Taking stock of environmental education policy in England – the what, the where and the why

Abstract

Taking England as our case study, this paper reviews secondary school environmental education from a policy perspective. By drawing on Stevenson’s typologies for environmental improvement and Lucas’ categorisation of environmental education, we analyse national policy documents, local authority and Multi-Academy Trust policies; and individual school planning documents. Our findings suggest in these areas a general absence of environment education policy, and where identified a rhetoric towards conservative reform framed as technology solutions, where learning is about the environment, rather than for the environment. We explain how the (lack of) environmental education rhetoric is a result of global economic changes and national austerity policies, and offer insights and signposting for policy makers.

Keywords:

• Environmental education
• secondary education
• policy
• curriculum

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Kate Greer & Meg Maguire for their insights and helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Education provision, curricula and assessment in the UK are the responsibility of each devolved nation.

2 It was noted that the OCR GCSE ‘Environmental and land-based science’ had been recently withdrawn, with the final exam in summer 2018. Also, the AQA GCSE ‘Environmental Science’ has since been withdrawn, with the final examination in summer 2017.

Additional information

Funding

Funding and grant-awarding bodies: The research received funding from the British Academy Leverhulme Small Research Grant (REF SG161081).

Notes on contributors

Melissa Glackin

Melissa Glackin is a Senior Lecturer in Science Education at the School of Education, Communication and Society, King’s College London. Her research explores environmental education and out-of-classroom learning in secondary schools.

Heather King

Heather King is Reader in Science Education at the School of Education, Communication and Society, King’s College London. Her research examines social justice-informed pedagogical practices in schools and informal science learning environments.