A new guide highlights the environment in England's school curriculum. In it, the National Association for Environmental Education [NAEE] asks: How can teachers respond to the challenge of teaching about pollution, endangered species, deforestation, climate change, and other environmental issues?
The Association has looked at the opportunities that England's new foundation and primary curricula provide for teachers and children to explore a wide range of such issues, and has written a guide for schools.
In my role as NAEE’s President, I said in the Foreword to the guide:
"These same issues have been at the heart of environmental education for 60 years. Whilst some in the UK saw the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as the end of environmental education as we knew it. The UK’s National Association of Environmental Education never accepted this, thinking that as the Earth’s problems became more acute, environmental education would become more necessary, not less.
The power of this handbook lies not just in its careful analysis of what the curriculum says, but also in its excellent exemplification of how teachers are seizing opportunities to explore them with their students. The beautifully illustrated case studies of practice are particularly helpful in enabling us to see what’s possible in today’s schools."
Whilst some commentators continue to bemoan the lack of an explicit national curriculum emphasis on sustainability / ESD, this curriculum guide shows where the new curriculum provides opportunities for schools to explore the issues.
NAEE Chair, Nina Hatch, said that the publication was:
"A highly accessible guide for both Foundation, Key Stage 1 & 2 teachers to see how they can incorporate environmental issues into many of their learning outcomes."
Copies of the guide are freely available at the NAEE website. I hope it gets a wide reading, and stimulates much activity.
Membership to NAEE is open to all teachers, schools and other educational organisations and NGOs. It is free to students. All enquiries to: info@naee.org.uk
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