LEARNING TO LEARN
commitments . Teach the Future is asking the Department for Education to review their strategy to include more funding and targets with clear deadlines , which would help ensure that good intentions of the strategy are actually felt by students and teachers on the ground ).
2 . Adoption of a Climate Education Bill by Government
The private members bill was introduced in January 2022 and is currently under review .
3 . Inclusion of the climate emergency and ecological crisis in teacher training and a new professional teaching qualification .
70 % of teachers feel they haven ’ t received adequate training to educate students about climate change . Teach the Future is asking for learning about the climate and ecological emergency to be a substantive and compulsory part of all teaching education courses , from primary upwards , for both new teachers and existing teachers through continued professional development .
4 . Substantial investment for the retrofitting of existing educational buildings .
Schools should be practical teaching and learning resources of how the built environment needs to be adapted to respond to the climate crisis and ecological emergency .
Conclusions
Putting environmental sustainability ‘ at the heart of education ’ means that action is needed on the policies which enable or inhibit schools and teachers from acting in more sustainable ways , and those over which the government holds teachers and schools to account , e . g ., curriculum , assessment and inspection frameworks . Whilst a new model science curriculum is proposed , there are no intentions stated at this point to include sustainability across the curriculum , to include teachers and young people in the design of the curriculum and references to awarding bodies are absent . The recognition of politics in environmental education , and an education that prepares young people to participate in politics , is an important feature of educational responses to the climate crisis and other environmental problems facing humanity . For example , students must develop understanding of democratic politics as a way of handling problems associated with environmental sustainability , but at present they are encouraged to think as individuals rather than as citizens ( Malmberg & Urbas , 2020 quoted in Dunlop et al 2022 ).
All subjects should be reviewed : Mathematics , Economics , Business Studies and Modern Foreign Languages urgently require this level of attention . Ultimately , the national curriculum will have to change because its current iteration has been written for a world that is already in the past .
Environmental sustainability is one priority for education , and this cannot be separated from other societal challenges including racism , unemployment and health and wellbeing . We should not see these as in competition , but as a constellation of priorities which demand our urgent and collective attention . Education needs to play a more visible and active role in preparing young people as individuals , and as a collective , to be able to respond to the major challenges of our time and to participate in the ‘ construction , maintenance and transformation ’ ( Biesta & Lawy , 2006 , p . 65 quoted in Dunlop et al 2022 ) of social and political life . This is consistent with young people , teachers ’ and teacher educators ’ understanding of environmental sustainability as a process of both caring about and repairing environmental and social injustices .
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