We’re committed to our work being evidence based and sector informed. Although not strictly a research body, we’ve undertaken and commissioned some research relating to education for sustainable development (ESD) in the sector to understand current sector practice and needs, to inform our ESD work with a robust evidence base and to give us a baseline for monitoring processes. We have published our work to help others develop their ESD practice. We know this is working in practice as results have been cited in the House of Lords as well as numerous sector reports and commentaries about ESD.
This 2021 study helps us better understand the challenges curriculum leaders face in embedding sustainability across their education provision.
The report showcases those who are already working to ensure their learners develop the relevant skills, knowledge, behaviours and agency to help them contribute positively to sustainability goals through numerous case studies. It also contains a quantitative audit for explicit sustainability content found in qualification specifications.
The case studies from this report have also been published as a blog series – read the ESD blogs here.
We surveyed over 800 teachers, trainers and leaders in the FE and training sector to better understand their experiences of, and attitudes towards, ESD. The results have informed the 51¸£ÀûÉç’s ESD strategy. The report also provides sector practitioners, providers and stakeholders with data to plan their own ESD approaches.
To enable FE practitioners and providers to best utilise the data, we’ve also produced the following resources:
A webinar recording explaining the research, our findings and its implications can also be viewed here:
Further findings from this research