Today we released some exciting new research! Conducted by Teacher Tapp on 11th January 2022, we surveyed 4690 secondary education teachers from across England about their experience with climate education and whether they believe it is embedded in their curriculum in a meaningful and relevant way. The data has been weighted to reflect the national population of teachers in England and this report provides details of the results according to the main subject taught by respondents. You can read the full report here on the research section of our website.
This research has shown that fewer than 50% of science teachers say they are teaching about the ecological crisis and that it is embedded in a meaningful and relevant way in the curricula they teach. There are just under 3.5 million students in secondary schools across England, and it is shocking that 1.7 million of them are not learning about this effectively.
Think this is just a one off? 68% of English teachers, 75% of Maths teachers, 54% of History teachers, 56% of Language teachers and 60% of Arts teachers surveyed say climate change, the ecological crisis, and the challenges posed by these issues are not embedded in their school’s curriculum as opposed to the 6% of Geography teachers. The climate crisis can’t be looked at through a singular lens. In order to tackle the climate crisis and learn about it fully, climate education needs to be embedded across all subject areas. If we’re only educating geography students on the climate crisis, we’re excluding the majority. The climate crisis affects everyone and everything so why aren’t we all learning about it?
Additionally, to support the embedding of climate change within the curriculum for their subjects, the teachers we surveyed said they would need opportunities to collaborate with different subjects to develop the curriculum (39%) and specific capacity/time to develop climate change curriculum content (43%). Similarly, to support the embedding of the ecological crisis within the curriculum 39% said they’d need specific capacity/time to develop climate change curriculum content and 33% said they’d need opportunities to collaborate with different subjects to develop the curriculum. Teachers are our keys to education, shouldn’t they be given the tools to teach us in order to prepare us for the future? More time to develop content and opportunities to collaborate across courses shouldn’t be too much to ask to be able to teach us to the best of their ability.
This research is super important to our campaign as it shows us that we are not alone in thinking that climate change is excluded from our education. The teachers themselves know it is too!
Want to read more? Head to our website!
Agree with us? Share our research online via Twitter, Facebook and/or Instagram.
A big thank you to all the teachers surveyed, your reponses have been a big influence on our campaign and will help us spread the word about the need for #ClimateEducationNOW!
Cover Image: @javotrueba
