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Leading research into climate change and sustainability education which shapes the development of outstanding, free professional development for all teachers and school leaders.
Director: Professor Nicola Walshe
The importance of teacher development in the area of climate change and sustainability education is hard to overstate. This is the defining existential challenge of our time and the world that schoolchildren will encounter as adults will look different from our world today.
We aim to provide research-informed professional development for teachers and school leaders across all phases, subjects and career stages.
About us
- Focus
Teaching young people about climate change and sustainability must include but also go beyond the science of climate change and develop knowledge and values to help them to adapt to a changing world and to embrace the opportunities that more sustainable lifestyles might offer.
Teachers also need to know how to support young people with associated health and wellbeing concerns, including increasing levels of eco-anxiety. These are issues that need to be embedded across the school curriculum, but we know that many teachers lack confidence in this area.
We will work across faculties at UCL to ensure that this professional development is not only informed by our own research into current practice in schools but also by recent academic research to ensure that all our materials are up-to-date.
- Team
Leadership Group
- Nicola Walshe, Executive Director
- Alison Kitson, Programme Director
- Lizzie Rushton, Research Director
- Justin Dillon, Development Lead
Steering Group
Research Fellows
Associate Fellows
- David Mitchell
- Suman Ghosh
- Hans Svennevig
- Joy Perry
- Marian Mulcahy
- Andy Markwick
- Nasreen Majid
- Christine Mclean
- Zoe Moula
- Emma Newell
- Ruth Amos
- Emma O’Brien
- Rupert Higham
- Kaori Kitagawa
- Eleanore Hargreaves
- Andy Hodgkinson
- Roberto Filippi
- Alan Reid
- Christopher Turner
- Alessandra Palange
- Ross Purves
- David Godfrey
Advisory Board
- Professor Chew Hung Chang, National Institute of Education, Singapore
- Helen Czerski, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UCL
- Mark Maslin, Department of Geography, UCL
- Chris Rapley, CBE, Department of Earth Scientists, UCL
- Dr Ana Angelita da Rocha, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Jess Tipton, Global Action Plan
- Richard Sheriff, CEO Red Kite Trust
- David Lambert, Emeritus Professor of Geography Education, UCL
- Naheeda Maharasingam, Headteacher, Rathfern Primary School
If you would like to apply to be an Associate Fellow, please contact: climateeducation@ucl.ac.uk
Our activities
- Research
Initial work by the centre will see academics conduct rapid research on teachers’ knowledge and preparedness to teach climate change and sustainability education across the UK.
Other upcoming work includes equipping teachers with the tools to develop the curriculum for more sustainable futures, and exploring how secondary schools' engagement with climate change and sustainability education in England varies.
Ongoing projects
- "What do climate change and sustainability have to do with me?” A survey of teachers in England
- Secondary schools' engagement with climate change and sustainability education in England
- Branching Out: Tackling mental health inequalities in schools with community artscapers
- Eco-capabilities: Supporting children’s wellbeing through participatory art in nature
- Sustainability Across Subjects (SAS) - David Mitchell, Alison Kitson, Alexis Stones, Emma Newall
- Learning and teaching of local knowledge for climate action through school-community collaboration
- Engagement
Events
- Webinar: Leading sustainability in schools (27 March 2023)
- Webinar: Teaching about climate change: Principles and Priorities (4 July 2022)
Media
- "Remember we are nature, we must protect nature" - Professor Nicola Walshe speaks on Bloomsbury Radio's Research and Development Show (RnD).