Progress towards sustainability: insight and challenges from four state-funded secondary schools in England: Research into secondary school leadership in climate education (SLiCE)

Since the release of the Department for Education’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy policy (DfE, 2022), schools in the United Kingdom (UK) have been encouraged to make progress towards sustainability in terms of both the management of school sites and the education they offer to prepare students for a future affected by climate change. The literature suggests a whole-school approach is required for such shifts towards sustainability to be successful (Finnegan, 2023; Monroe et al., 2019). The SLiCE (Secondary Leadership in Climate Education) project explored related initiatives in four state-funded secondary schools in the south-west of England. The headteachers of each school self-selected to participate in the project based on their interest in developing sustainability within their schools. A specific member of staff was then designated by the headteacher to be the contact person, due to their perceived environmental leadership within the school body. Through the contact person, students and further members of staff were selected as being prominent in their environmental leadership. The students involved in the project tended to be part of an eco club or committee or held some sort of student leadership role. Interviews were conducted first in the academic year 2021-2022 with the selected staff and students to understand the progress they sought in respect of sustainability and how they envisaged this would occur. Questions included a focus on curriculum development and also changes to school sites and operations. Extra-curricular activities and decision-making processes were also discussed. A year later in 2022-2023, a second round of reflexive interviews was conducted with the same members of staff and groups of students in similar roles, in some case these were the same students as the previous year and in others it was a new cohort of students. These follow-up interviews focused on what had been achieved, how this had occurred, the challenges faced by staff and students, and how these might be overcome. The resulting data in the form of interview transcripts was analysed through reflexive thematic analysis to identify areas that appeared to encapsulate the approach of each school, looking for distinctions and similarities between them. Initial codes were collated into potential themes which finally led to the creation of a thematic map representing the whole data set, with elements resembling a rudimentary process of change.

This presentation will report on the findings of this analysis. In particular, the following three common key areas of challenge were identified: generating a shared vision, anchoring student communication with management and developing the communication skills of staff and students. These challenges will be discussed in terms of their impact on the progress of schools to make effective shifts towards sustainability and the potential opportunities they present for schools striving to be more sustainable moving forwards. Limitations of the study will be considered and areas for future research will be demarcated.

References
DfE, (Department for Education). (2022). Sustainability and climate change: A strategy for the education and children’s services systems. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy/sustainability-and-climate-change-a-strategy-for-the-education-and-childrens-services-systems