Department marks World Environment Day with webinar on integrated environmental teaching

In conjunction with World Environment Day, a webinar organised by the Oxford Education Deanery at the Department, will discuss why teaching about the environmental cannot be siloed any longer.

The webinar on Climate Justice in the Classroom: Empowering Students as Agents of Change will take place on 5 June at 5pm online for teachers to explore how to integrate climate justice and human rights into environmental education in the classroom.

It will equip educators with effective strategies to address the social dimensions of climate change in their teaching practice.

Based on the new report “Engaging the Next Generation. The state of environmental, sustainability and climate education in UK schools and effective practice in the classroom”, experts from the University of Oxford and University College London (UCL), argue that interdisciplinary learning across subjects like Mathematics, History, Languages, and PE as well as Science and Geography, is essential for developing the systems thinking needed to address complex sustainability challenges, rather than teaching about the environment in siloed subjects as is currently the case.

The report is commissioned by the UK National Association for Environmental Education and research evidence is written by Dr Isobel Talks, a postdoctoral researcher and Dr William Finnegan, Sustainability Education and Research Manager at University of Oxford. Professor Justin Dillon from UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education, who is the President of NAEE, wrote the foreword to the report and will introduce the report at the webinar.

Dr Finnegan said: “I often come across educators looking for advice on how to best tackle climate change and sustainability in the classroom, and with this report we synthesise recent academic literature within the context of environmental education practice and policy across the four nations of the UK.

“We also present a series of recommendations for people with different roles in the education system, and one of the main messages is that we need to work together, especially across academic disciplines and school subjects, to ensure we are preparing leaners for a world shaped by the climate crisis and how we collectively respond.”

To register for the free event, visit the Oxford Education Deanery page.