Climate change and sustainability education can be understood as broad, pluralistic approaches to education that aim to generate understanding of the wide-ranging, interconnected, environmental and social issues that are defining our time, and that support people’s capabilities for acting in response to those issues. Climate change education in particular is a ‘hyper-complex’ concept (Laessoe et al., 2009) as it brings two independently complex concepts of ‘education’ and ‘climate change’ together. Greer and Glackin set out six qualities of a meaningful educational response to climate change (2021), arguing that quality climate change education should: offer and be open to alternatives; accept and embrace complexity; develop ecological worldviews; re-orient towards justice; incorporate multiple types of knowledge and skills to tackle complex problems; and finally it should recognise and support students as agents of change, repositioning students from recipients of information, and future inheritors of climate change related problems, to action-oriented approaches that recognise them as participants in society’s response to climate change and collaborators in society’s transformation.  

The need to enhance the quality and quantity of climate change and sustainability education has been widely advocated and discussed in the research literature; for example, Jickling and Blenkinsop (2020) argue that education must be at the heart of the large-scale change project that transforms people and cultures to more ecologically and socially sustainable ways of being. This is supported by a plethora of recent polling data from schools in the UK, which has identified an appetite amongst students and teachers to enhance the provision of climate change and sustainability education in schools. For example, polls undertaken by Teach the Future (2019, 2020) found 75% of teachers did not feel they have had adequate training and 92% suggested that more should be done to address climate change in schools. Research echoes these concerns; for example, Howard-Jones et al. (2021) explored teachers’ views on an action-oriented climate change curriculum, finding less than half (40%) considered they had the resources they needed to answer students’ questions about climate change, and arguing the need for an action-based curriculum which includes issues of global social justice, at all school phases.

In 2022 the Department for Education (DfE) launched the Sustainability and climate change strategy for the education and children’s services system which sets out the UK Government’s commitment to providing climate change and sustainability education for children and young people in England which “Makes a difference to children and young people all over the world” (DfE, 2022). While this is a laudable aim, research suggests teachers do not currently feel equipped to provide the climate change and sustainability education required by the strategy. With this in mind, we conducted a survey with teachers in England to deepen understanding of their practice related to climate change and sustainability, to find out how confident, prepared and supported they feel to incorporate climate change and sustainability in their teaching, and to investigate their related professional development experiences and needs.

The survey was guided by the following broad research questions:   

1. How do teachers conceptualize climate change and sustainability education, and how does this correlate with the scholarly views on what quality climate change and sustainability education should be? 
2. What are teachers’ practices and experiences of climate change and sustainability education teaching? What factors influence these?
3. What professional development opportunities for climate change and sustainability education do teachers in England experience?  
4. What are the implications for practice in relation to teacher professional development around climate change and sustainability education?

The primary method used to answer these questions was a questionnaire. Key principles guiding the administration and layout of the questionnaire was that it would be easy to complete, attractive and uncomplicated, widely accessible, personally relevant, and (ideally) would involve some learning for the respondents. The development of the questionnaire was an iterative process that involved research team discussion, literature review, item drafting, peer review and piloting, and concurrent development of analysis methods. The questionnaire was peer reviewed by teacher education researchers with expertise across primary and secondary education. We conducted two formal pilots; the first conducted with trainee teachers (n=50), and the second with practicing teachers (n=12) to ensure coherence and useability. The final questionnaire comprised 35 questions organized in four sections: i) teachers views on climate change and sustainability; ii) teachers experience at incorporating climate change and sustainability in their teaching, iii) teachers professional development experiences and needs; iv) demographic information. Questions included a combination of matrix, multiple choice questions and free text or open-ended questions. The final questionnaire was administered using Qualtrics software and took approximately 20 minutes to complete by either mobile or desktop. The questionnaire was open to teachers of all phases and disciplines in England for nine weeks. We used non-probability, convenience sampling; the questionnaire was promoted across a range of networks, including through teaching unions, subject associations, the Department for Education newsletter and social media channels. Incentives were offered in the form of two randomly drawn cash prizes (£100 each) for participating schools to purchase climate change and sustainability teaching resources. This project followed BERA ethical guidelines (2018) and was awarded ethical approval by the University Ethics Committee. Data analysis was undertaken for quantitative data using descriptive and inferential statistics. All qualitative data were transcribed and coded using thematic content analysis.

We received 1098 responses which, following removal of duplicates, ineligible responses and empty or incomplete records, was reduced to 870 responses. Teachers varied considerably in the number of years they had spent teaching; the majority (30.3%) had spent 1-5 years teaching, whilst 24.5% had more than 20 years of experience. Teachers were able to convey their current areas of teaching, which could encompass multiple subjects across multiple educational stages. By subject, the most frequently reported subjects were geography (41.3% of those who answered the array of questions), science (37.2%), and Personal, Social, and Health Education (PSHE) including in tutor and/or form time (35.2%). By educational phases, the majority (67.7%) taught in secondary schools (age 11-19), while 33.9% taught primary-aged children (ages 4-11). In relation to the teaching of climate change and sustainability education in school, preliminary results suggest teachers expressed a desire for more sustainability actions being taken in school to reinforce student learning, more mentions of climate change and sustainability content in the National Curriculum within their particular subject area, more opportunities to collaborate with other staff to develop cross-curricula teaching materials, and more support from external organisations in developing teaching resources and strategies. However, the majority had not undertaken any professional development around climate change and sustainability education, including in their initial teacher education. As such, questionnaire data suggests a need for improved professional development opportunities for teachers of all disciplines and all phases, and at all stages of their career (initial teacher education through to senior leadership).

DfE (2022) Sustainability and climate change: a strategy for the education and children’s services systems. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy (Accessed 31 January, 2023). Greer, K. and Glackin, M. (2021) ‘What ‘counts’ as climate education? Perspectives from policy influencers’. School Science Review, 383, p.16. Howard-Jones, P., Sands, D., Dillon, J. and Fenton-Jones, F. (2021) ‘The views of teachers in England on an action-oriented climate change curriculum’, Environmental Education Research, 27(11), pp.1660-1680. Jickling, B. and Blenkinsop, S. (2020) ‘Wilding Teacher Education: Responding to the Cries of Nature’. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 23(1), pp. 121-138. Teach the Future (2019) Climate Change Education: Teachers’ Views. Available at: https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/6008334066c47be740656954/602d3c3c704f2324e80a72b5_20191125_UKSCN%20Oxfam%20teachers%20and%20climate%20change%20survey.pdf (Accessed 31 January, 2023). Teach the Future (2020) Teacher Training on Climate Education 2020. Available at: https://www.sos-uk.org/research/teacher-training-and-climate-education (Accessed 31 January, 2023). Læssøe, J., Schnack, K., Breiting, S. and Rolls, S. Climate Change and Sustainable Development: The Response from Education CROSS-NATIONAL REPORT (Danish School of Education, University of Aarhus, Denmark). Available at: http://dpu.dk/RPEHE and http://edusud.dk 2009 (Accessed 31 January 2023).