Thanks to Will Bailey-Watson, leader of the Secondary PGCE programme at the University of Reading and member of Secondary Committee for this blogpost. This year will see a lot of developments in thinking about the role of history education for a sustainable future. Will kicks this off by sharing what Reading colleages have learnt so far.

Have you seen the climate stripes somewhere? If you come to Reading, they are EVERYWHERE. Buses, banners, football kits. The University of Reading prides itself on being a leading institution when it comes to climate and sustainability education. It is the University’s position that climate and sustainability education are every educator’s responsibility. Did you think that was exclusively for geography and science teachers? Not here, no more. In early 2022, Initial Teacher Education programmes were asked to teach all trainee teachers how to effectively incorporate climate and sustainability education in their planning and teaching.

Immediately this posed problems on our PGCE. Firstly, this was a top-down curriculum initiative; we all know how well these are received in any school or university. It would take some time to interpret and implement what we were being asked to do. Secondly, we were going to have to bring schools and mentors with us; this felt like a hearts and minds project. In some subjects we would be educating trainees to teach content that not only wasn’t taught in their placement schools, but which might not be priorities for, or even welcomed by, local history curriculum designers. Thirdly, we anticipated having to build the trainees’ subject knowledge in this area, while they were already cramming a million other new bits of information into their brains. And fourthly, this would all involve us learning an awful lot ourselves.

In spite of these challenges, it has been a rewarding and successful experience on our History PGCE this year, and the remainder of this blog will look at what we tried and what we learnt.

1. What role can history have in developing a pupil’s understanding of climate and sustainability?

At first, we weren’t sure exactly what role history education has/should have on these issues. As we found our way, perhaps we spread ourselves too thinly. I have been indebted to Alison Kitson and Michael Riley’s work at the UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education, who suggested eight different possible ways of integrating climate and sustainability education through our history teaching:

• Big history   
• Local history 
• Links to colonialism  
• An additional lens for other topics 
• Pre-history  
• The history of climate change 
• Cross-curricular dimension  
• Significant individuals 

These all competed with equal status in my thinking as I put the curriculum together a year ago. It was exciting but overwhelming, and I think I passed this on to our trainees at times. (From experience, I know that the last thing trainee teachers need is their subject leaders feeling overwhelmed with the task in hand!) In particular, a focus on climate increasingly became an issue for our trainees – teaching about climate through history often requires: lots of new specialist subject knowledge of large periods not currently taught in their departments, lots of time in the curriculum to look at longer timescales often over multiple lessons, and willingness for pupils to reach tentative conclusions about tangible relationships between climate and humans at particular moments in time. None of these sit particularly comfortably with the myriad of demands and expectations of a trainee teacher. By Christmas it had become clear that the amount of subject knowledge and curriculum upheaval was putting trainees off.

We had to refine what role we wanted history teaching to have on pupils’ education of climate and sustainability, and how we could do this in a manageable way for all trainees in any one of our partnership schools. We needed to stop trying to do everything and instead focus on the particular impact history could, and should, have. Following some wrangling, we decided to define our aim as:

History trainees are educated to teach that humans and the natural world have always influenced each other, that the relationship between humans and nature have differed throughout history, and that societies have tackled environmental and climate challenges differently. 

From this moment on, everything became more manageable.

• How does history work with other subjects as part of a coherent and holistic climate and sustainability education?

You will notice that our curriculum aim puts a clear emphasis on humans’ relationship with the natural world throughout history. We have diluted the focus on climate change, and neglected to include an explicit attempt to use history as a means to suggest actions that pupils might make in their own lives. This is subject to change as we become more confident, more knowledgeable and bring more departments with us. This shifting curriculum aim began to make sense for us once we started to talk to other subjects and engage with their curriculum aims. Science and maths looked at data; English applied an eco-critical lens; MFL infused cultural empathy; music and PE considered sustainable ways of having fun; geography critiqued direct actions and solutions. This was liberating – by engaging with what was happening elsewhere on the curriculum, we could think more thoughtfully about what contribution history made the bigger picture. By focusing on our particular curriculum aim, we could really focus on authentic, valuable historical questions that allowed pupils to consider similarity and difference, assess consequences, use different types of evidence, and ultimately understand the world around them: i.e. all the hallmarks of a fantastic history education.

As a result, across all our subjects, we were able to draw together what a pupil would take away from their secondary education if they were taught by our trainees from different subjects:

• Use science and data interpretation to make informed arguments about sustainability and climate change.
• Explore the interconnectedness and co-dependence of humans, nature and climate.
• Develop as meaning creators and into ethical decision-makers in their own lives.
• Demonstrate openness to global, national, local and personal critique about practices.
• Experience creative, collaborative pedagogies and produce original outcomes.

This cross-curricular spirit has created exciting opportunities on the PGCE. In December, history and geography will spend the day critiquing a fabulous two-lesson sequence designed (and co-planned with me) by Cait Greenwood, one of our brilliant ECTs. Cait thought that the Thames Ice Fairs of the 17^th-19^th centuries could be a window into the past, revealing not only how people lived in the past, but how humans are always dependent on and adapting to nature (and climate), and how this changes over time.

(You can find the lesson resources here, which were taught to Year 7 by Kathryn Elsdon in June. I would like to do a blog on this sequence alone!)

• Finding simple question stems that can be used for any topic and time period.

