'Shared understanding' and why it is critical to the future of climate and sustainability education in Wales

Today, the much anticipated report by Grip Herio Cymru Sero Net 2035 / Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group is published. The group was tasked with examining and recommending potential pathways for getting Wales to Net Zero by 2035.

***Full disclosure, I live in Wales, was educated here, and was interviewed by the authors of the education section of the report.***

The education section - What could education skills and work look like across Wales by 2035? - focuses on climate change and sustainability education (CCSE) and recommends pathways Wales could follow to ensure education plays the role it needs to play to get Wales to Net Zero by 2035. Educators, at all levels - and school teachers especially - will be key to this. The report says this: "CCSE research indicates that teachers need support and training to effectively teach cross-curricular CCSE." How much 'support and training' is needed isn't elaborated on. It is a big unknown, it could easily be a lot more, or a lot less, than you think.

The group therefore recommend the commissioning of "a survey on teacher confidence to teach climate change and sustainability education and ascertain teacher training requirements by 2026." This seems absolutely critical, and it needs to be comprehensive. It also needs to be conducted in the context of very clear definitions of what, exactly, CCSE, and 'the challenge' it is responding to, are. This is what I want to focus on in this article.

Definitions of both CCSE and 'the challenge' are widely contested, and will likely go on being. These are questions that are politically charged and too often shied away from. But, without some degree of national-level consensus on both, it will be extremely hard to design and roll out a nationwide programme that has the desired effect. So they need to be defined, but how? And by who?

Let's look at CCSE first. In the report (see p. 9), the group talk about CCSE as a "type of education" and argue that it "should be participatory, interdisciplinary, creative, place-based, relevant, and include project-based learning." There is plenty to unpack in these few adjectives alone, but we could also ask if some are missing? 'Transformative?' 'Critical?' 'Student-led?' 'Values-conscious?' 'Reflective?' We also have to ask if CCSE is a 'type' of education that sits alongside others, or if we've reached a point in time when we need to start asking whether all education needs to be thought of as CCSE? If it isn't and its opposites outcompete it, where does that leave us? Probably not on a pathway to Net Zero by 2035.

The group's list does, however, get us some way towards a definition. That is probably enough for now, and a wise move by the authors. It is better, ultimately, if a definition of CCSE comes from those who will actually do the climate change and sustainability educating. So perhaps what might be required first, before a survey, is a national conversation on what CCSE is - that would get us closer to a consensus and, crucially, the sort of working definition that's needed.

What of 'the challenge'? How should that be defined and by whom? This is covered in the education section of the report, and it will be covered in other sections I'm sure. Worth noting, however, that the report goes much bigger on 'the opportunities'. Again, a potentially wise move.

On 'the challenge', on page 8, the group say this: "Societal transformation requires a shared understanding of the challenge, starting with early years education and continuing through secondary and tertiary education to lifelong learning." That's an acknowledgment then, of the need for a consensus on the nature of 'the challenge', and very welcome.

The question therefore is whether a 'shared understanding' amongst educators and teachers exists? Because if it doesn't, the hoped for 'shared understanding' in the wider population is highly unlikely to emerge. The proposed survey of teachers might be used to determined if a shared understanding already exists. It might. But it might be erroneous. It feels unlikely that an accurate 'shared understanding' of 'the challenge' exists amongst teachers. If it did, I don't think CCSE would be what it currently is in Wales (and Wales is far from alone in this!) So, once again, it might be that a national conversation needs to be had, this time on 'the challenge'.

Both the national conversations I'm proposing here could happen together. The latter, after all, frames the former.

This national conversation amongst educators and teachers would, of course, be an educative process in its own right. The consensus reached on what the challenge is, and what CCSE therefore is, would be imperfect. All such deliberative processes involve a healthy dose of agonising within, and between, individuals. They rarely produce THE answer, but they get us closer. An imperfect, but community generated, consensus would be a solid grounding upon which a fuller programme of teacher education could be built. A powerful form of CCSE would result, from which the hoped for Wales-wide 'societal transformation' would one day [hopefully] flow.

Global Action Plan is increasingly active in Wales. We are working with the Football Association of Wales in support of their grassroots efforts to improve the sustainability performance of football clubs at all levels. Today, we are also launching Good Life Schools, our National Lottery funded CCSE programme, in south and south west Wales (as well as in the east Midlands, south Yorkshire, and the north east of England.

It will be interesting to see what impact the Wales Net Zero 2035 reports have. I hope the Welsh Government act on the recommendations set out in the education section of the report. The devil is in the detail, but they are good. It is a rational, well researched, and very well thought out report. Global Action Plan stands ready to support and act. We do CCSE a bit differently and believe strongly that (as a sector) we need to. Especially if we are truly serious about societal transformation.