Category: Global and sustainable education

A new book for Earth Day: Taking A Close Look at Microfibres

Author Education and Childhood Research Group | Posted on

Earth Day (22 April 2026) saw the launch of a new children’s book, Taking a Close Look at Microfibres. Co-created by school pupils and researchers from UWE Bristol’s Science Communication Unit (SCU) and Education and Childhood Research Group (ECRG), the book supports children and teachers to explore an often invisible aspect of air quality: airborne microfibres.

The book is part of the Schools Under the Microscope project, a child-led citizen science project that invites pupils aged 9–14 to take part in real environmental research. Through hands-on investigation, creative inquiry, and collaboration with university researchers, children from England and Wales helped generate new knowledge while shaping an engaging educational resource for use in schools.

Exploring what’s in the air we breathe

While microfibres are increasingly well documented in water systems, far less is known about fibres in the air we breathe – particularly in school environments. The Schools Under the Microscope project set out to explore whether established citizen science methods, previously used in homes, could work meaningfully in classrooms.

Following an initial pilot with 90 pupils at May Park Primary School, Bristol the project expanded to include around 400 children across four schools. Together, pupils designed investigations, made predictions, prepared petri dishes, and positioned them around their schools for a two‑week sampling period. After collection, pupils used microscopes to count fibres, while researchers at UWE Bristol carried out further analysis and shared findings back with the schools.

This marked the first time data on airborne microfibres has been collected within school environments, offering valuable insights into both indoor air quality and the potential of citizen science in education settings.

Learning through participation and enquiry

The findings showed that microfibre levels in schools were similar to those found in homes, including a mix of natural and synthetic fibres – some even matching the colours of school uniforms. More importantly, pupils and teachers reported high levels of engagement and enjoyment throughout the research process.

The team found that although air pollution is often invisible, it becomes meaningful through hands-on activities.

From research to a children’s book

Children’s questions, observations, and reflections directly shaped the storyline and content of Taking a Close Look at Microfibres. The book is designed to open up discussion rather than provide simple answers, encouraging curiosity, critical thinking, and dialogue about environmental issues that affect everyday life.

Page from the book, Taking A Closer Look at Microfibres.

The illustrations were created by Luci Gorell Barnes, a socially engaged artist and arts-based researcher. Recycled plastics, fabrics, card, and paper were used to make the images – all materials known to shed microfibres. These materials were scanned and transformed into digital collages, visually reinforcing the book’s themes of materiality, pollution, and reuse.

The book is accompanied by free teacher notes and ten lesson plans, supporting cross-curricular learning in science, geography, citizenship, and sustainability education.

Launching on Earth Day – and beyond

The project also connects with wider work at UWE Bristol around sustainability and social justice. The research team is partnering with the Global Goals Centre to support the Better Uniform Campaign, which seeks to develop a more socially and environmentally just system for school uniforms across Bristol.

Access the free book and resources

Schools, teachers, and partners can access a free e‑copy of Taking a Close Look at Microfibres with resources for lessons and learning.

The team

Dr Margarida Sardo, Dr Ben Williams, Dr Verity Jones and Jacqui Warner.

Thinking about death for the future

Author Education and Childhood Research Group | Posted on

By Dr Verity Jones, Associate Professor in Education

Recently, much of my thinking, particularly in collaboration with Chris Bear (Cardiff University), has led me to think more deeply about death as an ecological, educational and ethical concept that demands a futures lens. In our work on food systems, we ask what it would mean to attend to the deaths of non-human animals and plants –  not as abstractions but as lived relations.

In February, I attended the Centre for Sociodigital Futures, Immersive Public Futures Symposium, where themes of loss, endings, disappearance and possibility threaded through discussions of how societies imagine, design and negotiate futures.

International perspectives on imagining futures

Contributions from international speakers underscored that futures – thinking is rarely a smooth trajectory of progress.

  • Fabio Rubio Scarano (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro/Museum of Tomorrow) foregrounded planetary change and regeneration through anticipating and paying attention both to memory and tomorrow.
  • Lisa Bailey (Museum of Discovery, University of South Australia) explored how museums can engage diverse publics with complex and uncertain futures.
  • Andrea Bandelli (Woven Foundation for Creative Climate Communication) challenged us to recognise immersion not as a technical medium but as a condition – a relational mode that shapes how we encounter the world and its potential futures and agencies.
  • Mandy Rose (UWE Bristol) discussed documentary and digital cultures as tools for imagining post‑carbon possibilities through planty immersion.
  • Justin McGuirk (Design Museum, London) examined design-led approaches to futures and the need to construct possible future buildings to imagine within.
  • Dan Lockton (Norwich University of the Arts) reflected on how lost futures can help people collaboratively reimagine alternative futures.
  • Johannes Stripple (Lund University) used speculative ecology and storying  to unsettle fixed narratives of crisis and change.

