Mission, Vision and Strategy 2011 - 2013
Presentation
The Educational Environment Act gives all pupils, students and other participants in public and private education the right to a good educational environment. Similarly, the Daycare Act gives all children in day-care facilities the right to a good children’s environment.
The Danish Centre of Educational Environment (DCUM) is an independent, national centre that works to ensure a good educational environment at all educational institutions and a good environment for children in all day-care facilities. A good environment for educational institutions as well as for day-care facilities is characterised by being secure and promoting health, well-being, development and learning.
DCUM was established in April 2002 based on the Educational Environment Act of 2001. With the Children’s Environment Act of 2006, DCUM’s area of competence was expanded to include the children’s environment as well. The Children's Environment Act’s requirements and provisions were written into the Daycare Act in 2007.
The target group for DCUM’s activities is children, pupils, students, parents, authorities and employees in day-care facilities and at educational institutions.
Mission
DCUM will help secure and develop a good educational environment at educational institutions and a good environment for children in all day-care facilities.
Vision
DCUM will be the best known and qualified actor in both the areas of educational environment and children's environment.
DCUM will be the obvious place to turn for help in optimising the educational environment and the children's environment in Denmark.
DCUM will provide in-depth, action-oriented knowledge supplemented by the experience of practitioners.
DCUM will offer tools and methods which can qualify the efforts of day-care facilities and educational institutions to promote a good environment for their primary target groups (children, pupils and students), and which support the educational institutions’ work with the compulsory assessments of the educational environment.
DCUM will prioritise user involvement in its problem-solving via active cooperation and dialogue with the target groups.
DCUM will work to ensure that the terms “A good educational environment” and “A good children’s environment” have definite value as well as a real and inspiring content.
Strategy
To support the mission and specify concrete ways to fulfil the vision, DCUM has prepared four objectives that collectively represent DCUM's tasks according to the regulatory requirements for the centre’s work:
- The centre will provide advice and guidance on children’s environment and educational environment of such quality that the centre will always be the obvious place to turn for help in optimising the environment for children in day-care facilities and the educational environment in educational institutions
- The centre will develop and disseminate in-depth, action-oriented knowledge of rules and practices relevant for a good environment for children in day-care facilities and a good educational environment in educational institutions
- The centre will support the work with the educational environment and the mandatory assessment of the educational environment at educational institutions and with the children’s environment in day-care facilities by providing tools and methods to qualify their efforts to promote a good environment for their primary target groups (children, pupils and students)
- The centre will provide a forum for dialogue about and development of a good educational environment and a good children’s environment in Denmark. To that end the centre will use networks as a strategic tool and make a targeted, relevant and professionally qualified communications effort in relation to its users and collaborators as well as the press.
The concrete realisation of the above objectives reflects a prioritisation of activities and areas of action in relation to the centre's various target groups. The fulfilment and weighting of the four objectives for the centre’s work must – in order to provide a complete and comprehensive picture – therefore be seen over a number of years. For further specification, see DCUM’s annual performance contract with the Ministry of Education.
In the period 2011 – 2013 DCUM will:
- Respond to inquiries from the centre’s users and give advice on matters relating to the educational environment and children's environment, as well as on assessments of the educational environment, or UMVs (see Objectives 1, 2 and 3)
- Support the UMV process through e.g. innovation and qualification of process tools (see Objective 3)
- Continue prioritising the development and updating of www.dcum.dk as the central communications channel in the areas of educational environment and children’s environment (see Objectives 1, 2, 3 and 4)
- Continuously qualify and adjust the centre’s publications (see Objectives 1, 2, 3 and 4)
- Annually publish results from DCUM's electronic survey systems, the Thermometer and the Children's Environment Thermometer. The figures must document the conditions and circumstances in the educational environment and the children's environment, as those are experienced by the pupils/students and the children themselves (see Objectives 1, 2, 3 and 4)
- Initiate quantitative and qualitative studies of factors essential to the educational environment and the children's environment in Denmark (see Objectives 2 and 4) in order to document the actual circumstances and identify the need for new initiatives
- Develop and disseminate methods for specific interventions to promote the psychological, physical and aesthetic educational environments and children's environments (see Objectives 2 and 3)
- Inspire and motivate knowledge sharing regarding initiatives to create a good educational environment and children’s environment through the communication of good examples (see Objectives 2, 3 and 4)
- Hold conferences and seminars on topics relevant to DCUM's target areas (see Objectives 2, 3 and 4)
- Prioritise network participation and operation, when it is deemed to promote the achievement of one or more of the centre’s four objectives
Additionally, DCUM will initiate and implement projects focusing on key elements of the educational environment and the children's environment. The projects must generate new knowledge and provide impetus for the development of new methods and tools to promote a good educational environment in schools and at educational institutions as well as a good children’s environment day-care facilities. DCUM will seek external funding for selected projects when we judge that it may help optimising the projects’ quality and impact.
DCUM’s Mission, Vision and Strategy 2011 – 2013 was adopted by the board on June 17, 2010