Climate change can be used to teach children about race, according to recommendations made to the national curriculum review.
The Runnymede Trust, a race equality think tank, has told the review commissioned by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson that global warming discussions should allow teachers and pupils to “explore conversations about race”.
The trust suggests these conversations would enable students to discuss more openly how race impacts them and its relationship to wider society.
One aspect of the recommendation aims to highlight the unequal impact of climate change on different groups globally.
Climate change can be used to teach children about race, according to recommendations made to the national curriculum review
PA
The trust’s recommendation states: “Subjects such as English and history, as well as discussions of climate change in science, should offer students the opportunity to explore conversations surrounding race and its relationship to wider society.”
It further argues against “stifling students and teachers in the expression of opinion surrounding these themes.”
This approach would potentially allow teachers to address how climate change disproportionately affects developing countries.
The recommendation forms part of the trust’s broader vision for a more inclusive curriculum.
The Runnymede Trust’s submission is one of several advocating for climate change to become a more central part of the curriculum.
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One aspect of the recommendation aims to highlight the unequal impact of climate change on different groups globally
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The National Climate Education Action Plan Group has called for teaching about climate change and “the biodiversity crisis” to be compulsory across multiple subjects.
The Reading University-hosted group stated: “Climate change and the biodiversity crisis impact many areas of human society and the natural world.”
The Quakers have also submitted that the impact of climate change should not be “sanitised”.
Wildlife and Countryside Link suggested climate change could be incorporated into maths, design and technology, and economics classes.
Phillipson ordered the audit of England’s education system shortly after Labour’s election victory last year, promising to “breathe new life into our outdated curriculum”.
The review is the first in more than a decade and aims to deliver a “broader, richer, cutting-edge” curriculum.
Phillipson ordered the audit of England’s education system shortly after Labour’s election victory last year, promising to ‘breathe new life into our outdated curriculum’
PA
Interim findings published by Prof Becky Francis identified global warming as a key area for improvement.
The review will make final recommendations this autumn, with changes expected to apply to all schools in England from next year.
This will include academies, which will be required to teach the national curriculum for the first time.
The Runnymede Trust has previously called for a rethink in teaching about the British Empire, criticising history lessons as too focused on “narrow, celebratory, accounts of ‘our island story'”.
It has advocated for a revised national curriculum to “embed statutory topics on race, migration and the British Empire”.
The trust criticised current Key Stage 2 history teaching for failing to highlight the “contribution of migrant communities” and their struggles for recognition.
It also noted the curriculum misses “crucial parts of Britain’s colonial history” and the “histories of decolonisation across the globe”.