This new report contains recommendations for embedding climate change and sustainability education across the whole curriculum and providing tailored support to teachers.
This report is the outcome of an event held on 16 July 2024 which brought subject associations together to discuss the roles that they, and the subjects they represent, play in climate change and sustainability education in schools. The event was organised by UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE) in partnership with the Council for Subject Associations and the Natural History Museum.
The report's recommendations are:
1. The revised school curriculum should build on the existing subject requirements in geography, science and citizenship that support climate change and sustainability education.
2. The revised school curriculum should identify new opportunities for teaching about climate change and sustainability across the curriculum by including clearly defined and specific teaching requirements in every subject.
3. High quality professional development about climate change and sustainability education is urgently needed for all teachers, tailored by subject and age phase and focused on subject knowledge and appropriate pedagogies.
4. Subject associations should continue to make climate change and sustainability education one of their priorities and be supported to help develop subject specific exemplification and guidance for teachers.
At the event NSEAD represented art, craft and design. The report includes quotes from subject associations and the role each subject can provide. Michele Gregson, general secretary of NSEAD, said:
Art and Design is naturally attuned to emphasising learner autonomy and innovation and solving problems through the application of learners’ own imagination and agency. Not just problem solvers, but problem identifiers. In addition, the freedom of a curriculum that is concept- rather than content-driven provides the opportunity to explore socially engaged practice, the meaning of citizenship, and empathy as a design skill. These are all things that create a sound base for the green skills framework.
Download the report from UCL's Discovery website here
Image: © UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education