News and Updates

  • Is there a 25 year plan for environmental education?

    The government has published its 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment.  Is it, I wondered, too much to hope that this is also a 25 year plan for environmental education?  As a start to thinking about this question, here's a...

  • Re-Questing for Holism

    I see that one of my papers (with Andrew Stables): The Quest for Holism in Education for Sustainable Development is being included in: Environmental and Sustainability Education Policy: International Trends, Priorities and Challenges, edited by Katrien Van Poeck, Jonas A. Lysgaard, and Alan...

  • When a tiger tried to walk home

    The Christmas edition of The Economist had a long feature – A tiger's tale  – on the plight of the tiger in India today.  It focused on a 5-year old male – known as T3 to its minders – that,...

  • New life in Paris

    I was surprised at the positive tone of the Economist's December 14th article: New life for the Paris climate deal – A flurry of meetings should help curb greenhouse-gas emissions. But the global agreement is still essential.   I felt like that because...

  • NAAEE looks ahead to 2018

    I was pleased to get a mention in NAEE's end-0f-year message of appreciation of effort and achievement, and hope for 2018 and beyond.  This came from Judy Braus, the NAAEE Executive Director.  You will find it here, and it's certainly worth...

  • A Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition

    This, as you probably know, is not Mr Gove's latest plan to square the post-Brexit farming–environment circle.  Rather, it's the name of France's energy / environment ministry which is now located in an 18th century mansion close to the Elysée...

  • OECD debases its currency

    I see that the OECD Directorate of Education and Skills has launched its new PISA Global Competence Framework.  This is to be the basis for the 2018 PISA assessment. OECD (that should really now be OECDGC) says: Learning to participate...

  • The Office for Students

    The Office for Students [OfS] opened for business on New Year's Day, and so let me offer a belated and partial (in every sense) welcome.  It promises to be highly contentious; indeed it is so already – see this stout defence of...

  • Farewell to the HEA

    The Higher Education Academy (HEA) has agreed to merge with the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (LFHE).  This follows the recommendations of the Bell review that there be one agency for learning and teaching, equality...

  • The UK Green Alliance and the Goals II

    So what does the UK Green Alliance have to say about education the young and about the sustainable development goals. The Alliance had a lot to say about the goals in 2013.  See this. There is also this joint paper, written with Christian...