Even with a clear aim and strong cross-curricular links, we still needed to support trainees who might only be teaching short sequences within established topics, to plan and teach meaningfully. Therefore it was important to pin down some question stems that could be used as an enquiry or even a lesson question in a range of different contexts. The two that we think have worked best are:

1. What does [insert event] reveal about [insert aspect of natural world and/or climate]?

This worked brilliantly in our ice fairs sequence. Our question over the two lessons was: ‘What do the ice fairs of 1683-84 and 1814 reveal about humans, climate and the natural environment?’ It did not lead to preachy conclusions, instead pupils’ conclusions showed they were really thinking historically about similarity and difference, change and continuity, and significance of these unusual events.

• How far was [insert human activity] shaped by [insert aspect of natural world and/or climate]? Or How far did [insert human activity] affect [insert aspect of natural world and/or climate]?

Another wonderful ECT, Frankie Pugh, got the ball rolling here by planning a Year 8 lesson on ‘How did the Industrial Revolution affect the local environment?’ With either question stem, there are so many possibilities. Imagine with Year 7, early in their curriculum, they are asked ‘How far was the Roman Empire shaped by local environmental factors?’ Immediately, the pupils are learning about architecture and methods of expansion and rule, while foregrounding the impact of climate and terrain on the Romans. Similarly this could be a short sequence in Year: ‘How far was the British Empire in the 19^th century shaped by local environmental factors?’ It could be adapted for the countless wars studied throughout a curriculum: ‘How far were British WW1 tactics shaped by local environmental factors?’ You get the picture. Simple question stems, allowing trainees to teach rigorous, interesting history, which achieve our PGCE course’s curriculum aim.

• Develop pupils’ knowledge of different peoples’ relationships with nature.

One of the key takeaways from a history education is that people are able to orientate themselves in time: are these typical times, are these unusual times? It is clear that for generations, many civilisations around the world lived with one main aim: sustainability. It is an unusual (unique) age where a majority of humans sperate themselves from nature. An easy way for our trainees to introduce climate and sustainability education is to choose one of these groups to explore through this lens. For instance, when looking at Native Americans in Year 10, they can be asked questions such as ‘How did the Native Americans ensure their cultures and ways of life survived so long?’ Similarly before looking at British colonisation in Year 8, pupils could be asked ‘How did Australian Aboriginals live in harmony with nature?’ Again, back to the key point: these are just good history questions that prompt high-quality historical thinking.

In order to emphasise that this isn’t just about indigenous peoples in other countries, our trainees collaborated with the Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) in June. Our aim was to use the collections of the MERL to look at how sources could be used to get pupils thinking about sustainable habits of English rural communities in the past. This proved a great success, with the trainees creating a workshop that was used by local primary schools and which could easily be adapted for Key Stage 3. By asking ‘What can everyday objects reveal about the sustainable ways of life in the English countryside, 1850-1950?’ the pupils asked really interesting questions of a range of historical sources. Of particular note, it was really interesting to look through a lens of material culture – the meaning of our sources change over time and space, and will continue to do so after they have passed through our hands. The pupils started to consider how historical sources and recycled and reused – not to any definitive conclusion, but interesting questions about history were raised.

• Reframe content by changing curricular emphasis

Every year we encourage trainees to engage critically with the factors they use as prompts for pupils in their lessons. Do they really need them to categorise so many events into economic, social, cultural and military factors? Since 2018, when Prof. Lindy Grant spoke to our trainees about the 11^th century, I have asked trainees to consider revising the causal factors that led to Norman success in 1066. As a minimum, I suggest they listen to Prof. Grant and consider including the European context as a causal factor – thus bringing in Norman strength elsewhere, importance of the Pope, relationships with the Vikings etc. How much more enlightening and revealing than ‘Harold’s mistakes’? This year I went one further by asking, what would be the implications by including a factor on ‘environmental factors’? Would pupils have a less developed causal analysis of 1066 if they used the same content…but evaluated it through the factors of wider European context, environmental factors, battle tactics and individual actions? These aren’t definitive, or even ‘better’, but they are just as valid, and they legitimise the importance of considering the non-human world, and human and nature’s co-dependence. This simple reframing of content is such an easy win for trainees to try throughout the curriculum.

Final thoughts before the new academic year

I would say there are three things I would conclude with, for anyone who is interesting in learning from our experience this year:

1. Start by pinning down exactly what history can achieve in relationship to climate and sustainability education, and work closely with other subjects to ensure pupils receive a holistic, non-repetitive curriculum.
2. Ensure you hold on to all the stuff that we know makes history lessons really good. If you look at the ice fair lessons, you will see that lesson 2 doesn’t have a clear enough narrative – in trying something new, I lost sight of the need for the pupils to have a coherent, engaging story so that they could meaningfully analyse the events. However you introduce climate and sustainability education, there still needs to be chronological security, substantive concept development, and memorable stories.
3. As ever, keep focused on what history is and what questions historians are asking. That way, effective teaching about climate and sustainability in history lessons won’t become tokenistic or preachy.

It has been a steep learning curve, but a fun and rewarding one. I am really looking forward to beginning the new year with a much clearer idea of what we are trying to achieve and what this can look like for our trainee teachers.

As a final note, Kate Hawkey’s book, History and the Climate Crisis, came out just after I wrote this blog. After skimming a few sections, I thoroughly recommend and am sure it will heavily influence my teaching this year! You can access the pdf for free here. UCL have also released the first tranche of their free CPD modules for teachers and you can find these here.