Exploring Secondary Schools' Engagement with Climate Change and Sustainability Education in England

This collaboration between the Institute of Education and the Climate Action Unit will explore the broad spectrum of secondary schools' engagement with issues of climate change and sustainability

Case Study Research Exploring the Variation of Secondary Schools' Engagement with Climate Change and Sustainability Education in England aims to generate rich data about the broad spectrum of secondary schools' engagement with issues of climate change and sustainability, especially in regard to the taught curriculum. Whilst some data about teacher and student attitudes exist, a comparison of whole school approaches using a rich case study approach is missing. We know that engagement varies considerably across schools. What we don't know is why, given that all state secondary schools are under the same accountability and funding pressures. We will develop definitions of ‘fully engaged’, ‘moderately engaged’ and ‘barely engaged’ schools and explore the attitudes and actions of individual teachers within these contexts. The collaboration between colleagues at the Institute of Education and the Climate Action Unit will bring a new and exciting lens to this project, incorporating psychological components into our analysis in the form of the Individual, Social and Material model (ISM), helping us to understand all the contexts that shape people’s behaviours, from headteachers to teachers to students.

This research will make a significant contribution to our forthcoming Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education in terms of our knowledge base and also in terms of securing larger funding sources in the future.

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