Learning for sustainability
Introduction
Learning for sustainability is an international and national priority in education.
In Scotland, the Professional Standards for Teachers are underpinned by learning for sustainability as a cross-cutting theme; interdependent with the other cross-cutting themes of values and leadership.
GTC Scotland has worked with Learning for Sustainability Scotland, Scotland’s United Nations University-recognised Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development, to develop resources to help teachers to explore learning for sustainability in the Professional Standards for Teachers.
Please watch this short Introduction to the learning for sustainability hub by Dr Pauline Stephen, Chief Executive and Registrar, GTC Scotland to find out more.
How to use this hub
This new resource is here to support you to reflect on, engage with and enhance learning for sustainability in both your own practice and the wider life of your setting and learning community.
This Hub contains four sections and you can find out more about each by clicking on the icons below.
We would welcome your feedback on the Hub.
Introduction
Learning for sustainability is an international and national priority in education.
In Scotland, the Professional Standards for Teachers are underpinned by learning for sustainability as a cross-cutting theme; interdependent with the other cross-cutting themes of values and leadership.
Making a professional commitment to learning and learners that is compatible with the aspiration of achieving a sustainable and equitable world embodies what it means to become, be and grow as a teacher in Scotland.
- GTC Scotland Professional Standards for Teachers 2021
What is learning for sustainability?
Learning for Sustainability is a cross-curricular approach to learning which enables learners, educators, learning settings and their wider communities to build a socially-just, sustainable and equitable society.
It is a whole-setting approach which weaves together global citizenship, sustainable development and outdoor learning to create coherent, rewarding and transformative learning experiences.
In Scotland, it is an entitlement for all learners aged 3 to 18, and the responsibility of all educators; as outlined in Scotland’s national Action Plan for Learning for Sustainability, ‘Target 2030: a Movement for People, Planet, and Prosperity'. This aims to:
build an inspiring movement for change so every 3 to 18 place of education becomes a sustainable learning setting by 2030.
Learning for Sustainability and your practice
Where am I on my learning for sustainability journey?
We have created a learning for sustainability overview and the Professional Standards, and self-evaluation tool to:
- support you with finding out where you are on your professional learning for sustainability journey
- help you to celebrate your strengths and identify areas for development.
Use these, along with the relevant Professional Standards, to get started.
Ethics and the teaching profession
Scotland’s Professional Standards actively support, embrace and promote the principles and practices of sustainability across all aspects. This means understanding and valuing environment, culture and heritage, developing a sense of place and belonging to the local, national and global community. It also means having a deep connection to the natural world and understanding the significance of the choices we make – now and in the future’
- GTC Scotland Professional Standards for Teachers 2021
We invited Dr Beth Christie, Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, and Director of Learning for Sustainability Scotland; Scotland’s UN University-recognised Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development, to provide a provocation as part of our Ethics and the Teaching Profession programme
Reflective questions
We also invite you to consider the following reflective questions:
- What are the drivers behind learning for sustainability?
- What becomes of us all - and our planet - if we don’t take issues of sustainability seriously?
- Are we unintentionally complicit in ‘Learning for Unsustainability’?
- As a teacher in Scotland today, how are our actions enabling learners to respond to and thrive and flourish within the 21st century?How are we supporting them to develop the values, skills and knowledge to engage with, understand, and respond to the societal, economic, and ecological challenges – and opportunities - facing our world?
- What would be ethical to do if we accept that formal education is supporting economic and societal systems that undermine the conditions of possibility for the biophysical survival of human and other species?
- ‘Our relationship with the natural world is core and fundamental to our collective future’, what is the role of teachers here?
You can find more information on the importance of ethics in teaching on our Professional ethics in teaching page.
Further resources
Education Scotland
Learning for Sustainability Scotland
These professional readings and learning and teaching resources have been selected by Learning for Sustainability Scotland to support teachers in Scotland to further enact and embed learning for sustainability in their practice.