This blog is one of a series that illustrate how climate change relates to policy areas covered by each subject committee.
With a remit covering education which encompasses school, college and university settings alongside a wider role around children and young people, the work of the committee covers many areas with implications for greenhouse gas emissions and our ability to adapt to a changing climate. This blog highlights some of the links between climate and the education curriculum, teacher learning and wellbeing of children that fall within the Committee’s remit. A parallel blog considers these linkages in the context of the role of the education estate, universities, colleges and engagement of children and young people.
This blog draws on responses to an invitation circulated around the Scottish Parliament Academic Network (SPAN) to help build our understanding of the links, and associated expertise, in this area.
Climate in national education policy
In 2021 the Scottish Government commissioned Professor Kenneth Muir to provide advice on education reform. His report ‘Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education’ Professor Kenneth Muir noted that:
‘The current generation of learners see climate change as one of the most significant issues facing their futures and, as such, must be recognised as a key driver influencing the future of our education system.’
This sentiment was echoed in the Final Report of the National Discussion on Education authored by Professor Carol Campbell and Professor Alma Harris and published in 2023 by the Scottish Government:
‘Educating for the future also means recognising the major challenges that children and young people in Scotland, and further afield, will undoubtedly encounter. Issues of climate change and global warming were at the heart of many of the discussions we heard….’
Climate change is considered as part of the Scottish Government’s overarching approach to sustainability education set out under the Learning for Sustainability (LfS) framework. Originating from Scotland’s One Planet Schools Working Group established by Scottish Ministers in 2011, LfS is described by Education for Scotland as:
‘an approach to life and learning which enables learners, educators, schools and their wider communities to build a socially-just, sustainable and equitable society….LfS weaves together global citizenship, sustainable development education and outdoor learning to create coherent, rewarding and transformative learning experiences.’
In 2023 the Scottish Government published a refreshed Learning for Sustainability Action Plan ‘Target 2030: A movement for people, planet and prosperity’ with a target ‘To build an inspiring movement for change so every 3-18 place of education becomes a Sustainable Learning Setting by 2030.’ Figure 1 illustrates the four components of a Sustainable Learning Setting and the plan defines a Sustainable Learning Setting as being:
‘about what and how students learn, how the setting manages its physical environment and resources, how staff and learners relate to each other, how they work with their local community and how they reach out to the wider world.’
Figure 1. Four components of sustainable learning settings: curriculum, culture, community and campus.
The 2030 Action Plan refers to the importance of education in the context of several challenges including the climate emergency. The Action Plan drew on engagement with the Children’s Parliament on learning for sustainability and research by academics based at the University of Dundee on the understanding and implementation of LfS amongst young people aged 14+ and practitioners. Recommendations made by researchers spanned from enhancing opportunities for outdoor learning, to providing time and training for practitioners to integrate LfS into their teaching, and appointing an LfS lead in every school.
Teach for the Future Scotland, who describe themselves as a ‘student-volunteer led organisation, which empowers students to change the education system’ have recently stated that climate education is inadequate and that ‘Students aren’t being prepared to face the effects of climate change, or taught to understand the solutions.’
Curriculum
Decisions on the content of the curriculum in Scotland (referred to as ‘Curriculum for Excellence’) and approaches to teaching are a matter for individual teachers, schools and local authorities. Curriculum for Excellence provides a broad framework within which professionals may make curriculum decisions at a local level.
Education Scotland note that opportunities for learning about climate change are reflected across the education curriculum in Scotland. It is also a component of a wider approach to embedding LfS across the curriculum through cross cutting themes of sustainable development education, global citizenship and a commitment to outdoor learning. Education Scotland states that:
‘Climate change and renewable energy are well placed within Curriculum for Excellence as they have been built into the experiences and outcomes as a theme for interdisciplinary learning across the curriculum areas of sciences, social studies and technologies.’
Research undertaken by the University of Dundee to support the development of the LfS 2030 Action Plan identified some challenges and recommendations in how LfS is embedded in the curriculum. These include practitioners reporting a lack of expertise and guidance in enabling them to incorporate LfS through their curriculum areas, a recommendation to standardise terminology and use it throughout the curriculum to ‘reduce confusion and make content about sustainability more explicitly, recognisable and accessible’ and for further work to integrate LfS through the school curriculum.
