Learning for Sustainability: young people and practitioner perspectives

4. World Café and focus group findings

4.1 Understanding of Learning for Sustainability

Question one of the World Café sessions with young people has been used to identify and analyse topics/nodes from discussions about how they might explain LfS to someone else. The findings below exemplify the topics related to their understandings and highlight gaps in their knowledge, and use of the term LfS.

Language and understanding

The most prominent responses related to terminology where some stated that they had never heard of the term and had difficulties understanding the subject without having been taught LfS under this heading. Some participants recognised sustainability as 'climate change' and/or 'Environmental Science'.

Climate Change

Climate change was the most common LfS related concept. Many participants found climate change easier to understand although they do not see the impact as much in the UK. Others commented on global flooding, ice caps melting, animals dying, and threat to life.

Curriculum subjects

The most common subject areas where LfS took place were biology, geography, and modern studies.

Use of materials

Reusing, reducing, and recycling of materials were mentioned repeatedly. Several comments highlighted the schools' initiatives, particularly the 'big blue bags' for paper recycling, as well as making paper, buying second-hand clothing, reducing fast fashion, reusable water bottles, and removing plastic wrappings in canteens.

Linking additional learning to LfS

Some respondents related their comments to human and children's rights as well as environmental aspects. Others commented on self-learning because of their interest through different youth groups and following prominent people such as Greta Thunberg.

"When you think about sustainability, you think about the environment … We do little things like sustainability, but that's about environment stuff here at school, like the school environment, and like the…I don't know. The global one." (Site 6, Young Person)

Practitioners shared the following feedback on what and how they have learned about LfS in their settings:

Curriculum and subject areas

Curriculum and subject areas formed the highest number of comments in relation to delivering LfS and the whole-school approaches. Geography was highlighted where environmental problems and exploring possible solutions were a focus. Examples in the sciences included a focus on fossil fuels, and in home economics a focus on raw ingredients. National 4 and 5 were also signposted.

Poverty equity and history were noted, particularly in light of the war in Ukraine (peace, conflict, and migrants). Within one discussion, there was a consensus that Personal and Social Education (PSE) covered LfS, with an example of regional disparities in food security in African countries and the impact of climate change. Modern studies included LfS-related topics such as peace and justice. Some mentioned the outcomes and experiences of CfE more broadly in terms of global citizenship and human rights.

Community groups highlighted the need for collaboration and 'buy-in' from schools, particularly for pupils who were disengaged from their subjects. One CLD group reminded us that they do not have a curriculum and that learning was broader than this.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and training

The second most common topic was CPD and training with several comments stating the need for additional CPD, particularly for staff who did not have any formal qualifications in sustainability. Many of the comments raised the importance of training; for some, high importance was placed on CPD if LfS is to be a priority of Scottish education. Some participants identified previous training they had whilst undertaking recent ITE programmes, another had successfully achieved an MSc in the subject, and others recognised the local authority in providing short CPD sessions.

Sharing insights and experiences across schools were viewed as valuable. CLD colleagues signposted the usefulness of external partners in learning techniques to engage learners in LfS, e.g. film-making through Keep Scotland Beautiful and Climate Emergency Training for youth workers through Youth Link Scotland and Keep Scotland Beautiful. Accessing training was highlighted as challenging where practitioners would have to attend courses or CPD in their own time.

"So there's something happening whether it's in the home, whether it's within their peers. But there's a base learning coming from somewhere. And whether Learning for Sustainability's been undersold in school, you know, or it's just fitted in to other curriculum subjects and topics." (Site 3, Practitioner)

The graphic below shows the spectrum of practitioners learning and training with LfS:

Practitioners mentioned the following CPD, training and courses they have received or attended beyond their setting provision:

Training or CPD coordinated by schools and CLD settings:

• Keep Scotland Beautiful – Community Climate Champions Training
• Global Learning Centre – Regional Global Education/LfS CPD Providers

Training or CPD undertaken beyond school or CLD settings:

