In a recent post to the British Educational Research Association [BERA] blog, Lynda Dunlop and Lizzie Rushton write about the place of education in the government’s draft sustainability and climate change strategy.
They begin:
“Recent research on climate change education in England indicates an absence of policy and pro-environmental ambition, and obstruction in relation to both environmental sustainability in general, and climate change specifically (Greer et al., 2021). At present, scant attention is paid to climate change and environmental sustainability in the national curriculum, Ofqual subject content, the education inspection framework, the initial teacher training core content framework and the early career framework. This contrasts with international commitments to, for example, target 13.3 of sustainable development goal 13 (‘build knowledge and capacity to meet climate change’ [sdg-tracker.org, no date]),and the conclusions of the meeting of environment and education ministers at COP26 (2021) which included commitments to the integration and mainstreaming of sustainability and climate change into policy – including policies relating to curriculum, teacher education, assessment and teacher education. …”
They then draw on their work for BERA last year which resulted in A manifesto for education for environmental sustainability to note that:
“In the draft strategy, climate change and sustainability education is positioned predominantly within the science and geography curricula, and ‘more knowledge’ is presented as the solution (DfE, 2021). By contrast, and in keeping with recent systematic reviews in the field (Monroe et al., 2019; Rousell & Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, 2020), the Manifesto for Education for Environmental Sustainability calls for knowledge for action, alongside the development of young people’s capabilities to question, think critically, be data- and research-literate, to be creative and innovative and enabled to communicate and build networks to take action. It also calls for students to have time to think and learn about climate change and sustainability across subject areas – and to do this collaboratively (BERA Research Commission, 2021).”
They conclude that:
“In the action area dedicated to ‘climate education’ the DfE’s draft strategy (2021) repurposes and reframes existing policy, presenting action on sustainability and climate change as choices, and introduces few fundamental changes. Responsibility for climate education is placed in the hands of science teachers, without an enabling policy environment to provide the time and resources needed to reorient practices and priorities, and to take forward existing work in this area. … As such, the draft strategy is at risk of becoming a ‘placebo policy’ – one which appears to do something, but fails to address the fundamental problem – leaving teachers and young people no better equipped to deal with the climate crisis.”