Open commentary

Responding to the environmental emergency through education: the imperative for teacher support across all subjects

Authors
  • Kate Greer orcid logo (IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, London, UK)
  • Nicola Walshe orcid logo (IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, London, UK)
  • Alison Kitson orcid logo (IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, London, UK)
  • Justin Dillon orcid logo (IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, University College London, London, UK)

Abstract

The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report sets out sobering scenarios about the future for our young people and appeals for ‘deep, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions’. Although technological responses are essential to achieve these reductions, technocratic solutions alone will not solve the environmental emergency; a widespread societal transformation is needed. Education can play a profound role in this transformation as it is fundamental to building a society with knowledge, skills and motivation to tackle climate change so as to regenerate ecological and social systems. This commentary reflects on multiple dimensions of education’s role, focusing particularly on schools and the important contribution that all subjects can make towards developing interdisciplinary, complex understandings of the environmental emergency and living more sustainably. Drawing from a recent nationwide survey of teachers in England carried out by the UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education, we highlight a troubling lack of engagement in formal professional development related to climate change and sustainability, even amongst a ‘climate change engaged’ cohort of teachers, and the imperative for comprehensive professional learning for teachers from across all subjects and year levels.

Keywords: education, climate change, the environment, knowledge, teachers, professional development, climate

How to Cite:

Greer, K., Walshe, N., Kitson, A. & Dillon, J., (2024) “Responding to the environmental emergency through education: the imperative for teacher support across all subjects”, UCL Open Environment 6(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444/ucloe.1987

435 Views

Published on
24 Jul 2024
Peer Reviewed

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report [1] set out sobering scenarios about the future for our young people, predicting that ‘adverse impacts from human-caused climate change will continue to intensify’ (p. 6). In 2024, UN Secretary General, António Guterres sounded the alarm about greenhouse gas emissions continuing to rise, not fall as is required if humanity is to meet the Paris Agreement target and limit long-term global heating to 1.5 °C [2]. Yet, assessments of the UK’s climate change response are gloomy. The independent Climate Change Committee has highlighted a ‘lack of urgency’ ([3], p. 14) in the UK Conservative Government’s response and an ‘overly narrow approach to solutions which, crucially, does not embrace the need to reduce demand for high-carbon activities’ ([3], p. 13). The mandate for drastic greenhouse gas emission reductions is unequivocal [1] and technological responses are essential. However, a narrow view that focuses on technocratic solutions will not solve the environmental crisis; instead, a widespread transformation which recognises the interdependence of climatic, ecological and social systems is needed [1]. All sectors of society have a role to play in learning how to avoid reproducing the damaging social structures and attitudes that have led us into the crisis, to develop the capabilities to repair the environmental damage caused and to forge sustainable ways of living.

Education, which can be understood broadly and enacted in formal and informal settings, has a role to play in this transformation. Education institutions, including schools, can play a part in greenhouse gas emission reductions that are so urgently needed through energy, transport, procurement and food policies and actions; indeed, according to the Department for Education, ‘schools and universities represent 36% of total UK public sector building emissions’ [4]. Schools can promote more sustainable lifestyles by reducing resource use, reusing and recycling, growing food and encouraging plant-based diets. They can contribute to biodiversity regeneration by conserving and rehabilitating pockets of estate grounds or local landscapes. Such actions, which take leadership, commitment and investment, can position schools as demonstration and learning hubs for students and staff, parents and school communities.

Alongside such practical actions, is the contribution that schools can make towards building a society with the knowledge, skills and motivation to boldly tackle the environmental emergency and respond to the threat of un-sustainability [5]. In broad terms, this first requires recognition of the crisis, followed by both subtle and substantial reorientations across the education system, towards ecologically (rather than economically) centred policies and the promotion of multi-species justice. It requires a shift away from producing and reproducing forms of knowledge and culture that have led to the crisis and are in service of economies that are built on extractive processes, towards diverse types of knowledge [1] and culture that is in service of all species on Earth [6]. This argument will be familiar to environmental education scholars who have long advocated for interweaving socio-emotional and indigenous knowledge with the disciplinary knowledge and skills that tend to be taught in schools.

Classroom teaching is, arguably, the principal site for enacting climate change and sustainability education in formal, school-based settings. Researchers have identified the ongoing prevalence of subject-specific knowledge-led approaches, especially science [7, 8]. In England, where schools are dominated by curriculum, exams and inspection [9], the few direct mentions of climate change in the National Curriculum are concentrated within geography and science [10, 11]. Whilst advocating for broad, expansive educational approaches to the environmental emergency and transformation across the education system, UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE) recognises this as the current context in which schools operate. Therefore, given that immediate responses to the crisis are needed, our principal aim is to support teachers to incorporate climate change and sustainability into their subject-based teaching practices.

The work of CCCSE, which was established in 2022, has been informed by an initial study [12] which identified inconsistencies in the quality and availability of climate change and sustainability education in England, and noted that teachers sought more ‘time, confidence and resources’ (p. 17) to incorporate climate change into their teaching, a finding that is supported elsewhere [1315]. However, little is known about the types of professional learning that teachers have participated in, the types of support they seek, and for whom this support would be most helpful. That is why CCCSE set out to investigate teachers’ perspectives of climate change and sustainability education, with a particular focus on their teaching practice and professional learning, through a nationwide survey (supported by the UCL IOE Strategic Investment Fund).

The results from our initial analysis [16] can be viewed as representing a ‘climate change engaged’ cohort of teachers. We invited responses from teachers of all subjects and phases of education; of the 870 respondents, 81% reported that they ‘sometimes’, ‘often’ or ‘very often’ incorporate climate change and sustainability in their teaching. Whilst the cohort included responses from teachers who taught subjects from across the National Curriculum, climate change and sustainability were reported as most commonly being incorporated into geography and science in secondary settings. This finding is unsurprising insofar as it correlates with how climate change is framed in the National Curriculum; yet it could also reflect teachers’ conceptions of climate change education whereby they are teaching relevant material, without badging it as such. Viewed another way, this could be concerning because climate change, and the broader environmental emergency of which it is a part, is too complex to narrow down to the disciplines of science and geography [17]; all disciplines contain knowledge and skills that can contribute towards developing the complex, interdisciplinary understandings of the environmental crisis and how we can live more sustainably [18]. A constructive response will require creativity, criticality, empathy and knowledge from across disciplines and epistemologies.

Our survey findings are most enlightening when it comes to professional learning which, following Pollard et al. [19], we understand as a broad and flexible concept to describe learning that occurs across the professional life of the teacher, and can include formal professional development activities or episodes (p. 506). We found that less than half of the teachers involved in the survey considered that they had participated in formal professional development related to climate change and sustainability. Of those who had, less than 13% considered that there had been a focus on climate change and sustainability in their Initial Teacher Education, whilst the most commonly reported type of professional learning was ‘self-taught’. The distinct lack of engagement in formal professional development that was reported by our ‘climate change engaged’ cohort of teachers is troubling and merits further exploration, as does the nature of the broader professional learning which teachers undertake.

Confident and capable teachers are crucial to helping young people to understand the Earth as an interconnected system of which they are a part, while developing the agency and capabilities to act for the environment and for a socially just society. That is why, in response to the survey findings, the CCCSE is developing a professional development programme to support teachers of all subjects and year levels to incorporate climate change and sustainability into their practice. The programme – Teaching for Sustainable Futures – comprises free online professional development modules for teachers that include films, activities and resources that teachers can incorporate into their teaching practice. Modules are currently available in history, geography, English and mathematics, with science and creative arts modules in development.