• Edinburgh University - Learning for Sustainability Post-graduate research
• Global Learning Centre – Regional Global Education/LfS CPD Providers
• St Andrew's Botanic Garden – training courses

The issue of language and terminologyalso featured prominently in the discussions, where practitioners agreed there was some discrepancy as to the meaning of sustainability. They suggested it goes beyond climate change and environmental issues and can mean different things in different subject areas. Several comments illuminated the lack of shared language and the terms used were different across different practitioners. It was noted that this could negatively impact the pupils' understanding, as well as practitioners' own confidence in teaching LfS. Some participants explicitly reported that their understanding of sustainability was poor, while others stated their dislike of the term LfS because it was viewed as vague, generic, jargon, and was used as a buzzword.

4.2 Experience and implementation of Learning for Sustainability

Questions three and four in the World Café for young people related to involvement in school and community projects for LfS and practical examples of LfS they see in their schools and communities.

Young people's experience and learning of LfS in communities.

• community projects – Upcycling/reuse collections and community gardens and/or forest school activities
• litter picking in local areas, beach cleans or school campus
• online Conferences provided through local authority or national organisations
• personal and lived experiences – Community renewables/growing hubs
• Beat the Street activities across local community areas
• Climate Ambassador Groups/Youth Forums/Clubs
• DoE Award/John Muir Award

Young people's experience and learning LfS in secondary schools.

• DoE Awards
• Biology/geography curriculum Nat 4-5; Modern studies
• Home economics – locally sourced food, composting and Fairtrade
• Personal and Social Education
• national campaigns – Fairtrade Fortnight, Fridays for Future Strikes
• themed days – Earth Day / Eco Day / Eco Fest
• community projects – Upcycling/reuse collections and community gardens
• Pupil Councils – Youth projects initiated by youth leadership
• Eco/Sustainability Club; Rights Respecting Schools Committees
• litter picking in local areas, beach cleans or school campus
• online Conferences provided through local authority or national organisations
• attending COP26 online and schools engaging through resources

The young people's experiences listed above indicate the mode of experience or learning only. There were many qualifications of their comments with regard to frequency of experience, intensity and quality of the experience/s. The following findings represent responses to question three about places in which young people had been involved in school or community project for LfS.

Outdoor Learning

The most prominent site of LfS activities indicated by the young people was outdoors. For example, field trips, farming skills outings, community and school gardens, biology on the beach, litter picks, maths in the garden and creating outdoor planters. The only disadvantage mentioned was there were too few opportunities to engage in outdoor learning.

Eco-clubs and pupil councils

Students expressed satisfaction with the advocacy and/or the projects they had been involved with in their eco/sustainability clubs and in pupil councils. Pride in achievements was evident when describing their involvement in the community in areas such as food banks, garden development or maintenance, in partnering with other schools for community projects and in participation in LfS advocacy activities such as film making to highlight endangered environments or species. Their comments also indicated these clubs presented limited opportunities for a small number of students and were limited in scope with their main activities including organising litter picks or advocating for recycling bins. The difficulty in prioritising attendance due to other commitments was highlighted.

LfS in regular school classes

The next most prominent place for LfS indicated by young people was school classes. A range of curriculum areas with elements of LfS were highlighted: geography; advanced higher geography, where countries and their relative sustainability was discussed; religious education, where there was a focus on ethics and social justice; craft classes; engaging in recycling and outdoor education for a range of purposes. Limitations mentioned were insufficient classes timetabled on specific topics, surface learning or not understanding the purpose of the learning.

Partnerships and linking with community projects

Many of the comments relating to community involvement in LfS centred on specific activities such as beach clean-up campaigns, planting and maintenance of community parks, participation in community 'eco days', Prince's Trust activities, food banks, fundraising for UNICEF, supporting community activities like horse riding, Scouts and Guides. These activities were all organised through school clubs or with support of practitioners. Notably, there were no negative qualifications to these comments. These activities were seen as worthwhile although they were infrequent.

