Enhancing climate change and sustainability education in England
Through free teacher professional development and policy interventions, the UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education helps students prepare for a climate change-affected future.
Grand Challenge: Climate Crisis
UCL’s Climate Crisis Grand Challenge recognises that mitigating and adapting to a changing climate are perhaps the greatest challenges of our time. The UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE), based at the Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, UCL Institute of Education, is conducting research into how teachers can support students’ learning in this area, developing subject-specific, research-informed and free professional development for teachers and school leaders across all phases to help students prepare for a climate change-affected future.
The UCL research centre takes a holistic view of the challenge: it is not just about teaching the science of climate change and how to adapt to change and adopt more sustainable lifestyles. It also involves helping teachers to support children, including those who feel anxious, angry and afraid, to learn how they can contribute to social and ecological change. Climate change and sustainability need to be embedded across the school curriculum, but teachers need support to do this effectively.
Practical support to address an existential challenge
The importance of teacher professional development in this area is hard to overstate. A national survey conducted by the UCL Institute of Education team identified a significant lack of high-quality CCSE-related professional development, with 70.5% of teachers ‘self-taught’. The survey also highlighted widespread recognition amongst teachers of the importance of CCSE, but that students’ opportunities for multi-disciplinary learning are limited. In response to these findings, the centre developed Teaching for Sustainable Futures (TSF). This programme of subject- and phase-specific professional development comprises free online modules covering all disciplines and age-phases in England, developed in partnership with teachers and subject associations. By January 2025, the introductory module had been accessed 3,050 times, the subject modules 814 times and the TSF materials accessed by 2,367 early career teachers and mentors. One teacher reflected:
As a direct result of [TSF], our department has created a thematic study for year 9 looking at the changing attitudes towards the natural world ... Through teaching this, we will reflect and refine our approach … it will remain an important element of our curriculum.
Influencing wider sector policy
The centre’s research emphasises the need for systemic reforms and for embedding climate change and sustainability across the curriculum. To act on these insights, the team are working hard to build connections with subject associations, including with several that are new to CCSE, and to support policymakers with evidence-based recommendations.
A one-day symposium for subject associations and learned societies prompted the establishment of the Subject Associations Climate Education Network, to facilitate connections amongst these organisations. It also generated a report recommending that England’s National Curriculum should identify CCSE opportunities in all subjects and be accompanied by professional development for all teachers, and a subsequent Curriculum Policy Proposal. Both publications have been widely disseminated, including to the Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR) panel established by the UK Department for Education (DfE) as it deliberates on revisions to recommend.
The centre’s ongoing engagement in policy processes has included a submission for the House of Lords inquiry into Education for 11–16-year-olds, which was quoted in the final report. With SOS-UK, the team also co-hosted a pre-COP28 conversation between Minister Stephen Morgan and young people across England, which created an opportunity for young people to share views on the future of CCSE in England.
Together, these activities are making an important contribution to helping teachers and young people respond to the climate emergency.
Related links
- Grand Challenge: Climate Crisis
- UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education
- Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment
- Teaching climate change and sustainability: A survey of teachers in England
- The role of subjects and subject associations in climate change and sustainability education in England report
- The key contributions of subjects to climate change and nature education: a Curriculum Policy Proposal