In their report to Scottish Ministers, published in 2023, the Commission for the Land-Based Learning Review recommended that ‘clear progressive experiences for nature-based learning and climate literacy across all levels of Curriculum for Excellence’ be established. The Scottish Parliament’s People’s Panel on Climate Change also included a recommendation that climate change should be a compulsory subject in the curriculum from primary and into high school with children involved in the development of this.
Outdoor learning
In 2010 the Scottish Government published Curriculum for Excellence Through Outdoor Learning which made outdoor learning an explicit component on Scotland’s curriculum. In 2023 research led by Professor Mannion (University of Stirling) for NatureScot published a report into the provision of outdoor learning in Scotland. The research found that early years’ provision around outdoor learning has increased compared to 2014 but that primary school provision had decreased and that many staff across primary and early years ‘lack confidence in facilitating outdoor learning and Learning for Sustainability.’
Work by the Children’s Parliament to support the LfS Action Plan 2023-2030 recommended that ‘All children should have the chance to learn outdoors throughout the school year’ and ‘Outdoor learning should be part of every school subject.’ Target 2030 Scotland’s LfS Action Plan 2023-2030 committed the Scottish Government to ‘create a new policy workstream on outdoor learning. This work will be supported by a national working group which will report to Scottish Ministers. The Group will be challenged to pursue a range of actions to ensure that all children receive entitlements to outdoor learning in all its forms.’
In June 2024 Liz Smith MSP introduced a Members’ Bill that makes provision for all school pupils in local authority or grant-aided schools in Scotland to be provided with an opportunity to attend a residential outdoor education course.
Professional standards and continued learning
The One Planet Schools Working Group established by Scottish Ministers in 2011 noted that ‘Achieving the ambition for all schools to have a whole school approach to learning for sustainability will require a sustained and coordinated programme of career-long professional learning for practitioners across Scotland.’ This is echoed in more recent research led by professor Lizzie Rushton (University of Stirling) comparing approaches to climate education across the four jurisdictions of the UK. The report highlights the importance of teachers of all subjects and ages being able to access ‘climate change and sustainability focused professional development from the outset and throughout their careers.’
Under the umbrella of LfS, skills and knowledge relating to climate change are reflected in the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s Professional Standards. The standard for teachers states that:
‘As a registered teacher you are required to demonstrate a depth of knowledge and understanding of…the value of learning beyond curricular areas/subject boundaries and of cross curricular subjects, e.g. literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing, Learning for Sustainability and digital literacy;’
The equivalent Standard for Career-long Professional Learning also highlights the expectations on leaders to embrace a ‘robust, demonstratable approach to Learning for Sustainability’.
Climate justice
A number of stakeholders, including several academics, have called for more attention to be given to climate justice as part of our education system. In Towards climate justice education: views from activists and educators in Scotland McGregor and Christie conclude that ‘…. climate justice remains an underdeveloped and poorly grasped concept in Scottish education.’ A programme of work published by the Scottish Universities Insight Initiative on Education for Climate Justice concluded that ‘education on the climate emergency must centre social justice’ noting that this is ‘central to learners’ understanding of the social, cultural and economic causes of, and solutions to, the climate emergency.’ The Third Generation Project, an international think tank based in Scotland founded by academics from the University of Aberdeen and University of St Andrews uses education and research to support social change for climate justice.
Climate anxiety
In 2021 Campaign group Avaaz published their findings of a global survey to consider climate anxiety in children and young people. The survey found that ‘Nearly half of global youth surveyed (45%) say climate anxiety is affecting their daily lives: how they play, eat, study, and sleep.’ The Climate Psychology Alliance express particular concerns about the impact of climate change on young people. The first large-scale investigation of climate anxiety in children and young people globally and their perceptions about government responses concluded that:
‘Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning. A perceived failure by governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress.’
Conclusion
This blog highlights some of the many links between climate change and the education curriculum, teacher learning and childhood wellbeing. Considerations around climate and sustainability sit in the context of a variety of competing policy goals, pressures and demands for schools to respond to alongside the ongoing programme of reform.
Dr Dan Barlow, Knowledge Exchange Manager – Climate Change Scrutiny, SPICe