Memories of LfS in primary school

The most frequent mention of LfS across all groups related to memories of learning in primary school. There were many fond memories of tree planting, working towards green eco flag awards, Fairtrade assemblies, litter picking in the community and designing recycling bins for use in school. The mention of incentivised LfS was almost exclusively related to primary school indicating that LfS was much stronger in earlier school years.

"So, around school, there are little posters about not using plastic. I've noticed there's one right next to the HE [Home Economic] classroom. That's about the only examples there are in the school, but we also have a recycling bin in the corridor, which has always been there, so. At home, I don't really learn much about sustainability. My parents are very, like, anti, like they use a lot of plastic, a lot of single-use plastic." (Site 5, Young Person)

During the analysis of question four, young people's discussion data was also mapped to look at the distribution of the three core LfS areas. Below is the distribution of topics from 146 references :

4.3 Successes and best practice of Learning for Sustainability

Young people were asked to identify how and where they had learned about LfS and identify which experiences were most effective. The four main contexts for LfS
are outlined below:

School lessons and talks

School lessons and guest speakers were the most effective in promoting their understanding of LfS. Memories of learning themes and specific experiences reported were: rewilding, erosion, fertilisers, yoghurt making, reusing materials and upcycling, cooking in food technology, writing pledges on how to be more sustainable, and using real-life events.

Outdoor learning and fieldtrips

The second context for LfS was outdoor learning and field trips. Respondents valued this approach to learning, highlighting visits to an animal farm, wind farm, safari park, woodland, science centres (e.g. Dynamic Earth), battlefield, and beach trips. Some also identified the school gardens and greenhouses. For some the impact of these experiences was particularly evident when they included interactive and hands-on activities. For example, building a shed, working with animals, collecting seaweed, cooking with foraged ingredients, and reusing plastic bottles as tree guards, although one respondent did not appreciate getting muddy. Doing Duke of Edinburgh (DoE) award was also mentioned. Some made comments about Coronavirus (COVID-19) eliminating the opportunity for this kind of learning.

Use of materials

Similar to question one, initiatives in relation to recycling, reusing, and reducing materials were listed as effective methods for LfS. Further responses included recycling water (the water cycle), reusing the Earth's natural materials, reducing wastage, selling second-hand clothes through Vinted, Depop, and marketplaces, making crafts out of recyclable materials (e.g. elephants out of milk bottles, bags out of old jumpers), using technology rather than paper, food scrap bins and composting. A need for increased recycling within schools was highlighted.

Clubs and groups

Clubs and groups were mainly discussed in relation to whole-school initiatives. Eco clubs (or eco-groups) were the main feature of this component. For some, activities were based on choosing SDGs to focus on for the year; others identified environmental projects, such as litter picking, increasing the number of recycling bins, looking after the local orchard, tree guards, and visiting exhibitions. Some comments noted these clubs are student-driven.

"The successes, although it's slow progress, are that I think staff are becoming more confident in terms of delivering this cause they're learning more about it as we go." (Site 4, Practitioner)

The third question of the World Café for practitioners explores successes. The top five successes using the frequency of comments from across all sites are detailed below in descending order.

'Real-world' responsiveness

Across all settings activities, projects and actions were undertaken in response to international, national and local issues, campaigns and place-based initiatives: e.g. COP26; Community Fridges; Community gardens; tree planting; food hubs; elections; local farm visits; renewable energy projects; and establishing improved systems for waste and recycling.

Embedded in curriculum lessons (Nat 4 and Nat 5)

Biology and Geography National 4 Higher Qualifications (Nat 4) and National 5 Higher Qualifications (Nat 5) exam specifications enabled mapping LfS across lesson planning and schemes of work because it was already included. As these subjects are not provided to all young people it was further suggested that it would be useful to make LfS content explicit across S1-S3 CfE.

Partnerships and linking with community projects

In relation to 'real-world' responsiveness, community projects were cited as a way for schools and CLD settings to offer life-wide learning opportunities unique to their setting and the young people's interests, with a chance to develop more organic partnership working specific to the area and LfS.

