Here are some ideas which you might consider as a teacher educator. Some may not be possible or relevant, and if you have other ideas we’d love to hear from you!
These ideas are designed to be applicable for two contexts. Firstly, initial and advanced teacher training contexts, understood to be syllabus-limited with summative assessment e.g. the CELTA and DELTA, and secondly for teacher development contexts, understood to generally not have a syllabus, be in-service, and to be without summative assessment.
These are ideas and issues that institutions providing teacher training and education might like to consider. Where possible, links with additional ideas and support are included.
The venue/building what are the discussions around, for example, energy suppliers, the use of heating and air conditioning, avoiding waste and disposing of any waste that there is?
Although the calculations are complicated around whether online training is more sustainable than face-to-face has the institution looked at all the possible options to minimise the impact of their training provision on the environment?
Are course participants aware of public transport options to get to the institution, are secure bicycle racks available, are possible walking routes suggested to people who are not local, and if cars do have to be used are car sharing schemes in place? Equally, how sustainable is the other travel undertaken by the institution’s staff?
Is paper usage minimised or completely eliminated, can all worksheets and lesson plans and assignments be delivered in a digital format, if there is a need for paper for certain documents are they reusable by future participants?
Are any course books teacher books that are used in the institution available in class sets or an individual loan to reduce paper usage?
Are all documents related to the course archived and reusable - this is not only sustainable but saves time for future iterations of the course?
Is any assessment such as examinations and tests deliverable online, with remote proctoring to ensure security where needed?
Can the institution work with the organisations that set the syllabus and accredit the training and provide certification, to consider revising the content to include at least some reference to sustainable practices and the teaching of sustainability in the ELT context?
Is sustainability a fixed item on every staff meeting? Even if it's just a very small discussion it will help to embed thinking about sustainability in everyone's mind.
Are the institution’s policies and targets on sustainability published, and is feedback from all internal stakeholders taken into account, and are all staff members aware of these targets and progress towards them? Has the institution considered a green or sustainability audits or accreditation?
www.nasuwt.org.uk/static/uploaded/d5188093-8730-4c94-a30a2dd26d966f6d.pdf
https://csestore.cse.org.in/usd/how-green-is-your-school-an-environmental-audit-for-schools.html
Does the institution ensure that any staff members who attend CPD around sustainability cascade the content to all internal stakeholders?
Is there a green or sustainability working group in the institution? This would be a focal point for policies and procedures around the mitigation of the impact of the institution, and also around climate change and sustainability education projects and other classroom initiatives.
Has the institution considered appointing a green lead to drive the sustainability of the organisation?
These ideas around sustainability are designed to be integrated into teacher training or teacher development initiatives to raise teachers’ levels of awareness and provide them with some ideas for their classrooms and beyond. Where possible, links to more detailed ideas around a specific theme are included.
Teacher training tends to have a defined syllabus, pre-ordained time frames and thus less opportunity for customisation. In this context, sustainability-related input may need to be in the form of optional additional workshops, research projects and so on. However, exemplification using ELT course content and practice can be adapted to have a sustainability focus.
Teacher development can of course encompass sustainability topics solely, or be adapted to incorporate them into other topics.
The ideas below can be use for standalone workshops or integrated as an add on to other content. Where appropriate, the input that can be added to are noted below in italics.
Ways in which existing ELT course materials can be adapted, and the identification of topics that lend themselves to sustainability discussions, such as travel, fashion, careers and technology are central to this. Equally important is looking for ‘hooks’ or connections in all topics that can be used to create a sustainability link. Can be added to input on lesson planning.
Writing materials from scratch to discuss aspects of sustainability increase awareness of its impact, and encourage learners to consider personal, local, and global action plans. Can be added to input on materials design.
The use of project-based learning to explore sustainability themes, and in particular to develop tangible and measurable outcomes to increase awareness and encourage activism.
Encouraging learners to make commitments around the reduction of their own impact on climate, and also where appropriate around actions to increase awareness and influence others behaviours. Can be added to input on learner autonomy.
Teachers can find sustainable themes in music, literature and film and explore these with learners. Can be added to input on music, literature and film.
This idea suggests making part of the classroom into a green hub, with for example posters, an information board, and an opportunity for learners to share any work they do on sustainability through a public display. Equally, institutional policies and initiatives around sustainability can be published and displayed in this area.
Supporting students by giving them the skills of persuasion, lobbying making a case and the effective use of social media etc., can all have an impact on the sustainability piece, and also of course give learners valuable skills for both future education and employment. Can be added to input on 21st century skills.
Although considered controversial, the urgency of the climate crisis would seem to justify direct action by individuals, and perhaps teachers should at least have a discussion about to what extent they want to help to give their students the tools to do this. Mock activism inside a class is one option, but students being encouraged to engage outside of the class needs teachers to be aware of the local political and cultural context. Can be added to input on 21st century skills.
Particularly with younger learners, including the cultivation of small gardens, vegetable patches and so on can create a strong link to nature. That is psychologically important, but can also act as a way of helping them to understand seasonality, the importance of water, and so on both in terms of their own mini growing projects, but also in the wider global ecosystem. Can be added to input on primary science and nature as themes in ELT.
Practice in the use of the 21st century skills can often be applied to sustainability issues whether it's collaboration and creativity for the discussion of core topics and ways of approaching them, critical thinking for understanding issues like ‘greenwashing’ in corporate and governmental statements made around sustainability, and communication for disseminating central messages around sustainability. Can be added to input on 21st century skills.
That is the way in which global issues are interconnected, and impact in unequal ways on different sectors of society is an important theme for secondary and adult learners. For example one of the negative impacts of the climate crisis is that of water, either too much water in the case of floods or too little water in the case of droughts, and the impact of this is often much greater on women and girls because in many parts of the global south they have the responsibility for collecting water and for providing hygiene for young children and older people. There is thus a double impact. Another example is that countries in the global south are more heavily impacted by climate change because they're often very dependent upon local agriculture for food supplies, but are less well equipped in terms of financial resources to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. Helping students understand this intersectionality can be a significant contribution to the way in which they engage with sustainability.
The United Nation Sustainable Development Goals can be an excellent framework for ELT teachers to explore the basic tenets of sustainability in their classes, and the very strong visuals and simplified explanations mean they can be used at levels from primary upwards and with students with low level English. Can be added to input on global issues in ELT..
Secondary and tertiary student can often be motivated by discussion of green careers. This can mean both jobs that are specifically in the sustainability space, such as working for sustainable energy companies, or more generally looking at the environmental credentials of employers before considering applying for jobs with them. Can be added to input on discussing jobs and careers with learners.
Fact checking of sustainability in the media can be an excellent way to encourage students to practise critical thinking in particular. There's a great deal of misinformation around sustainability, both on the Internet and in traditional media and encouraging students to fact check both develops useful skill and also consolidate their understanding of the core sustainability issues. Can be added to input on 21st century skills.