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The review article presents an analysis of the literature on environmental literacy in sustainable development. By utilizing techniques to examine multiple documents published between 2013 and 2023, including citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, subject area analysis, and keyword analysis, this study aims to provide valuable information and insights into the research landscape surrounding environmental literacy and its contribution to promoting sustainable development. A systematic search was conducted to gather several scientific articles, conference papers, and publications from the Scopus database from 2013 to 2023. The findings of this analysis shed light on authors, influential institutions, and active research groups that contributed to the study of environmental literacy and sustainable development. This comprehensive review offers an understanding of the state of research in this field while identifying areas for further exploration and research gaps. The insights gained from this study can be highly beneficial for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to advance knowledge and take action toward promoting literacy's role in sustainable development. This analysis is a foundation for advancing our understanding of literacy's significance while emphasizing its vital role in sustainable development efforts.

The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive effects of epistemological beliefs about science and informal reading of scientific texts on students' future-oriented optimism on the issue of climate change. Future-oriented climate change optimism is defined as encompassing "hope" and "anticipation" about the climate future. To identify the relationships among variables, structural equation modelling was conducted on the PISA dataset on 15-year-old students from Denmark, the UK and Finland which have the top three Environmental Protection Index. Students of all three countries demonstrated a consistently low optimism about the future of climate change. Also, the findings indicated that students' epistemological beliefs about science had a significantly negative predicting effect on their future-oriented climate change optimism across all three countries, while their informal reading of scientific texts had a significantly positive predictive effect on their future-oriented climate change optimism in Denmark and the UK. Across all three countries, 15-year-old students' awareness of the issue of climate change plays a significantly negative mediating role between their epistemological beliefs about science and their optimism in the future climate, as well as their informal reading of scientific texts and their optimism in the future climate. This calls for a new curricular environmental-science education model that addresses how students' informal science reading and epistemological beliefs about science can address future-oriented climate change optimism which might in turn impact young people's action competence to address the issues of climate change.

From a Self-Determination Theory perspective, children are expected to grow according to innate tendencies in supportive environments, such as nature-based educational settings. The role of the practitioner is generally viewed as facilitative in these contexts. We report findings from a qualitative study with a sample of 18 UK-based outdoor educational practitioners. We asked them to respond to four hypothetical situations with differing levels of required intervention. Our purpose was to examine the extent of autonomy support and structure that they would hypothetically provide to the children in each of these different scenarios, and even uncover possible tensions in the application of autonomy support and structure. Our analysis suggests that, in situations of low interventional requirement, practitioners could understate structure and autonomy support and, in situations of high interventional requirement, prioritize structure over autonomy support. The challenge for practitioners that was revealed in this research, as well its implications, are discussed.

In recent years, the sustainability literacy has become crucial for building more sustainable future. In this regard, a shift toward sustainability requires literate society on sustainability issues at global scale. Thus, the current study aims to detect the status of sustainability literacy of British and Turkish students. The study was conducted as a survey research with university students in the UK and Turkey within the context of a project that was supported by TUBITAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Organization) and entitled "Ecological literacy education". The participants (n: 1023) of the study are students attending several departments of Plymouth University in the UK and Mugla Sitki Kocman University in Turkey. The data were collected by using the Scala of Sustainability Literacy and analyzed using appropriate statistical tests at SPSS 22. The findings show that the participants' sustainability literacy varies significantly depending on their sustainability attitude (SA), sustainability behavior (SB), sustainability knowledge (SK). Besides, the results of t-test analysis indicate that the participants exhibit different tendencies depending on the variables nationality, gender and place. On the other hand, the results of One-way ANOVA-Test revealed that the participants' sustainability literacy varies depending on the department attended.

This study uses intergenerational dialogue as an approach to researching Education for Environmental Sustainability (EfES) with UK youth (aged 16-18 years), teachers and teacher educators. Through analysis of qualitative data from 210 participants shared through 18 h of participatory online workshops, we identify the framings introduced into discussions on EfES. We find a range of conceptual framings, with youth tending to centre on levels of accountability and critique of economic prioritisation. The case study demonstrates how intergenerational perspectives can be brought into conversation during the research process and identifies an appetite for intergenerational dialogue in EfES. We argue that intergenerational dialogue opens up our collective selves (adult and youth) to the thinking of others so that we can transform obstructions and enact education for environmental sustainability. Future work should consider the place for dialogue between key actors across generations in education decision-making processes.

