The Nature of the Curriculum

Description

"Every child in every country is owed the teaching of natural history, to be introduced to the awe and wonder of the natural world, to appreciate how it contributes to our lives. Establishing the natural world within educational policy would contribute to countering the shifting baseline, whereby we progressively redefine ourselves as inhabitants of an emptying world and believe that what we see is how it is and how it will continue to be."
From The Economics of Biodiversity The Dasgupta Review (2021)

Timed to coincide with ‘Youth’ day at COP26, this free online event will take up the challenge laid down by Caroline Lucas MP when she stated: ‘We won’t protect what we don’t love and we won’t love what we don’t know,’ and will look at the important role that our education system has in preparing young people for the future.

Speakers from a range of different perspectives will address how our young people are currently being prepared to live in an ‘emptying world’, what new developments in education might look like, and how they might open up new productive pathways that offer future generations the potential to know, love and sustain the world they live in.

As well as the activist and writer Mary Colwell who, with Caroline Lucas MP, has spearheaded the creation of a GCSE in Natural History in England, and Ross Greer MSP, Scottish Greens Spokesperson for International Development and External Affairs, Education and Skills, and Culture and Media, speakers will include:

Sue Pope, Head of Service: Science, Mathematics and Core Skills at the Scottish Qualifications Authority;
Donna Clark, subject implementation manager for Environmental Science at the Scottish Qualifications Authority;
Christina Berry, veterinary parasitologist and teacher;
Nicole Cumming, PhD student, University of Strathclyde and University of Glasgow

The session will also include a reading by the poet and educator Susan Richardson whose 2018 collection, Words the Turtle Taught Me, emerged from her residency with the Marine Conservation Society, and was shortlisted for the Poetry Society’s Ted Hughes Award.

The meeting will be introduced and chaired by Erica Fudge, Professor in the School of Humanities at the University of Strathclyde, and director of the British Animal Studies Network.

Time will be set aside for questions from the audience.

Period	5 Nov 2021
Event type	Workshop
Location	Glasgow, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National