Learning for Sustainability

Humanities: Learning for Sustainability

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Objectives

A small group of teachers and local authority advisers came together to create a regional group to develop and share best practice in learning and teaching for sustainability within Curriculum for Wales.

Approach

A group consisting of LA officers and practitioners from 6 schools was formed to explore the sustainable development principle [1] that exists with the Curriculum for Wales framework. The group participated in a workshop session that explored the current understanding of sustainability within schools, current literature on developing sustainable schools and current practices within other education systems.

The group shared ideas, but also acknowledged that their individual approaches, within their own school, needed to focus on changing the behaviours and attitudes of both practitioners and learners. Making these changes would add value to the school community. However, sustainable change requires a long-term commitment to change the behaviour of others. It was clear from the first workshop that this could not be achieved through a one-off project or a discrete series of lessons.

The group also needed to be clear from the start of this work that they had a shared understanding of sustainability and how and why it is embedded within Curriculum for Wales.

Skills Integral to the Four Purpose’ are at the heart of the new Welsh Curriculum and are based on the desire to create different types of value in society. This goal aligns with well-being and regenerative thinking, especially important when considering sustainability issues and climate change, not to mention Wales’s ground-breaking Well Being of Future Generations Act (2015).

(Penaluna, 2021)

Curriculum for Wales states that through the skills integral to the four purposes it is important for the learners to begin;

‘recognising, using and creating different types of value. In this context, value means worth and importance in a range of contexts, including financial, cultural, social and learning value’.

What does this mean?

This means that learning experiences should create worth and importance, or put another way have purpose. Creating value through learning strengthens the core purpose of education and the learners will have a better experience, deeper understanding and increased levels of engagement and enjoyment. An increase in learner motivation will arise from the sense of meaning associated with doing something that could become valuable for someone else, moving from the ‘we are learning this because...’ to a position of ‘how could this learning be valuable to...’

Regeneration should be at the heart of a new education system. The world of sustainability, enterprising people and innovators are the drivers of change, and in an ever-changing world, we need abilities to deal with issues we have yet to think about.

(Penaluna, 2021)

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are an urgent call for action by all countries to act in a global partnership. These were adopted in 2015 by all United Nations Member States as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

These 17 goals acted as a catalyst for the group discussions on where and how the development of curriculum experiences could authentically develop sustainability thinking with learners in schools and settings. They also clearly support the 3 pillars of sustainability, that is, social, environmental and economic sustainability.

How do we ensure that our teaching and learning experiences allow learners to understand and use the SDGs to create value?

The exploration of the 17 SDGs and how they could support learners to create the value that lies with the skills integral to the four purposes of Curriculum for Wales provided focus for the group to co-construct an approach to the work that would be undertaken in schools.

The creation of a ‘dos and don’ts’ for the work meant that the school focus would be driven by the needs of the learners, the community and the creation of value, rather than a focus being on a product or specified outcome.

A further day of planning provided time and space for the group to explore models of learning and teaching as well as time to plan together. The ‘head, heart and hand model’ was considered as an approach to support the learners.

The holistic pedagogy of engaging head, hands and heart reclaims a personal perspective which brings community into the curriculum and the real world into our schools and student’s lives. Studies have shown that students are not actively engaged in their schooling experience (Puge & Bergin, 2005), but love, purpose and authenticity can be infused into the curriculum through the context of place. (Singleton, 2015)

The bicycle model is a representation of holistic climate change education that works equally well when considering learning for sustainability. It was a useful reference point that supported the group in linking many of their ideas back to the characteristics of the four purposes within Curriculum for Wales.

Cantell, H., Tolppanen, S., Aarnio-Linnanvuori, E. & Lehtonen, A. 2019.

Alongside this model, the group also had access to the representation of the SDGs within a diagram of the 3 pillars of sustainability.

Pennar Community School,
Pembrokeshire

The Pennar Green Team through their annual COP meeting decided to have a community focus to their work and improve the biodiversity of the local area.

Working with the trustees of the Pennar Hall the learners started to plan and design a community garden at the hall. The learners used pupil voice and questionnaires to consider the needs of the community. With the support of the National Park authority the learners surveyed the grounds of the hall and then created plans for the community garden. Work has begun on bringing the plans to life.

