Credit: Pahis via Adobe Stock.

16 September 2025

By Jaren Yeung, Citizenship PGCE

Reflections from a Citizenship student teacher

‘We must do something about the environment because we all live in this world!’ has been echoing along school halls ad nauseam since even my time as a student. At this point, sustainability is something we all know about, but few actually care. The UK Department for Education aims to become a leader in sustainability and climate education, and it has made a commitment for both teachers and students across multiple disciplines in the primary, secondary and tertiary level to bolster educational opportunities for sustainability. Yes, we have positioned our educational institutions as one of the chief interlocutors in climate justice but only symbolically. Over 80 thousand tonnes of food waste are produced by the education sector annually. Roughly 20% of a school’s energy is wasted, with the percentage rising to 30% on holidays and weekends. Paper, water and plastics are also wasted, producing more annual waste than a household does throughout its entire lifetime. How can we expect our students to care about sustainability if the institution teaching them to be sustainable is not?

Yet in the classroom, we are told the four Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle and repair. And while doing your part helps, a realisation creeps in: that your contribution to the cause, if not practiced by most, will not stop the threat of climate change and global warming, so why bother? If individual action does so little, it is much easier to be defeatist about the whole planet dying fiasco. In reality much of the onus is really on the government, corporations, and institutional leaders on top of our market hierarchy to follow those four Rs. They have the highest ability to change things around but ironically profit the most from climate change while being the least affected by its consequences. A double injustice we call that. And so, as citizens, as teachers and as students, we actually have a lot that we can do.

Citizenship is the subject of people and our relationship with each other in society. Officially becoming a part of the national curriculum in 2002, Citizenship began with the UK government recognising that its brand of democracy is fragile, dependent on a well-educated population with strong values for the betterment of their community (difficult thing to come by nowadays). Hence, the subject was the government’s solution to safeguarding a healthy community underpinned by shared values. At its core, it is the subject of social cohesion and development. Admittedly I hadn’t heard much about Citizenship before applying for the PGCE. My education career has been international from the start, so I was cautious with how the UK’s form of citizenship education reconciles itself within the context of its country—colonial past, liberalism, difficulties with multiculturalism and all. Turns out there is room for a global citizenship, especially evident for global issues such as climate change, and the academic and public discourses for citizenship education reflect that. Citizenship is key to equipping young people with the proactive attitude and the legal, political and media literacy to tackle the climate crisis through informed action.

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Image permission: Charlotte Milner.

19 August 2025

By Charlotte Milner, Social Justice and Education MA and Geography PGCE alumna

My journey in the field of education all started at the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) six years ago, where I studied for my PGCE in Secondary Geography. Engaging in intellectual discussions around curriculum and pedagogy, the philosophies of education, and the social constructions of knowledge, and then putting these ideas into practice in the classroom was a unique and exciting experience – I knew I wanted to take it further. I returned to complete my MA in Social Justice and Education part-time while teaching. Throughout this, I developed my specialism in decolonising geography, which I have engaged with in numerous ways.

But what does ‘decolonising’ geography mean? Recognising that there are different definitions and approaches to decolonial work, decolonising geographical knowledge and pedagogy varies from increasing and improving representation within case studies in diverse classroom contexts, to introducing children to varying worldviews when learning about geographical contexts, and much more. Through studying at IOE from my beginnings as a trainee teacher to MA graduate, my work in this area has continued to evolve and develop, and I am now looking at how geography can support children to imagine alternative futures through learning about coloniality and systemic racism and, crucially, resistance to these structures. I am embarking on a new adventure to study for a PhD in Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, to explore this further.

Studying at IOE was crucial to developing my praxis and, ultimately, securing my place at UBC. Through completing the Wider Education Studies assignment for my PGCE, I had the academic freedom to explore any issue pertaining to ‘inclusion’ in geography. This is where I chose to explore the whiteness of geography and its impacts on global majority learners in London. I conducted interviews with global majority teachers to gain insight into their experiences of geography, and developed a set of classroom interventions for teachers to tackle the whiteness of geography. Developing my specialism, and embedding this in my practice as a teacher from the start, has opened doors to many opportunities. (more…)

Permission from Wendy Wen.