In today's rapidly evolving global economy, it is essential to equip young learners with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in the workforce and contribute to economic development. Education is a vital driver of human capital and development in countries, and the effectiveness of any educational system depends heavily on its curriculum. This article studies the pivotal role of the curriculum in shaping education and its contribution to economic development. We examined four components (objectives, content, teaching-learning methods, and evaluation) of secondary school curricula in G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA) and Iran to present a set of proposed concepts for the Iranian curriculum with a focus on economic features. A comparative strategy with four qualitative stages (description, interpretation, juxtaposition, comparison) was used. The proposed concepts are arranged in three layers: the first includes improvement of scientific skills; technical skills; and process skills. The second includes study of world history and geography, and other countries' languages and cultures. The third includes altruism for others, and health and environment. Our study serves as an introduction to the skills and abilities needed by Iranian students to compete in the real world. It also provides a concise outline of some of the essential competencies for tomorrow's society and workplaces.

Forest schools are distinctive outdoor spaces that are often regarded as an alternative to mainstream education. Their increasing popularity in the United Kingdom is often attributed to a perceived decrease in children's outdoor play, due to a concomitant increase in children's use of digital technologies in the home; further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores how iPads can enhance outdoor learning activities. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 Key Stage 2 children selected from two UK primary schools. The interviews explored the experiences and opinions of the children about the role of iPads in the forest school space using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Findings suggest that Forest School spaces can accommodate new technologies through accommodation of the outdoor environment and technology. Suggestions for future research include the meaningful integration of iPads into Forest School practice while considering the relative influences of space and place.

Awareness of environmental problems such as climate change can motivate action, but educators debate whether to raise students' awareness given that it may provoke eco-anxiety. We have even less understanding of how these relationships are affected by young people's growing disconnection from nature. Through 28 semi-structured interviews in Canada and the United Kingdom, we explore how educators perceive students' nature connection and eco-anxiety and how they introduce discussion of environmental problems. Educators frequently observed experiential, cognitive, and emotional indicators of nature disconnection and eco-anxiety, although many (39%) reported rarely, if ever, witnessing such environmentally related distress. Educators prioritised improving nature connection over raising awareness of environmental problems. When they discuss these issues with students, they emphasise hope and encourage pro-environmental behaviours to avoid eliciting eco-anxiety for those not currently experiencing it, a strategy that is partially inconsistent with literature suggesting some eco-anxiety can nurture pro-environmental behaviour. Our findings provide new insights into the challenges that educators face in helping their students navigate current environmental trends.

Teaching geography creates an opportunity for the transfer of knowledge about environmental problems and ways of solving them. Teachers from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Turkey, and the United Kingdom indicated strengths and weaknesses of physical geography as well as the selected geographical concepts of: Maps/Cartography, Astronomy/The Earth in the Universe, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Endogenic processes, Exogenic processes, and Soils and biosphere. There was a variety in how confident students were around these topic areas. The main types of difficulties identified by the study were: too little time for implementation, difficult terminology, and lack of tools for the proper transfer of knowledge. Moreover, the attractiveness of individual issues for students also varies. The research clearly shows that students lack an awareness of problems related to the environment. There are considerable differences between the level of students' knowledge about climate change or air and water pollution (relatively high awareness of global warming) and issues related to soil and vegetation cover (low awareness of soil depletion, soil pollution, changing the boundaries of the occurrence of plant zones, etc.). To make people aware of the importance of environment, we should take care of education in relation to global challenge and sustainable development.

It is particularly important that children have a clear understanding and appreciation of the importance of our environment and that they consider themselves as part of it. Children must therefore be provided with evidence-informed learning activities to enable them to understand how they are intrinsically part of the local and global environment, and how people's actions, both individually and collectively, can influence the health of an environment and ultimately all living things. This article reports on one school's approach to engaging children in Education for Sustainability by learning about how the people of Bangladesh have worked together to offer an extremely creative and effective solution to the effects of global warming, which has led to devastating sea-level rises and flooding.

This paper explores how children (aged 7-11) in the UK are educated about sustainability and climate change, through exploring a sample of 155 learning resources from public, private and third sector organisations. Using qualitative content analysis, key codes captured (a) how sustainability was represented; (b) how responsibilities for sustainability are imagined and allocated within society; and (c) how children are encouraged to act for sustainability. The paper shows how sustainability resources represent children as powerful agents of social change charged with the responsibility and means to change their (and their close relatives') behaviour within the household and school. Drawing on critical debates about sustainability education, I argue these representations are problematic because they do not equip children with an understanding of the political and moral economies that shape their actions (or inactions) as citizens, nor provide them with opportunities to develop collaborative competencies.

