This article was first published in Winter 2024/25 in Vol 136 of the NAEE journal. The latest Environmental Education journal is available free to NAEE members.

In 2019, the Scottish Government declared a Climate Emergency and asked within its cultural policy to utilise the potential of the arts and creativity to inspire and empower the cultural change needed to transform into a climate-ready Scotland by 2045 (Scottish Government, 2025).

In ‘Target 2030,’ the Scottish Government has set its priorities for education, aiming to make Learning for Sustainability (LfS) central to Scottish Education. This cross-curricular approach includes learners, educators, learning and teaching settings and the wider community. While most commonly associated with schools, LfS is a policy which extends into Further Education (FE) settings in Scotland. FE provision includes National Qualifications alongside school-FE partnerships with an emphasis on widening participation in post-16 education.

In this article, I will describe the impact that embedding LfS in my photography education practice has had on my students’ understanding of the environment and their place in the world as human beings.

City of Glasgow College was established in 2010 with the merger of three established city colleges to become the largest college in Scotland. Delivering a National Qualification in Photography at Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) levels five and six, I found myself able to design projects that embed sustainability concepts throughout learning and teaching.

My learners come from various social, educational and cultural backgrounds. They range in age from 16 to 60+, and as such bring rich and varied lived experiences to the course. Many of them are those for whom traditional educational provision has proved challenging, which is why I am aware of the importance of building a positive and encouraging educational experience for my learners.

The course is project-based, designed to introduce learners to many genres of photography, including developing image and camera control, studio lighting, close-up, and reportage photography. Its design combines constructivism and place-based pedagogy, emphasising outdoor learning.

Combining arts and environmental education forms an interdisciplinary approach to fostering a deeper understanding of environmental issues through creative expression. Roosen and colleagues (2017) discuss how scientific facts do not always communicate effectively and suggest that scientists should look to art and psychology to learn how to share in a way that could inspire change through visual, place-based art. In the current climate and biodiversity crisis, connecting individuals more deeply with the natural world is necessary. Bentz (2020) argues that collaborations between art, science and society create connections between individual life and the larger global context.

City of Glasgow College, as its name suggests, can be found in the centre of the city of Glasgow. I make extensive use of the college and surrounding areas for outdoor learning, thereby challenging traditional conceptions of ‘nature’ as wild and remote, somehow disconnected from the mundane, everyday, urban lives of my students.

We begin the year learning basic camera techniques in and around the campus grounds. I lead demonstration and photography activities in the eco-garden, in the streets around the campus and in some of Glasgow’s famous dear, green spaces. We look for opportunities to engage our ‘hearts, heads and hands’ to identify and strengthen our connection to the world around us.

The introduction to using the ‘place’ of our campus and beyond begins from the first week of the course and is continually developed throughout the year. Learners’ responses vary depending on their past experiences of learning outdoors. A number of my learners are school leavers who lack confidence in artistic exploration outside the classroom but with lecturer and peer support, that confidence can be built relatively quickly.

The support required is often the demonstration of techniques with learners individually, encouraging them to work with the visual elements of the image and supporting them through the process of image-making. By working outdoors through photography, students’ apprehensions are able to be channelled into and through their creative responses. Group work also supports them to engage well within the environment due to the diversity of ages and experiences within the classes, encouraging communication and learning with peers.

Within their projects, I ask that learners focus on areas of sustainability with which they can engage quickly. For our close-up project, we work with rotten food, clothes, plastic, and nature to produce images that can be used in an exhibition to provide a platform to discuss food waste, fast fashion, pollution and biodiversity.

In previous years, learners have included facts and statistics relating to each topic and politely protest by asking their audience to consider their own behaviours. Their learning often involves directly engaging with nature, such as learning composition skills in the photographic medium and recording local biodiversity.

By harnessing the emotive power of the arts, educators and advocates can inspire individuals and communities to reflect on their relationship with the environment, leading to meaningful actions that promote sustainability and ecological well-being. This partnership not only enhances educational experiences but also cultivates a culture of care for the planet.

Outside of research and academia, photography is firmly embedded within our culture, shaping movements and people’s senses of identity. This familiarity enables students to engage with the power of artistic practices to connect emotionally and intellectually with the world around them, encouraging them to look again, look closely and look differently. This close engagement promotes awareness, appreciation and action towards environmental sustainability.

Considering that with the complexity and seriousness of climate change, one possible reaction would be that people may feel powerless that they cease to care about the future and instead live for each day. Ojala’s (2018) research found that young people use more constructive coping strategies when they feel their concerns are being listened to and included in intergenerational solutions.

The conversations that emerged as my students shared their experiences of the city through their art practice offer hope for a constructive engagement with critical issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

Within the setting of the Scottish Further Education sector, engaging students through place-responsive artistic practice can provide spaces for imagination and experimentation, helping to make sense of complex ideas or issues. Bentz (2020) identifies that integrating art-based methods within environmental education can address emotions and create hope, empowering participants to work together to make a change.

Her research found that although there is a wealth of information about climate change, only some effective teaching strategies empower learners to act for change (Bentz, 2020).

Using Learning for Sustainability to guide project design can strengthen learner engagement by encouraging critical thinking through artistic exploration and questioning societal norms. Visual arts can powerfully communicate complex environmental concepts and issues. By transforming data and scientific information into relatable narratives or compelling visuals, artists can evoke emotional responses that inspire audiences to connect with ecological themes on a personal level.

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Contributors:

Heather Richmond is a lecturer in photography at the City of Glasgow College. She is passionate about using visual arts to connect people with environmental issues and to notice and enjoy the natural world wherever they are. Her recent research considers sustainable approaches to photography, using plantbased materials to produce and develop images.