Spirit of place: awakening a sense of awe and wonder

This paper focuses on children's response to place and the way that placed impacts on geography education. Drawing on ideas from Froebel, Jung, Otto and Capra and Luisi it emphasises how our sense of oneness with nature can awaken a sense of awe and wonder. It is argued telling the 'story of the world' needs to draw on multiple perspectives and that emotional encounters and existential moments are a necessary part of a meaningful geography curriculum

Global learning: a catalyst for curriculum change

This paper considers some of the key challenges and opportunities for global learning. It is argued that global learning is a confused terrain which is emotionally ‘hot’ because it impacts on deep rooted notions of nationality and personal identity. The difficulty of engaging with controversial issues such as power relations, social injustice, migration and global poverty are explored, along with the legacy of colonialism. Recognising that global learning aims to develop new ways of thinking suggests that progression and assessment may need to be reframed around over-arching concepts and the formation of values rather than measurable outcomes. Intriguingly, this also offers an opportunity to realign the curriculum to better address twenty first century needs, particularly with respect to sustainability and the environment

Extreme weather

This article explores how extreme weather impacts on people’s lives and how finding out about extreme weather can fire children’s imaginations. It outlines teaching ideas which focus on Britain and provides a natural opportunity to develop UK locational knowledge as well as international knowledge

Cross curricular geography

The debate about the relative merits of single subject and cross curricular teaching is one that has raged for decades. This article examines different ways that primary geography can be linked to other areas of learning

Maps we can all understand

Children's atlases form a discreet area of publishing in which authors have to balance conflicting demands and needs. The expectation that an atlas will be a comprehensive reference source is set against their use as a teaching resource. Research into the way children devise and interpret world maps adds a further level of complication. This paper draws on the author's own experience as an atlas consultant over a 25 year period to explore some key issues

The paradox model: towards a conceptual framework for engaging with sustainability in higher education

The growing awareness of climate change, biodiversity loss and the wider global environmental emergency has led to calls for decisive and immediate action from all sections of society. In this paper we consider the question of how universities should respond and what role they might best adopt in current circumstances. We present a conceptual framework, the paradox model, which places sustainability within the contradictory, messy and uncertain terrain that characterises Higher Education. This is derived from our own experience of leading sustainability within one UK university as well as our continued engagement with educational theory and philosophy. We identify two fundamental contradictions or paradoxes facing those seeking to engage in sustainability in Higher Education: (1) how to develop authentic sustainability responses within the context of existing higher education structures and processes (2) How to reconcile the demand for immediate action with the much more gradual processes of education. We represent these two paradoxes as intersecting axes on a diagram which creates four quadrants in which a diverse range of responses can be located. The point where these two axes intersect is particularly significant and provides a place from which to navigate responses both individually, collectively and institutionally. We argue that wisdom provides a guiding principle for discerning which type of response might be appropriate in any given context. It may also indicate a route towards institutional change and underpin the vision of the ecological university of the future based on principles of civic responsibility and social justice

‘Whole earth?’ using an exhibition to raise sustainability awareness at a UK University

Despite mounting evidence of global environmental stress, many educationalists appear to be discounting warnings of ecological collapse from scientists, futurists and community leaders. One way of promoting sustainability awareness may be to combine cognitive reasoning with emotional awareness. This article considers the complex dynamics relating to attitudinal and behavioural institutional change by exploring the impact of a large-scale exhibition called ‘Whole Earth?’ on the staff and students at a UK university over a 15-month period. The exhibition contained a wide range of powerful visual images and drew on a famous protest song to frame its wider message. Although there were a variety of responses, the exhibition had the overall effect of raising the profile of sustainability across the university. Could initiatives of this kind, which are open-ended in character and which harness the arts to engender an emotional response, offer a model which could be used more widely

The fierce urgency of now? Navigating paradoxes in sustainability education

This special section of the IJSHE brings together five papers originally presented at the fifth sustainability in higher education (SHE) conference, “The fierce urgency of now? Navigating Paradoxes in Sustainability Education,” hosted by Canterbury Christ Church, UK, in May 2020. Challenged by the words of Greta Thunberg spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2019, our aim was to provide a space to explore the role and responsibility of universities in a time of global crisis and to explore what it means to act as “if our house is on fire”. And then the Covid-19 pandemic struck […] and the focus we had planned took on new relevance. Under lockdown conditions, the conference (and HE more generally) had to move to an online format, and we all found ourselves working in unchartered territory. Although challenging, this opened up unexpected opportunities for colleagues and students from different institutions nationally and internationally to participate, increasing diversity and repositioning the SHE networks as more outward-facing. This apparent contradiction (that is, locking down, opportunities may be opened up) illustrates one of the many apparent paradoxes in the contemporary higher educational landscape