independently is not a given — it has to be developed.
Through inquiry-based learning, gamification, and structured discussion, students build the capacity to analyse sources, identify hidden biases, and construct well-grounded arguments on environmental issues that affect everyone.
🔗 www.elcraproject.eu
🇱🇹 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 🇵🇱 🇵🇹 🇪🇺
#ELCRA #COIL #CriticalThinking #ErasmusPlus #KlaipedaUniversity #SocialSustainability
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
Università di Siena
OpenCom Italy
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Uniwersytet Jagielloński
Socialinių ir humanitarinių mokslų fakultetas, KU
Instituto Jurídico da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra
Erasmus Student Network Italy - ESN Italia
Erasmus Student Network Portugal - ESN PT