A new survey of teachers in England has found limited coverage of climate change and sustainability in both initial teacher education and continuing teacher professional development – and provides the impetus for change.
These findings, from UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE) are set out in a new report, Teaching climate change and sustainability: A survey of teachers in England. Covering teachers’ practice, professional development and priorities for support, the findings will be of interest to teachers, teacher educators and organizations that support teachers to contribute to society’s transformation to sustainability, as well as to schools as they develop and implement climate change action plans. The findings are also informing CCCSE’s suite of free professional development resources – Teaching for Sustainable Futures – which are being designed for teachers of all subjects and age-phases. The Geography and History modules, for primary and secondary teachers in each case, are ready to access now (see the joining instructions on CCCSE’s website). The next set of modules – English and mathematics – will be available in 2024.
As we discuss in our aforementioned report, if young people are to have access to education that equips them to live sustainably and respond to the climate crisis, an expansive, whole-school approach to climate change and sustainability education is needed. Disciplinary knowledge rooted in a subject-based curriculum is an important part of such an approach. When sufficiently broad, it can provide young people with a range of distinctive perspectives which, when learnt together, can enable them to think critically, empathetically, and imaginatively about the challenges of climate change and sustainability and to envision alternatives. As well as the science, they need to understand interconnected issues, such as climate justice, and be able to apply their knowledge to decision-making and action.