Young people are key stakeholders in the future, but their stake is rarely considered in decision making and policy development. In this paper we explore how climate change education can allow the voices of young people to be listened to and help young people imagine desirable futures and develop agency to address the steps, both personal and policy based, that are needed to achieve this. Initially reporting on the findings of a survey of 985 young people (aged 7-18 years from across the UK), we explore what young people currently know about climate change. Informed by this data, we then present a creative approach to backcasting, using a participatory action pedagogical approach to explore the desired futures that 150 young people aged 8-11 years have about the fast fashion industry. We suggest that within the context of fast fashion and other climate related industries, such a methodology could enable educators to address climate change without provoking eco-anxiety and provide a way that decision makers in industry and government can listen to young people's voices.

A challenge for using evaluation data to improve climate change education in schools is access to an instrument for teachers to measure behavioral changes and their antecedents. We report on teachers' implementation of a brief survey measuring climate-related beliefs, self-efficacy, intention to act, action, and anxiety before and after their program of climate change education for students (aged 11-14 years, N = 62). Results indicated improvement in self-efficacy but not in students' intention to act. This prompted teaching staff to generate modifications aimed at fostering greater behavioral change, with staff discussion focused on students' emotions and revisions characterized by creative, affect-driven approaches. Our paper demonstrates how data from a reproducible evaluation tool can inform teachers' efforts to improve their practice.

What would it mean to put environmental sustainability at the heart of education? This article describes a process of inclusive, participatory manifesto-making to identify young people's (aged 16-18 years) and teachers' priorities for education for environmental sustainability across the UK. Drawing on analysis of qualitative data from over 200 teachers and young people who participated in futures and visualisation workshops, we identify key educational priorities at the levels of classroom, school, community and policy, based on consensus between teacher and youth perspectives. Whilst consensus-seeking comes with a risk of favouring 'soft' actions which reinforce unsustainable practices and systems, the process of identifying more desirable futures and immediate barriers that must be negotiated to reach them has the potential to create spaces for more critical pedagogies and practices. There is a need for policy makers and school leaders to recognise the interests of teachers and young people to enable greater participation in decision making at different scales, and to ensure that those with the greatest capacity bear their burden of responsibility for education for environmental sustainability.

This article offers a concise account of the known science underpinning the greenhouse effect and global warming. The greenhouse effect is described at different levels of sophistication. It explains how greenhouse gases work and their relative contribution to warming. Climate models are introduced, as are climate sensitivity, feedback mechanisms and uncertainties. It explains how disruption of the thermohaline circulation could make Europe colder in a warmer world. Global warming sceptics are discussed. The role of political bodies like the IPCC is described, as are the main ways we can respond to warming: mitigation, accommodation and protection.

Mobile learning is well established in literature and practice, but under-evolved from a rigorous learning design perspective. Activity theory presents a sophisticated way of mapping and understanding learning design, but for mobile learning this does not always translate into change in practice. The reported research addresses this by coupling a mobile learning specific approach to activity theory with a practice-based framework: the design for transformative mobile learning framework mapped to the pedagogy-andragogy-heutagogy continuum matrix (the DTML-PAH Matrix). Seven case studies are analysed using this approach and presented narratively along with framework informed analysis. Findings include that the DTML-PAH Matrix can be used to provide clearer implications and guidance for mobile learning practice, and that the DTML-PAH Matrix can also be guided by the practice over time. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.

Children, and the adults who are responsible for their education, demonstrate an increasing lack of environmental understanding and knowledge. This is important because the development of societal environmental literacy will be key to the responses that we make to the current climate crisis. Many teachers perceive themselves to lack the skills, knowledge and resources to undertake meaningful outdoor education but through our study we show that by working with a professional environmental educator these limitations can be overcome. We have shown that children and adults can enhance their understanding and knowledge of an aquatic habitat and that through this kind of first-hand experience the impact upon children can be a lasting one.

In this article, the author discusses her ground-breaking work with her organisation, Creative Tuition Collective, in Bristol, and how schools can have an impact on decolonising the curriculum through active environmental science contexts. Included is an exemplar diversification STEM activity for primary level.

Motivation theory is indispensable when discussing processes of learning. Learners who are motivated can learn almost everything. Students' motivation is probably one of the most important factors for teacher effectiveness both for engagement in the learning process and high academic performance. To have effective environmental education, it is not only necessary to inform the public about the ocean but also to involve and engage them is essential. Motivation and engagement are some of the most commonly mentioned concepts in gamification, thus, a gamified application seems to have the necessary features to improve the motivation of students in the learning context of Ocean Literacy topics. The main aims of this work were: i) to understand through a systematic evaluation, how game elements affect the different motivation layers; and ii) to compare them in terms of enhancing the motivation to recycle among secondary school students (11-14 years). To measure students' motivation, a pre-test and a post-test using a recycling situational motivation survey were administered in a classroom environment in Portugal and the UK. Findings show a trend regarding the effect of game elements mainly on the most autonomous forms of motivation. The different game elements, each one with different degrees of effects, were shown to have potential to increase motivation.