Across these contributions, there was an insistence that imagining futures requires attending to what is disappearing, threatened or already lost.

Connections

The symposium strongly resonated with work with my own research. Whether supporting young women in imagining near-future careers in construction and engineering, examining ecological timescales in food ethics, or analysing how children’s literature either narrows or expands temporal imagination, much of my work is centrally concerned with how learners inhabit and negotiate time.

This sits alongside collaborations with colleagues at the Global Goals Centre and SPARKS Bristol, where we co-create learning experiences that are research‑informed, inclusive, socially engaged and committed to widening imaginative possibility.

Looking ahead

The symposium has sharpened my thinking on how endings and futures coexist – and how education must hold both. Several publications drawing on this work, including research on identity making, children’s literature and sustainable education, are currently in preparation and will be shared later this year.

Building capacity, community, and climate literacy – reflections from the CCPERN January meeting

Author Education and Childhood Research Group | Posted on

By Dr Verity Jones, Associate Professor in Education

The Climate Change Primary Education and Research Network (CCPERN) began 2026 with an energising and thought‑provoking meeting that reaffirmed why this community matters so deeply. Bringing together teachers, researchers, practitioners, and organisations committed to sustainability education, CCPERN continues to offer a vital space for sharing practice, fostering collaboration, and exploring the urgent challenges facing climate and sustainability learning in primary education.

Our January meeting welcomed two speakers whose work, though distinct in focus, revealed powerful synergies: Kate Colechin, from UWE Bristol’s careers and widening access team, and Mark Whittaker, headteacher at a North Yorkshire primary school. Together, they helped us consider not only what children need to learn about climate change, but how education systems can better prepare young people for a rapidly changing world.

Green careers and early aspirations

Kate Colechin opened the session by offering insights from her work training careers practitioners and supporting young people in schools. Speaking from both a higher‑education and school‑engagement perspective, she highlighted how central sustainability has become to contemporary careers work.

Kate shared that, within UWE Bristol’s postgraduate careers guidance programme, sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are embedded across modules, shaping how future advisors support both young and old to think critically about the environmental impacts of work, and to recognise that “every job is a green job”. Her reflections on working with school pupils were particularly resonant: young people, she noted, are increasingly worried about AI, future employment, and the state of the planet – and they respond powerfully to opportunities that spark curiosity and broaden their sense of what is possible.

A key takeaway was the importance of early career‑related learning in primary school, especially as research shows that children’s assumptions about jobs often solidify between the ages of 7 and 17. Challenging stereotypes, expanding horizons, and linking learning to real‑world sustainability issues can shape dispositions that stay with children throughout their lives.

Whole‑school climate education and the power of place

From a practitioner’s standpoint, Mark Whittaker shared the work underway across Northern Star Academies Trust to embed sustainability in curriculum, culture, and community. His school’s context added important nuance to discussions about equity, engagement, and what climate education looks like in practice.

Mark described how participation in the CAPE (Climate Adaptation Pathways in Education) programme had been transformative for both him and his staff, helping them articulate the “why” of climate education and recognise the need to thread sustainability throughout the curriculum rather than bolt it on. His examples of outdoor learning, river‑themed curriculum design, and farm twinning illustrated how powerful experiential learning can be for building ecological awareness and student wellbeing.

He also emphasised the challenges: staff confidence, parental perceptions, and political sensitivities around climate issues. Yet his school’s work shows how partnerships – with RHS, the National Education Nature Park, and particularly Jamie’s Farm – can offer life‑changing experiences for children who may have limited access to green spaces.

Shared threads and looking ahead

Across both presentations, a clear message emerged: climate education is not a single subject, but a holistic endeavour. Whether helping young people imagine future green careers or enabling primary pupils to build connections with their local environments, the work must begin early, be embedded meaningfully, and involve whole communities.

CCPERN remains committed to cultivating these conversations, sharing practice, and supporting educators and researchers navigating this shifting landscape. We look forward to continuing this momentum at our next meeting on 25 March 2026, when we will explore international data on environmental education with Professor Jennie Golding from UCL and hear from Green Schools about their work across England.

Interested in joining CCPERN? Please get in touch with Verity Jones (verity6.jones@uwe.ac.uk).

