Credit: Michal via Adobe Stock.

13 November 2025

By Nicola Walshe

Thirty years ago, as a doctoral student in glaciology, I travelled to Iceland to undertake fieldwork for my PhD. My research focused on the hydrology of glaciers, specifically, using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to investigate the pathways and behaviour of meltwater within and beneath the ice. Effectively, I was mapping the hidden ‘plumbing’ through which meltwater travels. Understanding glacial water flow is crucial as it influences glacier motion, stability and runoff, with implications for both glaciological theory and water resource management.

Alongside fellow doctoral students from the University of Leeds, I spent two consecutive summers camping at the foot of Falljökull (which translates directly to ‘falling glacier’ in Icelandic), an outlet glacier of the Vatnajökull ice cap in South Iceland. Each day for five weeks we re-ran the same routine: hike onto the glacier, collect data, return to camp, eat, sleep, repeat. Over time, Falljökull became more than a research site; it was a companion – dynamic, unpredictable, and alive. The icefall, where the glacier descends steeply from Vatnajökull, loomed in the distance – mystical, terrifying and unreachable.

Fast forward three decades, and much of my professional life now centres on climate change and sustainability education – research, practice and policy. And this October, I returned to Iceland for the first time since my final field season, all those years ago. Accompanied by my family, I was driven by a promise I’d made to myself: to one day revisit Falljökull, to share its beauty (and a glimpse of my former life) with my teenage children, and to confront, with trepidation, the impact of climate change on this once-familiar landscape. (more…)

Credit: Mat Wright for UCL IOE.

4 September 2025

By Kate Greer, Justin Dillon, Alison Kitson and Nicola Walshe

You might think that, by now, teachers who want to incorporate climate change and sustainability into their lessons would be able to access a plethora of subject-specific, tried and tested professional development. But you’d be wrong. In fact, while NGOs, subject associations and the learned societies (among many others) have been developing resources for many years, there are few easily accessible, subject-specific courses available to help teachers in England address these issues. (more…)

Credit: Lucy Pope for UCL IOE.

23 April 2025

By Rupert Higham and Alison Kitson

“What do I do? Save the environment or let children go hungry?” So said one of ten secondary school headteachers who participated in case study research led by UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability (CCCSE). (more…)

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31 March 2025

By Hans Svennevig

This post is the third of three in a series on disaster and climate education (DCE). In the first two posts, Pedagogies for disaster and climate risk reduction and Collaborative and co-learning for disaster and climate justice, Kaori Kitagawa introduced what DCE is about and techniques for collaborative co-learning to prepare for these scenarios and reduce their impact.

In this post I hone back in on schooling to share resources that could enable teachers to embed DCE within their lessons. I use the case of England’s Citizenship school curriculum, but the principle of embedding DCE into learning and the resources themselves have wider application. I draw on my and Kaori’s recent publication ‘Preparing for disasters through Citizenship Pedagogies’. The new Co-learning for disaster and climate justice master’s module at UCL uses these themes to enable students to develop pioneering approaches and resources of their own that further progress practice in DCE. (more…)

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27 March 2025

By Sandra Leaton Gray

Education is at a turning point, shaped by rapid technological advancement, climate change, demographic shifts and evolving labour market demands. As policymakers respond to these challenges, the need for long-term strategic thinking has never been more pressing. (more…)

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27 February 2025

By Kaori Kitagawa

This post is the second of three in a series on disaster and climate education. Read part one: Pedagogies for disaster and climate risk reduction.

Compared to didactic, ‘knowledge transmission’ models, more collaborative approaches stand out as an appropriate pedagogy for disaster and climate education (DCE). Preparing for disasters in communities or households will benefit from building solidarity and sharing responsibilities. By enabling a social learning environment, collaborative learning pedagogies cultivate a sense of belonging. This inclusive space values and respects every member, which plays a crucial role in promoting social justice. But we can go further. (more…)

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20 February 2025

By Kaori Kitagawa

As climate change accelerates, regions worldwide are grappling with increased flooding, droughts and wildfires. Areas prone to seismic activity frequently face large-scale earthquakes. Such catastrophic events disrupt lives and have fatal consequences. We need ‘education’ – formal, informal and lifelong learning – to help citizens navigate them. In this series of blog posts, I and my colleague Hans Svennevig discuss pedagogical approaches to education for reducing disaster and climate risk. This post explores the range of pedagogies used, and in the second I look in particular at ‘co-learning’ approaches in this field. In the third post Hans shares practical examples. (more…)

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26 November 2024

By Veronica Osorio Calderon and Mukdarut Bangpan

The growth of Evidence-Informed Decision-Making (EIDM)

Evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) is the idea that decisions, particularly in policy, should be based on the best available research, along with other factors like public opinion, costs and practicality. As an approach, it aims to make decision-making more systematic and transparent by using a structured way of identifying and applying research evidence in policies.

EIDM has gained significant traction in recent years. This was especially clear at the Global Evidence Summit in Prague in September, which brought together 1,800 attendees to discuss the role of evidence in policymaking. Just shortly afterwards, UK Research and Innovation and the Wellcome Trust committed approximately £56.5 million to further EIDM, globally. This latest example of funding to support EIDM is dedicated to advancing “living evidence” initiatives and, specifically, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance evidence use in policymaking. (more…)

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3 October 2024

By Andrea Gauthier, Mina Vasalou, Yang Yang and Team FoodWiser: Sanya Bajaj, Enying Chen, Xinyue Dong, Thi Huyen Mi Nguyen

As the new academic year begins, we reflect on our ‘Digital Design Thinking and Making’ (DDTM) module, which is part of IOE’s Education and Technology MA. The aim of DDTM is to support the critical understanding and application of design to educational technologies, with a focus on environmental sustainability. Taking a research-based design approach rooted in creative design practice, during Spring 2024 the student team ‘FoodWiser’ worked with UCL’s caterer, Gather and Gather, to develop a new digital tool for tackling food waste in the UCL halls of residence cafeteria. Food waste isn’t just an annoying problem of dealing with leftovers: each discarded plate of food means wasted resources and unnecessarily inflated greenhouse gases. (more…)

International Youth Climate Delegate Program group at COP28, Dubai. Photo by COP28 / Anthony Fleyhan.

20 February 2024

By Kate Greer and Nicola Walshe

COP28 news coverage focused attention on an agreement to transition away from fossil fuels, plus funding for ‘loss and damage’, but what happened in the UNFCCC Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) workstream concerned with engaging all citizens in climate change action through education and public participation?  (more…)