This article highlights three key features that appeared to add value to young people's experience of a school-linked environmental education initiative built around conservation activities. The three features -- close-up encounters with other species, working with external experts, and a degree of informality -- were identified through a combination of participant-observation, and focus groups seeking young people's own perspectives. This article therefore responds to the need for further studies focusing not (only) on the outcomes of such programmes, but on participants' lived experience of the processes contributing to them. Taken together, the three features highlight the value of a process of 'curriculum making' that included an openness to the communities in which schools are situated, to the material or 'more-than-human' world, and to unplanned events that enabled young people to experience a programme in their own ways. This finding brings together conclusions from related studies that separately emphasise the role of these elements in curriculum making processes.

Low levels of concern about anthropogenic climate change have been attributed to a range of factors, some of which relate to education. These include people's lack of understanding and engagement with the multifaceted nature and extent of the problem that it presents to current and future generations. Limited knowledge is also known to be an obstacle to individual behaviour change, with important implications for young people's perceptions of the urgency to act and awareness of the consequences of their own behaviours. In this study, we explored ways to address low levels of understanding about ocean science dimensions to climate change phenomena, cognisant of a growing awareness that formal education curricula do not adequately engage young people with developing ocean literacy. Participants were a sample of secondary school students (11 to 14 years) in Portugal and the UK. Using a gamified mobile application, it was examined relationships between the use of different game elements such as points, badges and leaderboards, and learning outcomes. Systematic evaluation of each element shows how different game features affected the participants' learning experience and learning outcomes. Implications for formal and informal marine education, climate education, and how to improve ocean literacy efforts, are also discussed.

Extensive research in learning science has established the importance of time management in online learning. Recently, learning analytics (LA) has shed further lights on the temporal characteristics of learning by allowing researchers to capture authentic digital footprints of student learning behaviours. Nonetheless, students' timing of engagement and its relation to learning design (LD) and academic performance have received limited attention. This study investigates to what extent students' timing of engagement aligned with instructor learning design, and how engagement varied across different levels of performance. Our findings revealed a mismatch between how instructors designed for learning and how students study. In most weeks, students spent less time studying the assigned materials on the virtual learning environment (VLE) compared to the number of hours recommended by instructors. The timing of engagement also varied, from in advance to catching up patterns. High-performing students spent more time studying in advance, while low-performing students spent a higher proportion of their time on catching-up activities. By incorporating the pedagogical context into learning analytics, not only we can understand what, why, and when students engage, but also how their behaviours are influenced by the way instructors design for learning.

Over the past 25 years Forest School in the UK has been growing in popularity as part of a wider resurgence of interest in outdoor learning. A key driver behind this recurrence of interest has been a growing concern over the lack of child exposure to outdoor experiences and with the natural world and their ensuing nature-deficit disorder. This article considers Forest School as linked with the concept of nature connection that is the sensation of belonging to a wider natural community. This sense of belonging developed by being in nature can also be a key factor in promoting attachment and sense of place which in turn is associated with the promotion of health, wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours. As such the origins towards achieving nature connection are a formal part of the Forest School Association's (FSA 2016). Forest School principals, with growing research linking Forest School and nature connection as concomitant. Recent work has suggested that contact, emotion, meaning, compassion, and beauty are key pathways for the formation of nature connection and there is a strong need to better understand children's nature connection in this context. Further, from the premise that what goes on in spaces and places is fundamentally linked to both social and spatial processes, this article also attempts to understand the spatialities of Forest School in order to frame the development of nature connection within a socio-spatial analytic.

Global warming and climate change are serious issues facing humanity at present and education needs to focus on including informed-decision in classroom practices. The conceptual framework used in this study has provided interconnections that influence beliefs and understandings in providing a knowledge base for making "informed-decision" among high school students. This study was conducted in three year 9 classes in two high schools in the UK and among 65 students. An inquiry intervention model was developed using the 5E instructional model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) to identify beliefs and understanding and to strengthen students' knowledge base. This study used a design-based research setting and utilised a mixed methodology. The Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were computed to examine the pre-post-difference among questionnaire items, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilised to explore the relationship between belief, understanding, and intention. Data analysis of the intervention revealed that students developed a strong understanding of the causes and effects of global warming. There is evidence that students used that knowledge to "inform-decision" in relation to global warming and climate change. Promoting informed decision-making through science teaching can encourage responsible action in the future. The real gap identified in this study is that the regular school curriculum does not engage socio-scientific issues in the real world and has no opportunity to organise an inquiry-based instructional sequence for informed decision-making.