Young People leading action and asking for change

The majority of practitioners highlighted the eagerness of young people to put LfS into action across their campus and community areas. They noted that many initiatives in schools were started through pupil councils and eco clubs often due to the interests and activism of young people seeking infrastructure improvements and opportunities to understand and support national or international current issues.

Joined up systems

Where schools or CLD settings had buildings/campuses with joined-up systems for recycling, reducing plastics, managing energy supported by the LA and Senior Leadership Teams, practitioners noted that these provided inspiration and extremely useful tools for teaching about LfS in practice.

A short selection of case studies exemplifying good practice:

Case Study 1: Strategic LfS leadership between the local authority and schools

One local authority has created a LfS lead to establish a network of staff keen to take leadership roles in their individual schools. Through the network, news, training opportunities, curriculum teaching links and activities have been cascaded and then further disseminated to teaching staff across each school setting. This was a new initiative for the local authority but it had already proven extremely useful as it raised the profile of LfS considerably and staff felt they had a contact to engage with, as well as a way to feedback their ideas, needs and suggestion to the local authority.

Case Study 2: Training and CPD for CLD practitioners

Keep Scotland Beautiful: Climate Conscious Communities training was offered to all CLD youth practitioners, building confidence in delivering projects connected to climate change with young people. This training also supported developing knowledge and expertise in LfS. This initiative occurred because of a broader commitment across the local authority to join-up initiatives and offer workforce development in climate education and LfS.

Case Study 3: COP26 and Youth Link Scotland

"The climate ambassador group did get money through, it was the COP26 youth climate champion fund with Youth Link Scotland again…, I thought everyone got the same but each local authority got a pot. We got £10,000 cause we're quite a big authority. So they did, that was up tae the young people tae decide what we're spending that on. So it was like a mini version of that, I suppose. Well, we've done wee things like that wi' the summer projects where it's maybe a couple a' thousand, right how are we gonnae spend that…. And there's, nothing's went, nothing's went pear shaped."

Case Study 4: Eco Club

One school has a well-established eco club that is proactive with a range of initiatives, including an eco-notice board, and conservation activities that include bird boxes, planters and weeding of garden areas across the campus. It is important to note however, that the eco club is led by one member of staff and other participants from across the research have mentioned that projects like this do often falter if individual members of staff retire or move. It was also noted by young people that they were unaware of the eco club at the school until participating in the World Café, and they mentioned their frustration at news and information not being disseminated across the school causing them to miss out on activities and events.

The most successful programmes and frameworks that practitioners discussed in helping with the delivery of LfS across schools and communities were the following.

• DoE
• John Muir
• Dynamic Youth Award
• Rights Respecting Schools
• Outward Bound/Fire Skills Awards
• Sustainable Development Goals

4.4 Challenges in delivering LfS for practitioners

Throughout the dialogue with practitioners, crucial challenges and barriers were repeatedly identified across all, or the majority of the fieldwork sites.

Time – 8 sites: The most prominent limitation that practitioner's noted is 'lack of time'. Feeling overwhelmed by the number of 'initiatives that the Government is pushing', staff find it difficult to link everything together. There is a lack of coordination with practitioners 'picking up bits and pieces' with 'no resources behind us'. Although CLD is an area that works well, participants do not feel their professional status is recognised or valued stating 'people don't know what we do'. Secondly, timetabling and the school calendar was also mentioned as restrictive to the scope of LfS initiatives that could be established.

Funding – 8 sites: Practitioners across all settings stated that constraints of budgets and no access to small-scale funding meant that establishing projects was difficult to impossible.

Staffing – 7 sites: Connected to time and budget, practitioners mentioned that managing a school garden, eco club or running calendared events was a significant pressure on their workload. Delivering LfS projects alongside Nat 4 and 5 curriculum content is rarely achieved even though the desire of practitioners to offer more was high and the benefits of such projects were known and acknowledged.

