29 KEY FINDINGS • More than half of the respondents selected ‘more mentions of climate change and sustainability in the National Curriculum for the subject(s) I teach’ as a ‘top 5’ priority for support; this was prioritised to a greater extent by those teaching at primary level than those teaching at secondary level. • ‘More mentions of climate change/sustainability content in the National Curriculum for the subject(s) I teach’ was selected as a ‘top 5’ support priority by just over one third of those teaching science or geography at secondary compared with nearly two thirds of those teaching subjects other than science or geography at secondary level. • More than half of the respondents selected ‘more sustainability actions being taken in school to reinforce student learning’ as a ‘top 5’ support priority. • Just under half of the respondents selected ‘more opportunities to collaborate with colleagues to develop cross-curricular teaching materials focused on climate change and sustainability’ and ‘more support from external organisations to develop teaching resources and strategies focused on climate change and sustainability’. These results indicate that respondents are heavily reliant upon ‘self-taught’ methods of professional development to support their climate change and sustainability teaching, while also revealing a lack of coverage of these topics within ITE programmes. They reflect the experiences of a cohort of teachers that are, generally speaking, engaged in climate change and sustainability education, including teachers of geography and science. It might reasonably be expected that such teachers would engage with these areas during ITE programmes, given the inclusion of climate change and sustainability in these subjects within the National Curriculum. In Section 4 we reflect on these results further in relation to the provision of ITE and CPD. 3.2.2 Teachers’ priorities for support to enhance their teaching The survey asked respondents to prioritise the types of support that they would consider helpful to enhance their teaching related to climate change and/or sustainability, by selecting their ‘top five’ priority areas from a list of options. The most commonly selected priorities were for more references to climate change and sustainability in the National Curriculum for the subject they teach (57.7%), and more sustainability actions being taken in school to reinforce student learning (57.5%) (Figure 6).
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