{"id":7514,"date":"2019-07-08T05:05:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T05:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=7514"},"modified":"2019-07-08T05:05:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T05:05:30","slug":"changing-the-debate-schools-climate-conference-workshops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2019\/07\/08\/changing-the-debate-schools-climate-conference-workshops\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing the debate: schools climate conference workshops"},"content":{"rendered":"

There's more here on Wednesday's\u00a0school climate conference<\/a>\u00a0organised by the\u00a0Green Schools Project<\/a>, School 21<\/a>, and WE.<\/a>\u00a0 This was designed \"to provide rigorous knowledge, skills and motivation to allow young people to change the debate in their schools and local communities<\/em>\".<\/p>\n

This account is about the workshops. \u00a0There were 4 of these with similar themes running. \u00a0I went to a year 10 \/ 11 one which was skilfully designed and expertly moderated. \u00a0The young people were to the fore here. \u00a0Broken into cross-school groups of 4 and eventually into school groups, they began by sharing why they were there, did exercises on the problems of the language we use, and then carried out a role play on agreeing with someone who was a denier \/a sceptic \/ just unsure \/ etc. \u00a0It was good.<\/p>\n

Reasons why they were there ranged from \u201cI don\u2019t want to die\u201d to \u201cWe need to protect the environment\u201d. \u00a0They were asked why Greta Thunberg\u2019s message is so powerful.\u00a0 A significant comment was that it was her age that mattered.\u00a0 She is \u201cone of us\u201d.\u00a0 And she speaks because she feels it\u2019s necessary to do so.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
George Monbiot\u2019s work on language was focused on and his suggestions that we change how we express things:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u2013 climate change becomes climate breakdown<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u2013 the environment becomes the natural world<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u2013 the planet becomes the living planet<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u2013 global warming becomes global heating<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u2013 biodiversity becomes wildlife<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I resolved to try to use the first four of these, though global over-heating might be even better.\u00a0 \u201cwildlife\u201d is useless, however, as a substitute for biodiversity, but I struggle to find an appropriate alternative.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The next part was a focus on myths and misconceptions which reminded me of a paper (now mislaid) Steve Gough and I wrote about 15 years ago for a conference.\u00a0 The following were suggested and the students were invited to comment:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u2013 climate change can be solved and prevented<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u2013 small actions will have a big impact if everyone does them<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u2013 it\u2019s up to individuals to make changes to solve things<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There was quite a range of responses to these, but no time to do them adequate justice.\u00a0 It was an example of the need for more time and fewer students if issues were to be addressed in-depth \u2013 but that's what schools are for.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Then there was a role play where, in groups of 4, one character took on a role and the other three tried to shift their position.\u00a0 There was a complacent MP (Jeremy Johnson no less), an advertising executive who\u2019s committed to her \u201clifestyle\u201d, a CEO of a TV company chasing ratings, and a fossil fuel company CEO who wanted to keep mining \/ exploring.\u00a0 These were cleverly constructed, managing that tricky balance in a role play of simplicity and conviction.\u00a0 And it worked.\u00a0 The room was abuzz and the reports back were convincing with some minds changed and others not.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The second workshop was about action taking back in school, and was focused around school groups (students and their teachers) developing ideas to take back to the school.\u00a0 Again in groups, one person had to have an idea and the others then progressively added to this, developing it.\u00a0 This was effective structuring.\u00a0 It would be easy to be disappointed by the suggestions that emerged as most were rather quotidian: tree planting, solar panels, letters to the council \u2013 although putting signs up outside the school signifying its commitment was unusual.\u00a0 No one mentioned energy monitoring as far as I could see.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But disappointment would be to miss the point as this was an exercise in process as much as (if not more so than) product.\u00a0 In that sense it was a success, but much will depend on what happens subsequently in school.\u00a0 Will the ground it falls on be fertile or stony?\u00a0 This is to be monitored.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
After an al fresco<\/em> lunch (fruit provided) there were reports back from the four groups.\u00a0 These were commendably brief and lucid.\u00a0 The conference ended with a panel \u2013 a series of inputs rather than a discussion.\u00a0 These included a Member of the London Authority who failed to resist making party-political points, and a member of UKSCN who wanted what I think is unreachable change by 2030. \u00a0 The audience then had the chance to ask them questions, and some of these were splendidly focused.\u00a0 For example:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cHave you any tips on influencing people (especially adults) who ignore you?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cHow do you deal with climate change deniers?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t previous generations make appropriate changes?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat happens if your plans for change by 2030 aren\u2019t workable?\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I have to say that the questions were better than most of the answers.\u00a0 And then I gave my 5 minute input summarising my take-away messages from the day \u2013 see a previous post.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The audience remained alert and enthused throughout the afternoon. \u00a0Excellently done, but will it have any effect in the changing the debate in the schools?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There's more here on Wednesday's\u00a0school climate conference\u00a0organised by the\u00a0Green Schools Project, School 21, and WE.\u00a0 This was designed \"to provide rigorous knowledge, skills and motivation to allow young people to change the debate in their schools and local communities\". This...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}