Strategy and Mapping – 6 sites: In relation to whole-school and local authority strategic approaches for CLD teams the necessity of establishing a coherent strategy was raised. Infrastructure strategy for school wide LfS needs to be joined-up with curriculum content mapped across subjects, then cascaded to raise the profile of achievements, what's working and where the gaps are.

Services – 5 sites: Connected to strategy and mapping, concerns were raised about the disconnect between sustainable practices of schools and communities not aligning with LfS as a whole-school approach or wider local authority commitment to changing systems and processes.

Other challenges and barriers include:

• lack of joined-up strategic approach from the local authority
• too many other initiatives with more comprehensive objectives and resources being given to schools (i.e. Interdisciplinary Learning (IDL), LGBT Inclusive Education)
• finding and sharing best practices within the specific context of secondary schools and CLD settings
• language and terminology
• lack of access to training and CPD through schools, local authority or other providers

"Yeah like even implement basic things and if we can't implement these basic things and then we're going on about this tae young people then they're, they're looking at them and going, 'well why are you not practising what you're preaching here?" ( Site 7, Practitioner)

4.5 Approaches to strengthening Learning for Sustainability

Young Peoples' Suggestions

Young people's responses about what should happen to promote LfS in the school or community and who should be involved in this focused on direct teaching about LfS, more information dissemination about social and sustainability issues, outdoor and creative learning. Areas most prevalent in the findings are highlighted below.

More direct teaching and learning about LfS

In addition to incorporating LfS into the school/CLD values and raising awareness during assemblies/meetings, young people at all sites said that LfS needs to be better integrated in all areas of the curriculum or programme. Participants said that current content where LfS was incorporated was not specific enough and where there was LfS learning it was not varied enough. Student cafes were highlighted as useful learning sites. The need for collaboration in designing LfS sessions was seen as a way of engaging more young people and learning about what they wanted to know.

Information dissemination on social and sustainability issues

The need for additional information and its dissemination to schools and communities was deemed important by participants. Improved dissemination about existing policies (for young people) and improved setting communication methods were also highlighted. Suggestions for knowledge exchange included guest speakers on LfS topics, community to school/CLD settings, and school visits to the community. This extended to conducting community information fairs and fundraising events or selling Fairtrade chocolate. Better notice boards were proposed with contents including 'eco-tip of the week', updates on actions taken within the specific setting, calendar of LfS related events and activities (e.g. 'Eco-Christmas), and mascots.

Outdoor learning/creative learning

Outdoor learning was seen as a central to promoting LfS by many participants. Community gardening, growing food for home economics and school cafes were mentioned often. Geography that is taught outdoors through identifying and engaging with unused local land and integrating all areas of the curriculum into outdoor learning were prominent suggestions. Young people highlighted the disconnect between LfS being taught while sitting indoors looking at slides and sitting on plastic chairs. More community engagement through beach cleans and litter picks were also prominent suggestions. Memories of primary school activities promoted enthusiastic discussion of Forest School as a good learning environment for LfS.

Raising the profile of targeted LfS clubs

Eco clubs and sustainability groups were considered to be very useful but somewhat exclusive with room for only a small committee. Where there was scope for larger groups, there was too little information about their existence to engage potentially interested members. Moving beyond discussion and ensuring these groups were advocating for and enacting change with the support of their practitioners was also important. The support and advocacy was evident in two of the eight sites but these comments came from young people over five sites. Partnering with other secondary schools, CLD groups or with primary schools where the secondary students played a leadership role was also a strategy for raising the profile of eco/LfS groups and their activities.

Social justice issues, buildings and environment and recycling

Social justice and fair access to material resources was a feature of the young people's comments. Learning about eco-justice and about other areas of social sustainability were important. They highlighted a need for a focus on ethics and awareness of discrimination. Participants believe that buildings and environments need to be improved, particularly where resources are seen to be wasted such as leaky taps and poor lighting. It was suggested that renewable energy needs to be part of school/CLD buildings for everyday use to set a good example, and recycling needs to be improved. Young people contrasted the idea of learning about and acting on sustainability as hypocrisy when they could not even recycle plastic drink bottles or compost food waste. They made it clear that these issues need to be addressed.

