This article appeared on the website of the Oxford University Education Deanery on 11th July 2023 and has been adapted for this website.
In July 2023, I was delighted to have the opportunity to work with Dr Travis Fuchs, and the Oxford Education Deanery, to host a Sustainability Education Colloquium, the first of the Deanery’s suite of teacher learning events for 2023. We convened a group of 25 educators, including 15 teachers from 11 local schools. On a warm Friday evening we met for discussions about climate change and the implications for schools, and a sustainable dinner at St Anne’s College, Oxford.
The following day the group reconvened at the Oxford University research woodland, Wytham Woods, just outside Oxford, where the group discussed why sustainability is so relevant for schools, focusing particularly on (1) the potential benefits of more nature exposure on student (and teacher) wellbeing, and (2) the potential of highlighting the huge growth of sustainability-focussed careers to teenagers, particularly those struggling with the enormity of the implications of the climate and nature crises on their futures.
Our expert witnesses were Professor Ilina Singh, Professor of Neuroscience and Society at the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University, who shared her expertise on the impact of nature on the wellbeing of humans, and Tim Kruger, a carbon sequestration entrepreneur, and Niall McWilliams, Managing Director of Oxford United Football Club, who both spoke about the world of sustainable work opening up for young people and the importance of preparing them with the relevant knowledge and skills.
Biodiversity experts Dr Liam Crowley and Dr Dani Linton introduced the group to moths and bats respectively, discussing the opportunities for nature connection, and the worrying impacts of climate on biodiversity.
Dr Laura Molway and Dr Hamish Chalmers, co-directors of the Education Deanery, were delighted with the success of the event. “On a weekend that followed the hottest British June on record and five days of the hottest global temperatures ever, this colloquium was timely and starkly relevant.”