The modules bring disciplinary, everyday and indigenous knowledge together; for instance, in the secondary English module teachers are introduced to a spoken-word poem performed by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, of Marshallese ancestry, and Aka Niviâna, an Inuk woman. Teachers are asked to note their personal responses to the text before reflecting on its potential role for supporting the development of core English skills specified in the National Curriculum. The modules also aim to support teachers explore possible futures with their students; in the history modules, for example, a focus on industrialisation (secondary) and trees (primary) culminates in renewable energy technologies and woodland conservation, respectively.

While the provision of professional development which can support effective classroom teaching is important, CCCSE also recognises the ongoing impact that current assessment and inspection regimes have on teachers’ practice. That is why, alongside Teaching for Sustainable Futures, the CCCSE’s work programme extends to research into climate change and sustainability policy and practice, and national and international knowledge exchange and policy dialogue, with the aim of contributing to advancing effective climate change and sustainability education in England, and further afield.

Open data and materials availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Declarations and conflicts of interest

Research ethics statement

The authors declare that research ethics approval for this article was provided by the IOE Research Ethics committee (REC 1627).

Consent for publication statement

The authors declare that research participants’ informed consent to publication of findings was secured prior to publication.

Conflicts of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest with this work.

References

[1]  IPCC. Romero, J, Lee, H H (eds.), . (2023).  Climate change 2023: synthesis report. Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC, pp. 1–34.

[2]  Guterres, A. (2024).  A Moment of Truth. New York: United NationsSecretary General. Accessed 2 July 2024 Available from: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2024-06-05/secretary-generals-special-address-climate-action-moment-of-truth%C2%A0.

[3]  Climate Change Committee. Progress in reducing UK emissions – 2023 Report to Parliament, Accessed 2 July 2024 Available from: https://www.theccc.org.uk/publications/.

[4]  DfE. Sustainability and climate change: a strategy for the education and children’s services systems. Department for Education. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy/sustainability-and-climate-change-a-strategy-for-the-education-and-childrens-services-systems.

[5]  Stables, A. (2013).  The unsustainability imperative? Problems with ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ as regulative ideals.  Environ Educ Res 19 (2) : 177–186.

[6]  Wals, AEJ; Mathie, RG. (2022).  It takes a whole school.  Am Sci. [onlline] 110 (4) : 244–247. Available from: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/it-takes-a-whole-school.

[7]  Monroe, MC; Plate, RR; Oxarart, A; Bowers, A; Chaves, WA. (2019).  Identifying effective climate change education strategies: a systematic review of the research.  Environ Educ Res. [online] 25 (6) : 791–812, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1360842

[8]  Rousell, D; Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, A. (2020).  A systematic review of climate change education: giving children and young people a ‘voice’ and a ‘hand’ in redressing climate change.  Child Geogr. [online] 18 (2) : 191–208, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2019.1614532

[9]  Gewirtz, S; Maguire, M; Neumann, E; Towers, E. (2019).  What’s wrong with ‘deliverology’? Performance measurement, accountability and quality improvement in English secondary education.  J Educ Policy. [online] 36 (1) : 509–529, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2019.1706103

[10]  Dunlop, L; Rushton, EAC. (2022).  Putting climate change at the heart of education: is England’s strategy a placebo for policy?.  Br Educ Res J. [online] 48 : 1083–1101, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/berj.3816

[11]  Greer, K; King, H; Glackin, M. (2023).  The ‘web of conditions’ governing England’s climate change education policy landscape.  J Educ Policy. [online] 38 (1) : 69–92, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2021.1967454

[12]  Gillow, E; Schwitzer, R; Dorrell, E. (2022).  Teaching about climate change: a report in climate change and sustainability education in schools. Public First.

[13]  Howard-Jones, P; Sands, D; Dillon, J; Fenton-Jones, F. (2021).  The views of teachers in England on an action-oriented climate change curriculum.  Environ Educ Res. [online] 27 (11) : 1660–1680, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1937576

[14]  SOS-UK. Teach the future: teacher training on climate education, Accessed 2 July 2024 Available from: https://www.sos-uk.org/research/teacher-training-and-climate-education#:~:text=In%20February%202021%2C%20the%20Teach,with%20over%207500%20teachers%20responding.

