Category: Environment

Doctoral Student Spotlight: Antonia Voigt, Education PhD Student & Best Full Paper Award Winner

Posted on by cu19879

Antonia has been paving the way for greater sustainability management in UK universities after choosing to explore the topic for her doctoral thesis. Her work was even recognised for a prestigious award last year! 

We caught up with Antonia to learn more about her area of research expertise, her journey as a PhD student at the School of Education, and what her hopes are for her groundbreaking research after successfully defending her doctoral thesis.

Antonia presenting her PhD findings at the 84th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, the preeminent professional association for management and organization scholars.

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

I am a passionate researcher, and for the last nine years, I have immersed myself in the world of academia. I believe in the power of lifelong learning. Every year, I have pushed myself a little further beyond my comfort zone and tried out something new. Whether through presenting my research at a global conference or serving as the Faculty PGR representative at the University of Bristol, I am striving to have a positive impact on people’s lives. On the rare occasions when I am not at university, you will probably find me folding intricate origami figures or watching the latest K-drama series.

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CJERN- the new Climate Justice Education Research Network

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol
members of CJERN at the workshops
Idea generation in action CJERN

By Loz Hennessy, School of Education, University of Bristol

Colleagues across the GW4 have teamed up to form the new Climate Justice Education Research Network (CJERN). This is a new initiative, which loosely builds on the work of the previous CCERN network, but takes an explicitly justice-centred approach. The activities of the new network involve bringing together a core group of researchers from across the GW4 to explore potential collaborations in the field of climate justice education.

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Decolonising and Decarbonising Education

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

A School of Education Reflection by Pier Luc Dupont Picard and Alison Oldfield

In March 2023, a group of students and staff at the School of Education came together to learn about how climate justice and decolonising work are inextricably linked. We discussed the educational implications of decolonising and decarbonising agendas, reflecting on what this means for our theory and practice as students, researchers, and teachers. In this short post, we share some of our thoughts and provocations. (more…)

How might global indicators inform national discourse on climate change education? The case of England

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

By Paul Howard-Jones and Justin Dillon

On April 21st 2022, the UK government published its first education strategy for England on sustainability and climate change. It envisions that, by 2030, “the United Kingdom is the world-leading education sector in sustainability and climate change”.

Many might consider the threat of climate change alone as sufficient grounds for prompting a sense of urgency in educational policy making. However, global competitiveness and national prestige are potent political motivators that often feature in government discourse and policy, and it appears as true for climate change education as it does for other areas.

It could be claimed that the UK kickstarted global industrialisation in the 1700s, along with all its many opportunities and challenges, including the warming of our planet. It might be appropriate, therefore, that the UK wishes to lead education development in this area and such ambition should be applauded. In many respects, it’s exciting and reassuring to think of a world in which nations compete in a virtuous race to improve climate change communication and education (CCE).

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Introducing our new Master’s pathway: MSc Education (Education and Climate Change)

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

By Dr Alison Oldfield, MSc Programme Director, School of Education

We live in a time that is increasingly affected by the complex issue of climate change and what it means to live, work, and learn in a warming world. The implications of a warming climate are now regularly felt across the world and often in unequal and unjust ways. These changes bring with them questions about the role of education in shaping and addressing how we individually and collectively respond to and thrive on a warming planet. In recognition of this, the School of Education has developed a new pathway to add to its current master’s programmes, and this is now recruiting for its first class of students to start in September 2023. (more…)

“Leaky spaces for Climate Change Education are not enough for Bristol’s young people”

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

city hall, BristolBlog by Mrs Michelle Graffagnino, Senior Lecturer in Education, and Dr Nicola Warren-Lee, Senior Lecturer in Education.

After attending a Bristol Education Partnership Climate Change event at City Hall in Bristol, Nicola and Michelle recall the brilliance of the student contributions, the passion of the senior leaders and the ambiguity of the attending DfE representative.

City Hall in Bristol is impressive.  Even more so on a crisp autumnal morning full of enthusiastic school students armed with posters, and a cohort of beginning geography teachers ready to take their first steps into a microteaching event on climate change curriculum improvement in October 2022. The Bristol Education Partnership (BEP) had organised a climate conference to showcase individual schools’ climate change initiatives and to bring students to take part in workshops on different areas of climate action.  The School of Education, PGCE Secondary Geography group were there to support discussions on how the curriculum that students follow could be changed, improved and linked together. (more…)

What can prehistoric preschool teach us about climate change education in the present?

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog by Professor Paul Howard-Jones, School of Education, University of Bristol

Several years ago in Turkey, an archaeologist invited me to descend into a pit where one of the first urban settlements was being unearthed. There was a hearth, holes for holding pots and the remains of plaster on the walls, still bearing traces of decoration.

The layers of development exposed by this excavation revealed a continuous period of innovation since around 6000BC. Over its lifetime – around 1,200 years – the site hosted the first “urbanites”, who had left their nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle behind and begun a journey of creativity and invention. Among their ideas were novel building techniques, cooking methods, and ways to create and use pottery. (more…)

School of Education Climate Action Group: reflections on 2021-2022

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog by Professor Alf Coles, School of Education, University of Bristol

The School of Education Climate Action Group started in 2021 and, among many things it did in 2021-22, the most high profile was the ‘Climate Justice Challenge’, which ran for 30 days in March 2022.

This blog will reflect on that Challenge, as it is something we aim to re-run in March 2023, and also detail some of the wider and continuing aims of the Climate Action Group. (more…)

Latest Climate Action at the School of Education, University of Bristol

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

Blog post by Lauren Hennessy, Research Associate on the Climate Change Education Research Network

Since the launch of the Climate Change Education Research Network (CCERN) in November 2020, numerous new research projects and initiatives have been developed at the University of Bristol’s School of Education. Some have come out of CCERN’s work, others exist quite separately. This blog post highlights just a small selection of those initiatives. (more…)

The School of Education Climate Justice Challenge 2022: Get involved!

Posted on by School of Education University of Bristol

The School of Education is launching the Climate Justice Challenge 2022 and we want you to get involved!

As part of the “Advocacy” element of the School’s Climate Action Plan, during the month of March 2022, the School of Education is undertaking a ‘Climate Justice Challenge: Learning from Change’, supported by cCHANGE, a team of experts in transformational change from Norway.

The aim is for the challenge to help us explore how we mobilise to make wider changes. In particular, it will help us work on how we can act, as individuals, in teams, in our School, and in the wider University community, in ways that are consistent with the University’s declaration of a climate emergency. The challenge focus was chosen to reflect the broad agenda and commitments of the School. (more…)