Pervasive digitality reveals us as analogue creatures that are unprepared for a world and a logic generated increasingly through automation. Promulgated by capitalism, digitality has created a new form of alienation, one far more powerful and comprehensive than that envisaged by either Marx or Lukács in the analogue-industrial age. Digital alienation-through-automation is the central process in our digital post-modernity. The effects reach increasing registers and spheres of culture, economy and politics. This essay considers the effects within the production of knowledge within higher education. Through a critique of Clayton Christensen's concept of 'disruptive technologies', it develops the argument that knowledge produced in our higher institutions of learning suffer from two forms of 'knowledge capture'. The first and most comprehensive is knowledge increasingly oriented toward instrumental outcomes, generated in vocationally oriented and market-pressured contexts, and produced by the general-sector institutions; second is knowledge, much of it profound and potentially world-changing--in economics and climate science in the cases discussed here. These are generated in both prestigious general-sector universities, and in the elite Ivy League and Russell Group universities but are unable to gain traction with an ascendant and alien post-Westphalian, post-modern and post-Enlightenment political context--created by a globalising digitality. I argue that unless we recognise our analogue essence, and that this has been alienated by digital automation, then the aporias of digitality, with knowledge production an important element, then our institution of higher learning will continue to produce much valuable knowledge that has diminishing practical (political) effect.

In this short reflection on how research and policy can connect fruitfully, I briefly outline three key concepts that have arisen in my work on inter-professional collaboration in the caring professions: relational expertise, common knowledge and relational agency. I have argued that these concepts describe the work that is done at sites of intersecting practices to enable quick and meaningful collaboration on complex problems. I also, however, point to the dangers of omitting the intentions of citizens from these exchanges. Describing the research-policy interface as a site of intersecting practices, I draw on a recent study undertaken at a UK University to show how these concepts can explain successful relational engagements at the research-policy interface that benefit both research and policy and highlight the moral purposes of this kind of engagement in relation to environmental and sustainability education.

This special issue examines how relationships between research and policy in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) can be strengthened. Our contribution draws on three cases from outside the ESE space to analyse policymakers' perspectives on using evidence to inform decision-making, and to show that government-based policymakers develop 'policy narratives' which influence their evidence use. We also illustrate how government departmental systems and processes lead policymakers to develop 'evidence narratives' which help them make sense of what evidence to use and how to use it in the policy development process. At its core, such work involves negotiating three normative positions around evidence, concerning: fidelity to science, democratic representation, and cost-effective use of public money. In light of this, we suggest that where policy narratives and evidence narratives interact should be interpreted as a key site for empirically investigating evidence-informed policymaking activities. Developing a detailed awareness of what policymakers do on a daily basis, and discerning how organisational systems and processes influence particular demands for evidence and how it is used, will foster a better understanding of the relationships between research and policy.

This article provides ethnographic insight into the more-than-human relationships enacted through young people's participation in school grounds conservation activities. As a response to the escalating biodiversity crisis, conservation appears well-placed to facilitate young people's development of an environmental ethic of care, and a capacity to work towards addressing environmental issues. Proponents of post-human pedagogies, however, argue that the 'stewardship' perspective underlying these activities fails to achieve the radical shift in human-environment relations required in response to the Anthropocene, given its apparent reinforcement of a perceived human/nature binary, and narrow 'solutions'-based approach. Considering these critiques, this article demonstrates that where there is openness to unplanned more-than-human encounters and the enactment of young people's own 'lived curricula', conservation activities can nonetheless enable forms of 'collective thinking with the more-than-human world' that transcend any underlying 'stewardship' perspective. We therefore point to the potential role of conservation activities within post-human responses to the Anthropocene, provided such openness is maintained.

Outdoor learning provides an opportunity for schools to foster children's engagement with nature. This paper focusses on forest school practitioners' perceptions of children's development of a relationship with nature and the place where forest school occurs, through interviews with forest school activity leaders. Reflecting on literature, the analysis of interviews sought to identify the processes through which attachment to place or connection to nature occurs. The findings suggest that through regular and repeated activities in a natural setting at forest school, children become more relaxed, overcome any fears, have fun, connect with nature as they come to know it better, and develop an affinity for the location. Further, they develop a sense of ownership and concern for the forest school setting and desire to protect it. For some forest school practitioners, fostering a relationship with nature and place, and developing pro-environmental behaviour, is a fundamental part of their practice.

Climate change is a 'super-wicked' problem associated with challenges including food security, mass migration and biodiversity loss. Young people are increasingly expecting their university education to prepare them to address these challenges. This requires universities to go beyond scientific accounts of climate change, and to engage students in the complex interactions between social, economic and environmental systems. Authentic learning develops students' understanding of 'real-world' challenges and is well aligned with pedagogical traditions in geography. We researched the extent to which climate change is framed as a wicked problem and how students undertake authentic learning about it in UK and Ireland undergraduate geography programmes. Our findings show that while authentic approaches to teaching climate change can be well developed at module level, programme design lacks coherence. Teaching focuses on climate problems rather than progressively scaffolding students' skills for finding effective solutions. We propose that academic developers have significant potential to enhance climate change teaching. We present seven principles for geography programme teams to improve climate change teaching in degree programmes. The wicked problems concept emerged at a time of social unrest and growing environmental consciousness and so remains a powerful way to frame teaching about global challenges.