[15]  YouGov. Oxfam teachers survey. YouGov. Accessed 2 July 2024 Available from: https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/i6swtiz9ta/YG-Archive-02012020-OxfamClimateCrisis.pdf.

[16]  Greer, K; Sheldrake, R; Rushton, E; Kitson, A; Hargreaves, E; Walshe, N. (2023).  Teaching climate change and sustainability: a survey of teachers in England, Accessed 2 July 2024 Available from: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/centres/centre-climate-change-and-sustainability-education/teaching-climate-change-and-sustainability-survey-teachers-england.

[17]  Hulme, M. (2021).  Climate change. London: Routledge.

[18]  Kagawa, F; Selby, D. (2010). Climate change education: a critical agenda for interesting times In:  Kagawa, F, Selby, D D (eds.),   Climate change education: living and learning in interesting times. London: Routledge.

[19]  Pollard, A; Daly, C; Burn, K; Fraser-Pearce, J; Higgins, S; Kennedy, A. (2023). Professional learning: how can we nurture career-long reflective teaching? In:  Reflective teaching in secondary schools. 6th ed London: Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 505–522.

 Open peer review from Melissa Glackin

Review
Thank you for sharing the open commentary titled: Responding to the environmental crisis through education: the imperative for teacher support across all disciplines. I understand that this article satisfies the submission category as it provides a short communication of the preliminary results of primary data sets. The data set explored is a nationwide survey of teachers, working in English schools, who responded to prompts related to Climate Change Education.

I appreciated reading, and learning from, this article – it condensed many ideas into an accessible read – no easy undertaking! The rationale for the current work was clear – and I applaud all efforts in the area. The driving aims were also clear: to develop essential and worthwhile professional development for teachers so that they are better equipped to support their students to respond to the environmental crisis. Given this, I just have two queries/suggestions.

First, currently, the survey reports that only 13% of respondents received climate and sustainability professional development as part of their Initial Teacher Education. This figure possibly masks how climate and sustainability content and professional development strategies are understood. Might it be useful to acknowledge what the survey omits and how future research approaches will be required (or are currently being used) to explore teacher’s understandings further? That is to say, as a high number of respondents identified as geographers and scientists, considerations of topics related to, for example, ecological systems (including food chains) and energy cycles (including carbon and water cycles), might not have been badged, or siloed out as Climate Change Education, but might have included, or indeed foregrounded issues of ecological breakdowns within the teaching. Further, professional development is often framed as an activity which is ‘done’ to participants, something that we attend. However, seen in another way, professional development frequently occurs in unplanned situational contexts. This is particularly true, and important to underline, in the preparation of teachers, which is predominantly taking place in schools, alongside mentors. That is, development occurs in more of- the-cuff, reactionary, and informal ways. Here, perhaps to build on and better understand the current findings, interviews might be useful to tease out the ‘other’ less reported, but equally important, opportunities that teachers are undertaking related to environmental issues.

The second point relates to the approaches used within the new professional development programme – Teaching for Sustainable Futures. Given the tremendous amount of work that has taken place in the centre since the original submission of this paper, might it be timely to offer an update as to how the professional development is progressing? This would be particularly beneficial in terms of understanding how teachers are being supported to include in their teaching ‘socio-emotional and indigenous knowledge’ and how their practice is interpreting ‘interdisciplinary, complex understandings of the environmental crisis and how we can live more sustainably’. More within this commentary on this translation from survey to practice would be enlightening and unique – providing important signposting for those in teacher education.

Note:
This review refers to round of peer review and may pertain to an earlier version of the document.

 Open peer review from Heather King

Review
I enjoyed reading this paper and found it to be highly accessible and informative. Whilst short, it develops a clear argument for greater attention to be paid to the professional training of teachers in order to better support learners to meaningfully respond to the climate crisis.

