The team behind the BERA 2021 Research Commission on Education for Environmental Sustainability have published a community guide based on the preliminary findings of their work.

Working with over 200 teachers and young people from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the commission recognises the tremendous role played by organisations and groups in environmental education in the formal and non-formal sectors.

The commission has identified five key ways that the environmental education community can support education for environmental sustainability:

• Award: Create a no-cost, external, accredited award for students which has an environmental sustainability focus and which universities recognise.
• Recognise: Support and recognise teachers who work across networks of schools with award schemes to uplift collective action and the empowerment and support of others.
• Curriculum: Develop a community ‘sustainability curriculum’ for clubs, groups and parents involved in education.
• Hubs: Value schools as local hubs for sustainability where people from across the community (including alumni, staff, students, parents, siblings) can take part in and lead education, activities and build networks.
• Start young: Identify and value sustainability education undertaken during the early years and in primary school and build on this work through community-based partnerships between primary and secondary schools e.g. ‘near-peer’ teaching in both formal and non-formal settings.

The community guide supplements the policy brief and guide for schools. The manifesto – highlighting implications for policy, schools and the wider community – will be illustrated by Maisy Summer and launched on 1st November 2021, to coincide with the start of the COP26 UN climate change conference.  To attend the launch and find out more, please visit the event page.