The article addressed the relationship between sustainability, Eco-schools and primary school Ofsted (Office for Standards in education) reports in England. The article examined the presence of education for sustainability in primary schools' Ofsted reports and their webpages. The primary schools selected were schools that had gained the title of Eco-Ambassador schools because they had reached the ultimate distinction in the Eco-school approach (held a Green flag). The study followed an exploratory approach employing qualitative content analysis of primary schools' Ofsted reports and their web pages. Overall, the findings indicated that neither the schools nor their Ofsted reports capitalised on the work they had invested towards sustainability and the Eco-school approach; also the relationship between the primary schools' work/ethos and their Ofsted reports is not an interactive one.

From its origins within the deprived schools of inner London in the late 1960s, nurture group practice has evolved organically. Based on instinctive, clinically observed and evidence-based principles, nurture groups continue to offer a viable educational response in providing for the fundamental attachment needs of vulnerable children in schools. The theoretical, philosophical and pedagogical concepts that have shaped nurture practice since its establishment are discussed -- particularly the theory of the safe base introduced by child psychologists, Bowlby and Ainsworth. This paper asserts that through the expansion and exploration of our understanding of one of the key principles of nurture practice, and by embracing elements of a place-based pedagogy approach, nurture practice can evolve further to meet the needs of vulnerable pupils today and in the future. Furthermore, this paper suggests that nurture groups are well placed to offer the opportunities of reconnection to, and the wider exploration of, the child's natural setting, thereby increasing attachment to place, connectedness to nature and the promotion of pro-environmental behaviour. Insights into a current nurture-in-nature model of evolved practice are presented for the purpose of initiating discussion and further research into this subject.

There is increasing concern about children's mental well-being and an urgent need for research into how to support positive mental health; including as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Alongside this is the heightened awareness about diminished access to green spaces and diminished exposure to the arts for children. Our research aims to show the potential for addressing these three issues in tandem through a qualitative case study exploring the work of one charity, Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination (CCI). The charity undertakes arts-based projects in nature with children. In particular, this article considers the implications of CCI artist pedagogues' perceptions of their nature-based practice for children's well-being. The research comprised a 'talk and draw' focus group followed by individual interviews with CCI artists. Findings show artist pedagogues' work has the potential to support aspects of children's well-being through promotion of agency, developing confidence and providing inspiration to support creativity.

Competing influences and pressures on areas of HE and the content of new AL syllabi suggest a need for curriculum reconsideration. We analyse, from institutional website data, the present provision of physical geography in 77 UK institutions providing undergraduate learning in geography. The extent of compulsory modules gives an indication of programme structure: compulsory modules average 65%, no first-year choice is offered in 58% of programmes, all but four require a compulsory dissertation, and on average 28% of compulsory modules were in physical geography. Overall there is a spectrum of provision, with courses solely in human or physical geography at the extremes, and, in between, a variety of programmes: some afford a strong provision of concepts and major themes in physical geography (22%), some emphasize skills (25%) or applied aspects (5%), and others offer a course "cafeteria" from which the student freely selects unless constrained by advised learning pathways. Questions arising include whether sufficient attention is accorded to all aspects of physical environment, to some neglected components of physical geography, and to those physical environments necessary for understanding contemporary rapid environmental change across the world.

This article details the approach taken to a recent study in an environmental education context, with a focus on the writing and analysis of ethnographic fieldnotes. This approach drew upon aspects of new materialist theory and multi-species ethnography for the writing of fieldnotes, and Situational Analysis for their analysis. These approaches represent a 'site of experimentation' that arose through attempts to carry out research in a manner sensitive to new materialist theories, whilst operating within a time-bound, collaborative study. As well as highlighting potential synergies, this article also explores the constant tensions that arose when attempting to use existing qualitative research methods in combination with new materialist theories. It is not intended as a guide to conducting research in a 'new materialist' or 'post-qualitative' manner, but rather as an insight into the tensions, synergies and on-the-ground methodological struggles within this site of experimentation, and what was produced through the 'research assemblage' thereby created. The article aims to demonstrate the ways in which existing qualitative research methods were re-oriented through this approach, as well as the onward effects of these re-orientations on what then amounted to 'the data'.

