Network connects educators with latest research in Climate Change Education

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog post by Lauren Hennessy, Research Associate, CCERN, University of Bristol

The Climate Change Education Research Network (CCERN),  formed in November 2020, was funded by the GW4 generator grant, to connect academic researchers and educators to address the big questions in Climate Change Education (CCE) together.

The network brings together researchers from the universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter to work in collaboration with local teachers and schools (across subject areas, phases and ages) with the aims of boosting understanding and supporting effective practice in Climate Change Education (CCE).

Research

The network acts as a springboard for new research projects, and there are many in the pipeline.

In 2021, CCERN launched the CCE School Survey – an innovative approach to conduct research into the current state of climate change education in schools, using teachers as researchers to gather data on the ground. This project focuses on the methodology and was funded by the Brigstow Institute. The image below shows the process of creating that survey. If you are part of a school setting, Find out more and get involved here.

Image by Sam Church, @samchurch_ink

Conferences

CCERN hosted its first online conferences on 20th April 2021. The event saw 300 attendees register from across the education sector and beyond.

The conference kicked off with a video compilation of youth climate activists explaining why they believe the climate emergency should be top of all teachers’ priority list – watch the Youth Voice video here.

Next, we interviewed Dr Martha Monroe of the University of Florida to establish the theoretical context. Monroe shared findings from a recent review into effective strategies in climate change education. Watch the full interview with Martha Monroe here and read the review here.

We then heard valuable contributions from a variety of teachers from across the CCERN network at different phases and with diverse approaches – watch the presentations here.

The next conference was held on Monday 12th July 2021, and you can visit the CCERN website to watch a recording of this event.

Keep informed

Sign up to our mailing list and follow us on Twitter to stay in the loop about our work. If you want to get more involved please contact us at ed-climate@bristol.ac.uk .

Lauren Hennessy is a Research Associate at the University of Bristol