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This is a hybrid event; attendees can either join in person or on Teams. If the latter, please click on the 'Go to this event' button in the top right corner of this webpage, and fill in the form to receive the Teams link.
If you would prefer to attend in person, the seminar will take place in Room G/8, in the Waterloo Bridge Wing of Franklin Wilkins Building, King's College London, Stamford Street, SE1 9NH. If you are not a member of CRESTEM, please email crestem-events@kcl.ac.uk to RSVP.
Places are limited; please register early to avoid disappointment.
The era of warning about impending ecological disasters has passed. These days we document them. Today’s thirteen-year-olds have already experienced the 10 warmest years on record and each passing year will probably be hotter than the last. They are among a generation of young people living with the knowledge that this world, their home, is likely to become less habitable as they grow up. The implications of this for young people, for educators and for education itself are daunting. This is the backdrop to a seminar that will explore the question of how educators’ role(s) might adapt in response to this epoch that we have labelled the Anthropocene.
The seminar will draw on Paul’s research on student-led projects with schools across Europe and on educator competences as well as his role as a teacher educator and his recent work with the youth-led organisation Teach the Future. While making a case for the centrality of emotions in education (particularly in STEM subjects), Paul will consider some of the dangers and double binds inherent in educating about – and advocating for – sustainability in the current political climate.
Although rooted in the policy context of England, his talk will highlight issues that are likely to arise in any democratic society with a publicly funded formal education system. If this all sounds rather ominous, rest assured, Paul is not a depressive type. He has always sought pragmatic ways of working with systemic or ‘wicked’ problems and recognises the human need for meaningful sources of hope.
Speaker: Paul Vare
Dr Paul Vare leads the Doctor of Education programme plus MA and BEd modules on learning and sustainability at the University of Gloucestershire. His research focuses on education for sustainable development (ESD) and he was principle investigator of ‘A Rounder Sense of Purpose’, a six-year programme that developed a competence framework for sustainability educators; the project website (aroundersenseofpurpose.eu) features over 200 activities linking the competences with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Paul is a trustee of the National Association for Environmental Education, a member of the Adult Advisory Board of the youth campaign Teach the Future and academic advisor to the UN Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Steering Committee on ESD, having co-authored the UNECE Strategy on ESD.
Formerly, Paul was executive director of an international NGO, ran a regional NGO coalition in South-West England, worked on community-based projects in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK and was, primordially, a secondary school teacher.
This event was part of the CRESTEM Seminar Series.