Learning for sustainability: action plan 2023 to 2030

Annex A Children's Parliament and Dundee University Research

In developing this Action Plan, the Scottish Government conducted a comprehensive process in which we worked with children, young people and their educators to gather their views on LfS.

There were two main pieces of research that have informed this plan, one conducted by the Children's Parliament and one by the University of Dundee.

The Children's Parliament used their Children's Parliament Investigator Model.

Following a participatory approach they used a mixed of in person and online workshops to engage with children aged 3 to 14 years and their educators. To capture the children's views they worked with 132 children across five settings from early learning and childcare to S1/S2 learners and then had workshops with a smaller group of 12 children selected as investigators who were asked to dive deeper into the exploration of LfS. This was an extension of an already existing project that commenced in 2021 and was due to finish by April 2022. The Children's Parliament work was published in October 2022.

The calls to action from the Children's Parliament were:

1. All children should have the chance to learn outdoors throughout the school year

2. Outdoor learning should be part of every school subject.

3. Adults in school and adults who decide what we learn, need to learn about the climate emergency too.

4. Children are passionate about climate change; their views, ideas and opinions should be included in how and what they learn about this subject.

5. Scottish Government should take urgent action to protect and respect trees and the natural environment.

6. Children and adults should have opportunities to work together on children's rights, climate change and sustainability.

7. Scottish schools should have links to other schools around the world.

8. Schools should support children to take part in learning, protests and action on the climate emergency as part of global events.

9. Children and adults around the world should have their human rights respected. This means being able to live in a healthy, happy, and safe environment.

The University of Dundee work was a mixed methods research project, gathering views on LfS from young people aged 14 and over and their educators.

The researchers gathered information in three different ways: a scoping survey, world café events and 3 horizons focus groups. They spoke with young people and educators from settings in 8 different local authorities, with different geographical representation, Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) representation and a Gaelic medium education centre. The scoping survey was conducted online and they conducted all the workshops in person. This research was published in February 2023.

The calls to action from the University of Dundee were:

Schools

LfS in every school is:

• Prioritised
• Embedded
• Supported
• Part of a coherent vision
• Urgently implemented.

Community

Learn a sense of community and global citizenship through partnership & engagement with local:

• Farms
• Charities
• Businesses
• Community groups and activities.

Practitioners

• Professional development on LfS
• Dedicated LfS lead per school/Community Learning and Development
• Part of LfS strategy and planning
• Share best practice internally & externally
• Enable young people engagement and leadership.

Measuring and valuing all learning pathways at all levels including councils e.g.:

• National Progression Awards
• John Muir Award
• Prince's Trust
• Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework