As part of the preparations for the GEEP [Global Environmental Education Partnership] meeting in San Diego, I was asked to write two reports about the UK situation. This is the first of them: an overview of environmental education [EE] issues in the UK. Below is what I wrote in the powerpoint template they provided:
A. Snapshot of top environmental issues facing your country
- Intensive farming & land use practices
- Habitat degredation, fragmentation & loss
- Loss of key ecological niches
- Poisons / toxins in ecosystems
- Biodiversity / species loss
- Spread of invasive species
- Over fishing of the seas
- Air pollution in cities
- Loss of soil fertility
- Rapid population increase
- Over-dependence on fossil fuels
- Poor energy security
- More frequent extreme weather events
- The huge disconnect between people and the natural world
- Poor public grasp of environmental issues and climate change
- Minimal political interest, and a disregard of nature in decision-making
- Weak political drive for improvement
- Too little economic value placed on nature
- An incoherent professional capacity building policy related to environment and sustainability, and
- Insufficient ‘environment’ in the education system
The overall challenge is to manage the trades-off between energy policy, economic growth and the integrity of landscapes, habitats, etc
B. EE Stand Out Program(me)s
- School bursaries for outdoor EE
- Forest School initiatives
- Eco-Schools programmes
- National member organisations such as: Sustainability and Environmental Education [SEEd] and the National Association for Environmental Education [NAEE]
- Many local / national EE NGOs and conservation organisations, such as: WWF ~ Oxfam ~ John Muir Trust ~ RSPB ~ The Wildlife Trusts ~ Friends of the Earth ~ Woodland Trust ~ Field Studies Council ~ Global Action Plan
C. National Mandate
- The UK has four separate legal jurisdictions (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales), and each has its own school and university systems
- Each jurisdiction has different policies on EE / ESD / etc.
- Currently, there are no national mandates for EE / ESD / etc in schools
- Scotland has a mandate for learning for sustainability as part of its schools ‘curriculum for excellence’
- In Wales, education for sustainable development and global citizenship [ESDGC] is an entitlement of pupils in schools
- There is UK-wide governmental support for global learning initiatives
- The national curriculum in England contains references to environmental issues across many subjects and all age ranges
- The are no national mandates in tertiary / higher education, although student organisations (eg, the National Union of Students) are very active
D. Looking forward
- EE will flourish where school leaders are supportive and see its merits
- Eco-Schools will continue as a prominent supporter of school-based EE
- Building bridges between EE and global learning will help each of these
- The current interest in forest schools and learning ‘outside the classroom’ will help providing that they remember to emphasise EE
- There will be no central government support for, or encouragement of, EE in the foreseeable future
E. For further information
The most recent published survey of EE / ESD / etc across the UK is:
Martin S, Dillon J, Higgins P, Peters C, Scott W. (2013) Divergent Evolution in Education for Sustainable Development Policy in the United Kingdom: Current Status, Best Practice, and Opportunities for the Future. Sustainability. 5(4):1522-1544
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