ARTICLE: Bridging the gaps: new report calls for inclusive climate and sustainability education for all learners
Last month saw the launch of a new report, Climate Change and Sustainability Education in additional learning needs and alternative provision settings.
To celebrate, and to create space for dedicated discussion of this oft-neglected topic, the report’s authors – Shannon O’Connor, Dr Jennifer Rudd, Dr David Thomas, and Bryony Bromley – hosted a one-day conference at Swansea University.
The report and the discussions on the day highlighted how poorly Additional Learning Needs (ALN)i learners are catered for by the Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCSE) community, a point also raised during the Q&A of our recent Webinar.
The CCSE community is waking up to this gap in provision, as is the BBC, and it is something we have been grappling with at Global Action Plan in recent years. We always aim to include all young people in our programmes and, simultaneously, we are regularly asked and encouraged to do so by settings, teachers, and learners. We have made a lot of progress; but we want to progress further.
O’Connor et.al. conducted qualitative interviews and questionnaires with 26 education settings in Wales, but the findings will resonate across the UK, and likely around the world. The report details four issues that require immediate attention to improve not just access to, but also the quality of, CCSE provision for ALN and SEND learners:
Critical Resource Gap: There is a lack of CCSE resources that are specifically made for ALN learners; there is an age-stage disconnect – ‘resources either exceed learners’ cognitive abilities or are age-inappropriate e.g. nursery age children depicted in a resource used by teenagers; teachers are burdened with the responsibility to adapt CCSE resources to suit learners’ needs, or have to create them themselves from scratch.
Particular Challenges for Early Learners: Highlighted as a specific issue tied to the severe shortage of resources.
Insufficient Staff Training: Teachers lack climate and sustainability knowledge and literacy; existing training on CCSE is often aimed at mainstream teachers and therefore feels irrelevant to SEND and ALN specialists; CCSE not seen as cross-curricular, many teachers see it as a topic for science; CCSE training often exclude teaching assistants; teachers lack confidence to even attempt CCSE.
Absence of Specialised Networks: There are very few opportunities for ALN teachers to gather together to seek advice and support from each other on CCSE.
At Global Action Plan we are in a position to address the critical resource gap in England and Wales. We are doing this through the work we are doing with SEND and ALN specialists to adapt our existing Good Life Schools programme resources and create specific tailored new ones.
To support this, as part of our ongoing piloting and roll out of Good Life Schools, we have already worked with specialist settings in the East Midlands and the North East of England. This academic year, we will be expanding this work across England and Wales:
in South Wales with a specialist teaching facility for learners with autism, a special school with learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD);
in Yorkshire with a post 16 SEN centre within a mainstream secondary school; and
in the North East of England with three SEMH settings, one PMLD (profound and multiple learning difficulties) setting, and a KS3 ARP (additionally resourced provision) group within a mainstream secondary school.
The learnings we are gaining from this work, add to learnings we’ve gained from engaging SEND and ALN learners in youth social action and climate change and sustainability education over the last three years as part of our wider Good Life Schools and Transform Our World programmes.
Gap 3 – insufficient staff training – is something we would like to address too. We are still a way off calling ourselves ‘experts’, but through the above work we hope to become more equipped (and resourced) to help in the role of trainer. We would like to expand our teacher education offer to give SEND and ALN specialists the tailored training they need.
Finally, through our Global Action Plan Education community, we would also love to help with gap 4 by creating and supporting the specialised networks that are so badly needed.
We encourage you to read and digest the O’Connor report, but also to respond to it. The gaps laid out in the report help create a framework from which to form a strategy around including all learners in climate change and sustainability education.
This article was first published on the Global Action Plan Education pages.
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