The paper makes a specific contribution and is appropriately supported by the literature. The paper is only 2 and half pages long, and thus the abstract seems a little too long in comparison!

I have a couple of niggles regarding the framing of the brand argument which I develop below, but otherwise look forward to reading an updated version with news of recent developments in the project.


The paper begins by succinctly presenting the crisis which we all face, notes that the current fixation on technocratic solutions are insufficient, and argues the need for societal transformation. The focus then turns to education, but here I found the argument to be phrased a little too dogmatically. For example, the paper asserts that 'humans need to a) learn to avoid reproducing the damaging social structures and attitudes that have led us into the crisis, b) develop the capabilities to repair the environmental damage caused, and c) understand how to forge sustainable ways of living' (page 2). I do not disagree with these points, but suggest that these 'needs' refer to all of humanity, and are not simply the concern of school-aged learners and their teachers - the primary foci of the paper. I would thus recommend that some additional framing be added to acknowledge that school populations (ie young people) are inheriting the crisis and that efforts to build a more just society are not only the responsibility of schools (and indeed that education is not synonymous with schooling). This sentiment is broadly presented in the third paragraph, but more could be done here to segue between the needs for a wider societal response and what can be done specifically to support such a response in schools.

The paper moves on to discuss the limited inclusion of climate change in the National Curriculum and cites an earlier finding that teachers are seeking more time, confidence and resources to address this deficit. Here the authors state that 'the most effective way to reach young people, and to help them develop capabilities to respond to the climate crisis, is through confident and capable teachers' (page 4). Whilst I don't doubt the absolutely key role of teachers, I do caution against placing all the responsibilities for climate change education on teachers' shoulders. Effective classroom teaching is essential, but it is important here to additionally note the role of assessment and inspection regimes in driving classroom practice. These need changing too! Nonetheless, I wholeheartedly agree with the argument (supported by survey findings) that there is a need for inservice training, and very much applaud the authors development of the professional development programme, 'Teaching for Sustainable Futures'. The authors rightly note that such support is needed across disciplines and arguably should be creative, critical and empathetic.

Notably, the original paper was written in 2023 when many of the programme's resources were still in development. It will be important for the updated paper to report on which resources are now available and also, if possible, provide some insights on how they are being used by teachers, and how young people are responding. Such insights will be useful in helping us to understand the ways in which schools, as one type of education institution, can champion societal transformation.

Note:
This review refers to round of peer review and may pertain to an earlier version of the document.

 Open peer review from Efram Eilam

Review

Review text

This review is provided by Efrat Eilam, Associate Professor, Institute of Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities Program of Arts and Education, Victoria University, Australia  

 

The commentary entitled “Responding to the environmental crisis through education: the imperative for teacher support across all disciplines” briefly describes some survey findings among ‘climate change engaged’ cohort of teachers. The commentary further describes future plans by UCLs Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE) for advancing this educational field.

This commentary adds valuable contribution to the field by highlighting critical gaps in CCCSE implementation and in teacher professional development, and by outlining a path forward.

To further improve the clarity of the commentary and the coherency of the rationale, I would like to make the following suggestions:

Concerning clarity, please provide some more information concerning the surveyed sample, including the teachers’ areas of specialisation and Year Levels. Another point that requires some clarification is in relation to the following quotes: “Amongst this cohort, climate change and sustainability were most commonly incorporated into geography and science in secondary settings” (p. 3); and “this distinct lack of engagement in formal PD, even amongst our ‘climate change engaged’ cohort of teachers who are mostly teachers of geography and science, is troubling” (p. 3). The two statements seem tautological. If most of the survey respondents were geography and science teachers, one would expect that the findings collected from this cohort will indicate that CC is taught primarily in science and geography. Consequently it seems inappropriate to conclude that CCCSE is addressed mainly in geography and science, if other specialist teachers were not sufficiently represented in the sample

