There are many who think the most important thing we can do for our children and young people is to ensure they grow into responsible, respectful and compassionate people who will leave school with the skills to develop sustainable relationships with others and with their planet. However, this message is sometimes lost in the focus on academic achievement.
Much of the impetus we had in driving forward the education necessary to ensure widespread social change - such as in the United Nations “sustainable development goals” and the Scottish government’s Target 2030 learning for sustainability action plan - appears to have been lost amid other initiatives. Notable among these is the Rights Respecting School (RRS) programme.
While the latter is an undeniably worthy effort to bring attention to the United Nations Charter for the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and to ensure it is embedded in school ethos, RRS should be just one aspect of a school’s learning for sustainability (LfS) agenda.
Scotland’s focus on learning for sustainability
It needs to be remembered that while the UNCRC has a single mention in Scotland’s professional values for teachers, sustainability is highlighted three times and runs as a theme under almost all of the outlined aspects of social justice.
Furthermore, under the Standard for Full Registration (SFR), the General Teaching Council of Scotland identify LfS as a “whole-school commitment” to help a school community “develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and practices needed to take decisions which are compatible with a sustainable future in a just and equitable world”.
The inclusion of learning for sustainability in our professional standards is world leading - so why are we not making more of it as a profession?
As part of the SFR, it is a contractual obligation that all teachers engage with LfS, so the question to be posed is what more can be done to ensure this happens. There is no lack of willingness among teachers to make sure the culture of a school reflects aspects of sustainability, but they are worried about anything that increases workload in already overloaded times.
Those in charge should be very clear that LfS is not about extra work, but recognising that it already permeates much of what we do and making this explicit for learners.
Increasing engagement needs to come from senior leadership. There are two easily implemented ways to ensure this buy-in.
Firstly, given that LfS has such a high profile in the professional standards for teachers in Scotland, there should be some analysis of it in school inspections. Inspectors should ask questions on how social justice and education for a sustainable future fit into the ethos of a school.
There are many good examples across the country of how this is being done, including through values statements, which are embedded in the language of pupils and staff, and whole courses designed around the big questions affecting our future.
With the redirection of the education inspectorate in Scotland, and the development of new improvement frameworks, now is the time to ensure inspections reflect the importance of LfS.
Make LfS ‘integral’ to teachers’ work
Secondly, individual teachers should think about their own practice in relation to LfS; this could form an integral discussion as part of professional review and development (PRD) processes.
Senior leaders can make sure PRDs are valued across the school and have a definite effect on staff development - including questions about engagement with LfS, which will be welcomed by many teachers who can display the good work they are already doing in this respect.
These are ideas that need to be discussed and addressed on a national scale to ensure that learning for sustainability reaches the prominence that its importance demands.
In the meantime, Education Scotland’s LfS mentors are working within their local communities to help with both classroom practice and whole-school policy development for those who wish to get a head start.
John Rutter, a school leader in Scotland, is an Education Scotland Learning for Sustainability mentor but his views here are his own. To find out more about Learning for Sustainability, visit Education Scotland’s new web pages or email lfs@educationscotland.gov.scot
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