15 July 2025

by Yi (Wendy) Wen, Higher Education Studies MA and Education Studies BA* alumna

*From the 2024/2025 academic year onwards, this degree has been renamed the Education, Society and Culture BA

From the beginning: Feminism and gender equality

As a Chinese international student, I began my academic journey, majoring in BA Education Studies at University College London (UCL). Before entering the UK environment, I never thought about feminism or gender – which seemed nearly apart from my life. I thought, ‘Feminism is a terrible thing, and everyone considers diversity and inclusion. Can paying too much attention to women and labelling us as a marginalised group really make society equal?’

In China, knowledge about feminism and gender is primarily acquired through social media and the internet, reflecting the digital age and the fourth wave of digital feminism. On Chinese social media, feminists from varying ideologies are usually stigmatised and called ‘fists’ or ‘fist-ism’. In Mandarin, the pronunciation of feminism and fist is the same –‘quán’. Ironically, we all knew it first served as an essential symbol in communist ideologies, and China is still under this type of ideology.

When I was young, I started to explore knowledge of gender and feminism, which can be considered sensitive content that ruins students in the Chinese academic environment. That is the reason why I, and other Chinese people, learn about feminism online. During my undergraduate study, I collaborated with three other Chinese feminists to write a blog designed for all Chinese students to understand the current situation toward female students.

After creating this blog, we four established a feminist WeChat group community called Chestnut. A chestnut is encased in a spiky, thorny burr. This outer shell symbolises the resilience and protective strength that is often necessary when navigating challenging conversations around gender and feminism, especially in contexts where these topics are deemed ‘sensitive.’ It represents our community as a safe and brave space, offering protection and solidarity, allowing us to explore and express ourselves without fear.

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17 June 2025

By Gayathri Kumar Rajeev Mullath, Education, Gender and International Development MA

On 5 March 2025, Master’s students on the module Feminist Approaches to Knowledge and Pedagogy and Gender, Sexuality and Education were joined by undergraduate students on the module Gender, Sexualities and Feminisms in Everyday Lives for a visit to The Feminist Library in Peckham, South London.

Dr Hanna Retallack and Dr Sara Bragg were joined by a group of students to visit the collection of feminist materials and literature, and for a ‘zine making’ workshop.

I recently came across the Spoon Theory, which is often used to explain the experience of living with chronic illnesses or conditions. The theory uses “spoons” as a metaphor for units of energy. It’s a helpful way to visualise and communicate the limited capacity disabled or chronically ill people have for handling daily tasks, and it highlights the importance of prioritising and conserving energy.

It was on a one-spoon day that The Feminist Library trip had been scheduled. Contrary to my expectations, I had woken up with no energy or tolerance for inconveniences. I decided to not go alone but to meet the team at IOE, grab a sandwich, and travel with them so that I wouldn’t have to worry about navigating alone and could rely on the safety of being in a group.

The Spoon Theory. Credit: Burning Nights CRPS.

I’ve come to realise that there’s something about community that a city like London often lacks. The kind of community where someone notices when you’re crouching or frowning and pops around to check on you, where someone understands when you just need a bit of rest, and where someone gives you a gentle nudge to do the right thing on a tough day. This “someone” isn’t always the same person, it could be anyone within a network of care. But this is something that spaces built on independence and individuality as liberation often miss out on. The West is rooted in ideals of individualism and independence, framing them as freedom, which stands in stark contrast to the values of interconnectedness found in many communities across the globe. Capitalism, in particular, thrives on this hyper-independence, using it to fuel consumerism, sell products, and often prey on people’s insecurities. (more…)

Credit: Hurca!, generated with AI / Adobe.

2 January 2024

By Batool Wajiha Zaidi, Arts and Sciences BASc.

Climate change is one of the most significant global challenges that humanity has ever had to face. Such a complex challenge requires a collective effort across all sectors of society to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change and protect the future of our planet. In particular, universities are uniquely situated to respond to the climate crisis through education and academic research. 

Students are profoundly affected by university policies and have raised concerns as to the current education system’s ability to prepare them for the uncertainty of the future. Yet, their voice and impact is almost non-existent in climate change and sustainability education policy. Students have an insider perspective and are motivated to challenge the existing practices of an institution, as such; with proper engagement, they can make meaningful recommendations for sustainable futures in higher education. 

In order to address the lack of engagement of students in policymaking for sustainability in higher education, we conducted a research project co-led by two undergraduate students to better understand students’ perceptions of climate change and sustainability education in universities and produce a collaborative policy brief.
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