Concerning the coherency of the underlying rationale, some of the underlying assumptions need substantiation. Paragraph 2 focuses on describing the role of education as institutions for solving climate change. Here, education is conceived as institutions that work for the purpose of energy conservation. From an education perspective this approach conveys a behaviorist approach to education, where the focus of education is on the end-goals of emission reduction, rather than on the process of education. Gert Biesta (2022) criticized learning outcomes based on behaviour modification, where

… instead of asking what the schools should “do” for society—which seems to have become the most prominent way in which the task of the school is nowadays being conceived—I ask what society should “do” for the school so that the school can be a school (Biesta, 2022, p. 9).

Additionally, Jorgenson et al. (2019) have addressed the behavioural aspect in CCCSE from the perspective of its efficacy. Both forms of critique seem to me worth considering.

Another undiscussed assumption concerns the need to include CCCSE across the curriculum. To substantiate such a taken for granted assumption, there is a need to examine both empirical evidence (what is the evidence that students may study CCCSE better when the topic is taught across the curriculum?) and the theoretical underpinning of the assumption (What epistemic theories support this approach?). Personally, I have not yet seen empirical evidence that support the cross-curriculum approach, often referred to as ‘a whole school approach’. The evidence is mixed at best (please see Niebert, 2019). From the perspectives of theories of learning, some evidence suggests that fragmentation of concepts across various learning areas may hinder conceptual development due to extraneous cognitive load (e.g. Sweller et al., 2019).

The following statement seems to tackle the question of evidence in the following way: “While the knowledge and skills contained within the disciplines of geography and science are important, teaching scientific facts alone can exacerbate eco-anxiety (Ojala, 2016; Rousell & Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, 2020) which is why teaching across the curriculum is needed” (P. 3).

Firstly, concerning the statement that “teaching scientific facts alone can exacerbate eco-anxiety”, the evidence points to the contrary (please see Zacher & Rudolph, 2023; and Asgarizadeh et al., 2023).

Secondly, the statement presents the unsubstantiated assumption that geography and science teach facts alone. This is far from being correct. Science Educating has been advocating the incorporation of social aspects through various approaches from as early as the 1960’s, with the most recent iteration of this approach, expressed in the ‘Socio Scientific Issues’ approach (Sadler et al., 2006; Zeidler & Newton, 2017). Consequently, the explanation as to why CC needs to be taught through a cross curriculum approach is lacking in factual evidence and theoretical basis.

To summarise, the important work conducted by UCLs Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE) may be enhanced through critical examination of taken for granted assumptions, and by deepening the evidence-basis of approaches to implementation.

References

Asgarizadeh, Z., Gifford, R., & Colborne, L(2023). Predicting climate change anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 90, 102087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2023.102087

Biesta, G. (2022). World-centred education: A view for the present. Routledge.

Jorgenson, S. N., Stephens, J. C., & White, B. (2019). Environmental education in transition: A critical review of recent research on climate change and energy education. Journal of Environmental Education, 50(3), 160–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2019.1604478

Niebert, K. (2019). Effective sustainability education is political education. On_Education Journal for Research and Debate, 2(4). http://10.17899/on_ed.2019.4.5

Sadler, T. D., Amirshokoohi, A., Kazempour, M., & Allspaw, K. (2006). Socioscience and ethics in science classrooms: Teacher perspectives and strategies. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43, 353–376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/tea.20142

Sweller, J., van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Paas, F. (2019). Cognitive Architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later. Educational Psychology Review 31, 261–292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09465-5

Zacher, H., & Rudolph, C.W. (2023). Environmental knowledge is inversely associated with climate change anxiety. Climatic Change, 176(32). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03518-z

Zeidler, D. L., & Newton, M. H. (2017). Using a socioscientific issues framework for climate change education: An ecojustice approach. Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315629841



Note:
This review refers to round of peer review and may pertain to an earlier version of the document.