Practitioner suggestions for strengthening LfS include the following.

Developing greater national strategic direction through the following actions.

• cascading guidance through local authorities to schools and CLD settings
• supporting joined-up systems of sustainable practices across local authorities for schools and community settings, this included waste reduction, recycling, energy use reduction and socially just locally traded products
• providing practical support for schools in the form of off-the-shelf resources around LfS topics for practitioners to incorporate into lessons
• further embedding and making LfS explicit in national frameworks such as adding LfS into S1-3 CfE, Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), CLD competencies, Developing the Young Workforce, Headship Standards, and Education Scotland inspections criteria

Embed LfS into school/community culture through the following actions.

• supporting the development of an LfS ethos over time with strategic direction and resourcing
• supporting flexibility for school and CLD settings to continue to be place-responsive and contextualise LfS for young people in their localities, taking into account broader social and economic challenges being faced by communities
• sharing models for coordination and leadership of LfS within schools/CLD settings to reduce reliance on individuals volunteering their time to lead LfS
• cross-sector collaborations and buy-in from schools, communities and business sectors for delivery of LfS but also for successful implementation

Time

Time is a high priority for all practitioners, specifically with regards to accessing CPD, incorporating content and coordinating LfS across schools or youth projects to establish programmes with young people as it takes time to invest in engagement.

Need for a more equitable and inclusive approach to LfS with young people

• participation needs to be more widespread across schools and community settings to ensure that LfS is building on more young people's interests
• extend LfS beyond eco clubs and earth days and look at the whole-school approach as more inclusive
• make LfS explicit across S1-3 CfE and embed it in more subjects for Nat 4 and Nat 5, as it is predominantly taught through (often over-stretched) biology and geography departments, with some content in PSE, home economics and modern studies
• encourage more collaboration between schools and youth projects to provide additional routes for young people to engage with LfS across a broader delivery of projects, programmes, and community partnerships

Funding

Allocating discrete budget for LfS in schools would enable schools to prioritise projects, coordinate time and resourcing, which can link to partnership working or working with external providers. CLD practitioners stated that funding to deliver youth projects needed to be long-term to develop relationships over time with more certainty for outcomes.

Activities and Outdoor Learning

• both CLD and school practitioners stated that access to and use of spaces to run projects and deliver outdoor learning would enable more coordination and joined-up delivery of LfS
• gardens are consistently suggested as focal points from which to develop a range of outdoor learning projects for both schools and CLD settings but require development and land

Accreditation and Qualifications

• flexible formats for accredited routes were suggested by CLD settings to encourage young people's engagement and offer them qualifications in support of employability alongside personal and social development- some are already offering DoE, John Muir Awards and Saltire
• some schools suggested that in additional to embedding LfS in that a sustainability module or course should be developed

It's really hard, I think tae get parents on board … you need to be really clear in articulating what your priorities are. And it's like, do we get the parents on board wi' what we think are the priorities? Do we let parents drive our priorities? How much a' that dae you meet in the middle?" (Site 7, Practitioner)

Ways to involve parents

• schools suggested engaging with Parent Teacher Associations and disseminating LfS updates through school newsletters, which may also link parents who are actively involved in the LfS sector
• CLD practitioners noted the compartmentalising of youth and adult programmes which has reduced their ability to deliver inter-generational projects
• CLD practitioners also stated that parents could access further knowledge and understanding if LfS were more embedded into adult learning

4.6 Future vision and aspirations

The graphic on the following page visually displays data from young people's post-it notes and practitioner focus groups on their collective vision of LfS. The key themes from young people's post-it notes are represented with yellow flags and practitioner focus group quotes are displayed within clouds. The images represent topics discussed throughout the sessions relating to the vision of quality LfS.