Elcra Project
ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY IN
HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT FOR
PREVENTING
VIOLENT RADICALIZATION IN CLIMATE ACTIVISM
O Projeto
ANTECEDENTES DO PROJETO
Nos últimos anos, os movimentos ativistas relacionados com questões de sustentabilidade ambiental e a luta contra as alterações climáticas espalharam-se especialmente entre os jovens.
OBJETIVO GERAL
O projeto pretende aumentar a literacia ambiental dos/as estudantes, especialmente universitários, envolvendo-os nas suas comunidades e transformando-os em atores de mudança.
OBJETIVOS ESPECÍFICOS
Compreender o fenómeno da radicalização violenta associada aos desafios ambientais e climáticos, através de estudos qualitativos e quantitativos sobre casos emblemáticos, atitudes e opiniões de estudantes universitários
RESULTADOS ESPERADOS
O projeto irá promover a literacia ambiental dos estudantes universitários, desenvolvendo os seus conhecimentos e competências e criando uma ligação entre eles e a comunidade onde fazem parte e aumentando o seu interesse e conhecimento sobre as questões das alterações climáticas.
O projeto proporcionará aos participantes uma compreensão da complexidade dos sistemas ambientais e sociais e fortes competências de resolução de problemas, através das quais serão capazes de intervir em sistemas com soluções inovadoras e eficazes que contribuem para o combate às alterações climáticas e aos problemas de sustentabilidade ambiental, evitando ao mesmo tempo radicalização violenta.
O projeto promoverá o desenvolvimento profissional dos participantes através da criação de uma comunidade de prática sobre o tema da prevenção da radicalização violenta no ativismo ambiental; o projeto unirá os contributos de diferentes atores (académicos, estudantes, realidades do terceiro setor), potenciando o impacto das ações de prevenção da radicalização violenta no ativismo ambiental e no combate às alterações climáticas.
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