Pupils engaged, enjoyed the project, could see a real purpose to their learning
Other classes / groups supporting with the project and taking on more community-based learning and intergenerational learning
Pupils inspired to raise money during their own time for the project
Classes currently making recipe books to raise funds for Pennar Hall Warm Rooms

Ysgol Bro Banw,
Carmarthenshire

The Big Bocs Bwyd Project provided an opportunity for the school to look at issues of food procurement and food waste. The learners are becoming more food literate by growing, cooking and learning about food. The school was recognised for its contribution to sustainable practices in the ‘Future Generations Changemaker 100’.

The schools ‘Waste Wizards’ have worked across the school to reduce waste. The learners started exploring ways to combat food waste, but have now considered other ways to reduce waste. A clothes swop shop, ‘Preloved and Proud’, has not only helped reduce waste, but has also supported the community.

Craigfelen Primary School,
Swansea

As part of a focus on developing as a community focused school, The ‘Craigfelen Cwtch’ was opened in 2023. The space has been made available to groups and organisations to host events in the community. Parenting groups, Mother and Toddler groups and the Friday Cafe help to develop strong community relationships.

As a school community they have identified areas where they can reduce waste. A uniform swop shop, toy swop shop and sharing table are some of the ways they have been more responsible in their consumption. Growing and learning about food, along with a Family Cooking Club, has supported families to cook healthy food on a budget and enables children to see the joy of cooking and growing.

Using circular economy principles the school have managed to:

Design waste and pollution out of systems
Keep products and materials in use
Regenerate natural systems

They now plan to explore how sustainability can be embedded across the curriculum.

Johnston Community Primary School,
Pembrokeshire

The school was already on a journey in developing their outdoor learning across the curriculum. The school field, Maes Meithrin, provides a rich and exciting learning environment for their learners. The school involvement with the ‘Roots Project’ had supported them to create spaces for growing within the outdoor area. This includes an area for vegetables, an orchard and polytunnel. A hedge row project allowed the learners to develop an understanding of the importance of wildlife corridors and improving the biodiversity of their space.

The school has introduced the UN sustainable development goals into their curriculum. Teachers are supported to bring the 17 SDGs into their topic planning. The global goals and sustainability are key themes at the heart of the school curriculum. The curriculum summary for the school clearly emphasises how the whole school community values the importance of learning for sustainability.

Ysgol Bryngwyn School,
Carmarthenshire

Following the workshop sessions the teacher completed an audit of the school curriculum for the SDGs. This raised awareness within the staff of the 17 UN SDGs and encouraged them to look for opportunities to highlight these goals within the curriculum.

The school also supported 5 members of staff to complete carbon literacy training. This led to the development of work with external partners such as Energy Sparks and Cymbrogi.

The school ‘Climate Action team’ have worked across the school to consider ways to reduce their carbon footprint. The learners have reduced food waste, used data from Energy Sparks to reduce energy consumption and have successfully banned plastic cutlery in school.

Shared learning

Developing strong community links is essential to the success of projects.
Exploring the UN Sustainable Development Goals supports both practitioners and learners in understanding the sustainable development principle.
Perseverance is needed to obtain landowner or landlords permission for projects.
Practitioners need support when working in different environments and need to be reassured about expectations.
Make the curriculum links explicit to leaderships and practitioners.
Allow the learners the opportunity to make decisions and take responsibility for the projects.
Don’t try to do it alone.
Be kind to yourself and realistic in the amount of time needed to develop a project. You need to make sure that your commitment is sustainable.

Feedback

"Amazing talk from Tom about Curriculum for Wales & its links to sustainability throughout. Great use of quotes from a certain @AndyPena as well. Tom left me enthused about the new curriculum again and the chance we currently have!"

"A really useful regional network which has positive potential for future development."

"The session was a valuable opportunity to connect in person with local authority officers and practitioners at a regional level. The session provided time and space to share and discuss the common thread of teaching and learning for sustainability. It offered an opportunity to consider the Sustainable Development Goals in relation to the practitioners' current curriculum provision, through further discussions numerous links to NGOs and external partners at a local level were also shared."

Bibliography

[1]Glossary – Curriculum for Wales – the sustainable development principle - Acting in a manner which seeks to ensure that the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Cantell, H., Tolppanen, S., Aarnio-Linnanvuori, E. & Lehtonen, A. 2019. Bicycle model on climate change education: presenting and evaluating a model. Environmental Education Research, DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2019.1570487.

Dixon, D (2022) - Leadership for Sustainability - Saving the planet one school at a time; Crown House Publishing; ISBN :9781781354018

Penaluna, A (2021) - Innovation in Welsh Educational Leadership: Are we playing not to lose when we should be playing to win? ; Professor Emeritus Andy Penaluna November 2021; NAEL

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