Engaging with the SDGs in British schools

Our Webwatch post on Wednesday featured some of the ideas of Harriet Marshall about the sustainable development goals in the curriculum.  In particular, we featured her propositions that the SDGs can …

• bridge subject divides
• help schools reflect upon what they do and why
• be ways of addressing controversial and complex local, national and international issues
• engage parents as well as communities and businesses
• be motivational for teachers and provides respite from a perceived performance, exam and target-based culture
• map onto core 21st century skills
• provide space for creativity and innovative practice in school curricula and pedagogy
• be useful tools for supporting Key Stage and Primary – Secondary school transition
• enable partnerships and understanding between teachers at local, national and global levels.

In a further post, [on teachesd.org ] Harriet builds on this analysis (of purpose) with reference to work in England.  In this she specifically addresses practice and identifies five common themes:

1. the SDG framework is often used as the starting point to engage students, school leaders, and other staff. …
2. the core values of the SDGs are often linked to schools’ pre-existing values and ethos statements. …
3. the idea of a global learning ‘journey’ is often at the heart of approaches to engagement with the SDGs in schools – especially those that build in models of behaviour or attitudinal change, and knowledge development. …
4. the the SDGs provide a useful framework for bringing in more complex or controversial local or national issues into the classroom. …
5. many methods of engagement with the SDGs in schools are aligned to critical thinking and the need to promote associated pedagogies like critical literacy and critical numeracy. …

Harriet then summarises what she sees as six successful models of SDG practice taking place across UK Primary, Middle and Secondary schools.  In short, these are:

1. Whole school awareness-raising with class or year groups
2. Whole school engagement seeing all goals as interlinked, with focus on action & innovation
3. Linking to other global learning activities and outside organisations
4. Student ambassadors working inside and outside of school 
5. National Curriculum and subject-focused work
6. Focus on teacher global learning journey & CPD.

Her article concludes with a number of ‘key ingredients for successful SDG practice’.   There’s much more to read about all this, so click here.