Learning for Sustainability: young people and practitioner perspectives

1. Background and context

In 2019, the Scottish Government published its Action Plan for LfS, stating that children and young people in Scotland have an entitlement to learn about sustainability. This was set against a backdrop of sustainability-related activities. In 2014, at the end of the United Nations' Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014, it was reported that the Scottish Government's commitment to develop the concept of 'One Planet Schools' (Higgins, 2014) took on added significance. Maintaining momentum and building on work undertaken in the previous decade became ever more important as evidence mounted that our impact on the Earth's systems was such that we are not 'living within our means'. This is the essence of the 'One Planet Schools' initiative, ensuring that as humans, we only use resources at a replenishable rate and in a manner equitable within and between nations and generations.

LfS was developed and informed by the work of the 'One Planet Schools' working group and the 'Learning for Sustainability National Implementation Group'. This work culminated in the publication of the 'Vision 2030+' (2016) report which developed five priorities for LfS, which recommended the following.

• all learners should have an entitlement to LfS
• in line with the GTCS Professional Standards, every practitioner, school and education leader should demonstrate LfS in their practice
• every school should have a 'whole-school' approach to LfS that is robust, demonstrable, evaluated and supported by leadership at all levels
• all school buildings, grounds and policies should support LfS
• a strategic national approach to support LfS should be established.

The 'Learning for Sustainability: Young People and Practitioner's Perspectives' report has been commissioned to provide a snapshot of how LfS is undertood and implemented across CLD and school settings with young people aged 14+ and practitioners working in these settings to inform the next Scottish Government LfS refresh. The findings from this work will complement the Children's Parliament research with nursery to S3 age groups. The findings from both these exercises will be explored further in a series of interactive workshops with the LfS Policy and Stakeholder Network and will feed into the refreshed LfS Action Plan.