Teaching learners with different disciplinary backgrounds, aptitudes, worldviews and cultures is an abiding problem in Higher Education. Special measures are needed to ensure that course design, teaching methods and, especially, assessment does not exclude, alienate or disinvite learners simply because they have different capabilities and ways of understanding. Most of these measures involve the radical diversification of assessment and teaching methods and, designing curricula that allow learners to reach different conclusions and learning outcomes without penalization. This paper evaluates and commends the use of Spiral Dynamics' layered system of alternative worldviews as a means of developing learner skills in critical analysis and building deeper understanding of diversity. Using Spiral Dynamics-based pluralism to guide course design fosters greater inclusion and achievement.

This article explores how STEM subjects can enable students to learn about the key environmental issues that we face, using the National Association for Environmental Education's recent teacher handbooks about 'The Environmental Curriculum' and details of the Sustainable Development Goals to help do this through a mix of input and small-group discussion.

A number of recent surveys of public opinion claim that there is now widespread acceptance of the need for sustainable development, and that the general public, through its social and consumer activity is already successfully engaged. However, in all this, the focus has primarily been on individual and family behaviours such as recycling and reducing energy use. Such surveys do not focus on the increasingly common community-based and social movements which operate in more complex, intractable, and inevitably political, arenas where shifts in government policy and funding, and business values and practice, are the goal. It is not just consumer surveys that have these blind spots; much education practice exhibits it too. Formal and informal education have followed a similar pattern by focusing on individual actions rather than more strategic, and overtly political, developing a coherent social movement around sustainability. Pressure groups campaign for changes in the curriculum, but what is missing is a systematic engagement in the community by formal education, and by researchers. As society gradually "learns its way forward", shifting its values, norms, beliefs, and strategies towards a more sustainable model of development, it offers an array of opportunities for learners of all ages to witness, critique, be inspired by and become a part of the changes taking place around them. If we are fully to understand the effectiveness of such community-based programmes and initiatives, and help these grow and develop, then educators and educational researchers need to be much more intimately involved than they currently are.

The purpose of the paper is to present the framework and design of modules aiming to teach socio-scientific issues and the related pedagogy to pre-service teachers. Specifically, the work presented in this paper is part of the PreSEES project, a Comenius/LLP project with the main aim of engaging elementary and secondary pre-service teachers in critical discussions of everyday science through socio-scientific issues (SSI) and prepare them to teach SSI. We first present the aims of our project, and a framework designed around learning to teach SSI, including pedagogical and theoretical aspects concerning teaching SSI. Finally we present three modules that were designed based on the framework aiming to present these guidelines to pre-service teachers (primary and secondary). The emphasis of the modules is on presenting pedagogical issues related to SSI, with an emphasis on the nature of SSI issues, and pedagogical implications of teaching and assessing SSI. The aforementioned issues are presented in various contexts, such as global warming and edible insects.

As the value of multi-disciplinary working in the business and research worlds is becoming more recognised, the number of inter-disciplinary postgraduate environmental and health sciences courses is also increasing. Equally, the popularity of problem-based learning (PBL) is expected to grow and influence instructional approaches in many disciplines. However, very limited research has been conducted to explore the perception of students of PBL in inter- or multi-disciplinary environments; particularly wide-ranging multi-disciplinary courses which cross the natural-social science barrier. The findings from this case study evidence the difficulties and benefits students derive from group PBL, many of which stem from working in multi-disciplinary and multi-skilled groups on a part-time basis. Acknowledging, accepting and overcoming conflicts based upon prior experience that influences epistemological and ontological beliefs may be key to the development of effective PBL in inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary programmes. Recommendations for good pedagogic practice to maximise learning in postgraduate environmental and science education are made.

When we "learn nature," do we encounter her as 'free' in the sense of having neither cost nor price? Is she something 'given'? And is that which nature offers us 'gratis'? In the UK, many schoolchildren have been encouraged to 'give thanks' for nature's gifts. But why, if she is free, give thanks; and thanks to whom? If one learns to encounter nature as 'free', is she then really free for the taking? Walter Benjamin notably derided Joseph Dietzgen for regarding what nature supplies to humanity as 'gratis', and long argument has continued among Marxists since Benjamin's time concerning how we regard nature's 'gifts'. This paper addresses the ideological appropriation of nature, and makes this a pedagogical question best approached through readings of Benjamin and Dietzgen. It does so in a context where education policy reflects little if any concern with the acquisition of a disposition towards nature among children.

Ocean literacy is an understanding of the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. A lack of ocean literacy presents a significant obstacle for citizens to engage in environmentally sustainable behaviour, and thus is acknowledged as a 'complex problem' that requires deliberative participation and joint-action by stakeholders across domains. The aim of the article is both to demonstrate the value of Collective Intelligence (CI) as a methodological tool to advance and enhance the promotion of environmental literacy, and to share outcomes from using the CI approach. The participatory context behind CI illustrates that working 'with' a range of stakeholders across marine education, outreach, regulation and policy, to debate how to better promote ocean literacy among young people, improves ocean literacy and broadens society's awareness of sustainable marine environments. Findings reveal a hierarchical barrier structure localised to each country, a valuable order of echelon toward environmental change.

