About the project

The FEDORAS Academy builds on decades of educational research and policy work to respond to one urgent question: How can teacher education better prepare young people for the complex, interconnected futures they are entering?

Today’s education systems face deep challenges. There is a growing misalignment between what schools are designed to do and the realities young people are living through: climate breakdown, digital transformation, democratic backsliding, and new forms of inequality and disconnection.

The FEDORAS Academy is a three-year initiative co-funded by the European Union to regenerate teacher education in response to these realities. It aims to support secondary school teachers by creating dynamic, research-informed, and community-connected learning environments across Europe.

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The foundations

The FEDORAS Academy is not starting from scratch. It builds directly on the insights, methods, and findings of previous European projects, including:

• FEDORA (Future-oriented Education and Democratic Resilience)
• SEAS (Science Education for Action and Engagement towards Sustainability)
• CLIMADEMY (Climate Change, Education, and Democracy)
• I SEE and IDENTITIES, which explored imagination and identity in science education

These projects highlighted the need to go beyond siloed knowledge and create interdisciplinary, future-oriented, and imaginative spaces for learning.
FEDORAS takes these insights further by focusing on systemic change in teacher education, and by embedding its work in real school communities.

The challenge

Across Europe, education systems are under pressure from multiple directions:

• Teachers report burnout, isolation, and a lack of relevant training for today’s challenges
• Students face anxiety about the future and feel disengaged from what they learn
• Schools are often disconnected from local communities and broader societal shifts

The Academy recognises that a regenerative approach to education is needed one that is collaborative, contextual, and capable of responding to complexity.

This work aligns with the European Commission’s GreenComp (European sustainability competence framework) and the Council Recommendations on key competences for lifelong learning.

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The Approach

The FEDORAS Academy works through a research-based, participatory model of transformation. Its core strategies include:

• Co-design: Bringing together teachers, researchers, and communities to develop context-specific educational practices
• Open Schooling Networks (OSNs): Five regional clusters in different countries where innovation is tested, refined, and shared
• ChangeLabs: Local action spaces for experimenting with new practices
• Mobility and exchange: Structured opportunities for educators to share, reflect, and grow across contexts
• Innovative assessment: Tools that track and support deep learning, collaboration, and institutional change

The project follows a design-based research methodology with iterative cycles of action, reflection, and redesign. It draws on boundary-crossing theory (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011) to support interdisciplinary learning across domains and stakeholder groups.

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The Project Structure

FEDORAS is organised across five Work Packages (WPs), each with a dedicated focus:

• WP1: Management – Coordinating activities across countries and institutions
• WP2: Teaching and learning resources – Co-developing and testing educational tools
• WP3: Open Schooling Networks and ChangeLabs – Supporting local engagement and institutional innovation
• WP4: Assessment practices and tools – Researching and designing new ways to assess transformative learning
• WP5: Communication and Dissemination – Sharing insights, resources, and stories with broader audiences