The findings of "Face your elephant," a peer led youth engagement project, are presented. It has been operating for over 10 years and has engaged with over 10,000 festival-goers at 15 festivals, trained over 100 peer educators in science communication and public engagement skills and helped to change power supply practices of festival organizers in the United Kingdom. This long-term approach has delivered multiple benefits in terms of raising festival-goers awareness of actions needed to address climate change, empowering young volunteers as peer educators and informing festival organizers about the opportunities for greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Employability is a key issue for students and Higher Education Institutions and a key component of employability is possessing the skills a role requires. In the environmental sciences, fieldwork provides an opportunity for students to develop employability-enhancing technical and transferable skills. However, students can have difficulty identifying the transferable skills they develop both during fieldwork and throughout their degree programmes. We investigated whether different pedagogical approaches to fieldwork (staff-led and student-directed) influenced student's perception of skill-development. Additionally, we explored whether students recognised that skills developed during fieldwork might enhance their employability. Overall, students recognised technical skills more frequently than transferable skills. However, when fieldwork investigations were staff-led, students recognised more technical skills, but when students designed their fieldwork investigations themselves they recognised more transferable skills. Upon reflection, students were readily able to link skill-development to employability. We suggest that to maximise the skills development benefits of fieldwork, field courses should include a variety of fieldwork teaching designs to allow students to develop the widest array of skills possible. Additionally, students should be encouraged to reflect on their experiences throughout a field course as reflection is thought to aid their ability to recognise how their skills have developed.

Sustainability is becoming a key component of many HE curricula. However, questions as to what sustainability is and how it can be embedded within subject specific curriculum are difficult to answer. Focussing on existing pedagogic scholarship in this area and by drawing on experiences from my own institution, this article discusses how the GEES subjects are addressing sustainability in the curriculum. It provides both conceptual framing on the evolution of the GEES subjects in relation to sustainability and offers some practical examples of how different approaches to sustainability might be used in teaching, including challenging disciplinary perspectives and introducing interdisciplinary working around global challenges. It concludes with recommendations for how sustainability might be embedded in the curriculum in practice.

Students must be taught to understand the ethical issues associated with engineering and technology, which includes microethics and macroethics. This research examined the influence of cultural environment by comparing ethics-related education outcomes between educators in (1) the United States, (2) non-US Anglo, and (3) Western European countries who teach engineering students. In an increasingly globalised world where companies and projects draw from talent across countries, it is important to understand how different cultures educate future engineers about their ethical responsibilities. Survey results revealed that a majority of educators in all three groups viewed undergraduate and postgraduate education on ethics as insufficient. A higher percentage of non-US Anglo and Western European educators taught sustainability and environmental issues in their courses compared to US respondents. US educators taught codes of ethics, ethics in design, and safety more than those in Western Europe. Open-ended responses illuminated challenges and opportunities to improve ethics education.

We present a survey of 85 people involved in climate change education and mitigation, mainly in the UK, exploring the significant life experiences (SLEs) and formative influences that have contributed to their concern about climate change and their interest in climate change education and mitigation. In contrast with the findings of a large number of previous studies of environmentalists/environmental educators, outdoor experiences during childhood were not generally a major formative influence on the respondents. Although Western children nowadays commonly have fewer opportunities to enjoy such experiences, analysis showed that the differences were not due simply to changes over time. Uniquely in research on SLEs of environmentalists/environmental educators, we also examined respondents' values and motivations, to further understand what inspires action. Social justice concerns were rated as more motivating than biospheric concerns by the sample as a whole, and altruistic and biospheric values were considered equally important as guiding principles. These findings have implications for the framing of climate change as an 'environmental' problem, and suggest that, contrary to conclusions that may have been drawn from past research, environmental education specifically directed towards stimulating engagement with climate change need not entail promoting outdoor experiences, nature connectedness, or biospheric values and motivations for action.

This article explores some of the challenges of developing a module on global learning with primary initial teacher education (ITE) students studying at a UK university. The research, which employed a mixed methodology, involved around 550 students and eight members of staff over a three-year period. The findings indicate that many students developed their thinking about global issues, albeit on a surface level. A small but significant minority proved much harder to reach. The discussion highlights the complexities of global learning, the significance of underlying values and beliefs, and the impact of the wider professional and cultural context. A key issue that emerges is the importance of recognizing barriers and inhibitors to global learning.