Inclusive climate education: a call to action from additional learning needs and alternative provision settings

Author Education and Childhood Research Group | Posted on

By Dr Verity Jones, Associate Professor in Education

Report launch

This week sees the publication of the Climate Change and Sustainability Education in Additional Learning Needs and Alternative Provision Settings report, authored by Shannon O’Connor, Dr Jennifer Rudd, Dr David Thomas, and Bryony Bromley. Drawing on research from 26 additional learning needs (ALN) settings across Wales and a micro-Delphi study, the report highlights urgent gaps in resources, training, and support for educators working with learners who are often excluded from mainstream sustainability discourse.

Intersecting with ECRG’s Sustainability Strand

As co-leads of the Education and Childhood Research Group’s Sustainability Strand at UWE Bristol, myself and Dr Tessa Podpadec welcome this report’s publication. It aligns closely with our commitment to embedding climate and sustainability education across diverse educational contexts, and particularly with our work on inclusive pedagogies that centre learner agency, creativity, and justice.

The report’s findings reinforce our belief that sustainability education must be differentiated – not diluted. Learners  deserve access to meaningful, age-appropriate content that reflects their lived experiences and capacities.

Insights from Sparks, Bristol

These themes resonate strongly with the work that Tessa, Dr Jon Mulholland and I have been developing at Sparks, Bristol with Global Goals Centre, a sustainable education hub where we have been working with special educational needs settings. At Sparks, we’ve explored how young people engage with sustainability through sensory-rich, place-based and creative approaches – from growing food and cooking with seasonal produce, to crafting with recycled materials and engaging in community-based environmental action.

These activities not only support curriculum goals but also foster a sense of belonging, purpose, and ecological connection among learners who may not otherwise see themselves reflected in climate narratives.

What needs to change

The report calls for:

  • A national bank of ALN-specific CCSE resources
  • Dedicated CCSE networks for ALN educators
  • Sustainability embedded across all Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs)
  • Easier access to ALN-friendly school trips and experiential learning.

These recommendations align with our Strand’s goals to support practitioner-led workshops and collaborative research that foreground inclusive climate pedagogies.

Why it matters

As Wales moves toward its net-zero targets, and as the curriculum for Wales embeds sustainability across all AoLEs, greater emphasis needs to be made to ensure that no learner is left behind. This report offers a roadmap for doing just that in Wales and beyond -and we encourage colleagues across education, policy, and research to engage with its findings. 

Read the report

Crafting change: How craft is empowering children for a sustainable future

Author Education and Childhood Research Group | Posted on

By Dr Verity Jones

In the face of escalating ecological and social crises, education must evolve to equip the next generation with the tools to imagine and enact a more sustainable and just world. In our new paper published in the International Journal of Social Pedagogy, we explore how eco-craftivism – the fusion of ecological awareness and craft-based activism- can serve as a powerful pedagogical tool in primary education.

Conducted with 120 pupils aged 8 to 9 in two UK primary schools, our research investigates how creative, hands-on learning can foster eco-social pedagogy (ESP). ESP expands traditional social pedagogy by integrating ecological consciousness with social justice, emphasizing the interconnectedness of people, planet, and the material world.

We call to for a de-bordering of solidarities: to move beyond human-to-human empathy and include solidarity with the environment and non-human “things.” This form of solidarity, with human-made objects, is crucial in cultivating sustainable behaviours. Craft and craftivism are powerful tools for building creative relationships with things in ways that build solidarities with those things, but also serve as gateways to holistic solidarities with the environment and human others. By engaging with recycled materials like copper wire, cardboard, and old socks, we explore how pupils developed material literacies – an understanding of the origins, value, and lifecycle of everyday items. This awareness, in turn, sparked deeper ecological and social insights.

The project’s workshops – where children crafted bracelets, puzzles, and sock puppets – were more than just craft lessons. They were immersive experiences that connected students emotionally and intellectually to the climate crisis. Pupils expressed joy in creating, pride in reusing materials, and a newfound sense of agency. One student reflected:

“It’s like doing something for the planet but also doing something that you can use.”

This dual purpose – personal enjoyment and environmental impact – embodies the essence of eco-craftivism.

Teachers, too, reported a shift in perspective. Inspired by the workshops, they reconsidered their own classroom practices, opting to use more sustainable materials and integrate environmental storytelling into lessons. The study highlights how craft-making can transform both teaching and learning, making abstract issues like climate change tangible and emotionally resonant.

Importantly, the research also addresses the emotional toll of climate education. Many children initially expressed fear and helplessness. However, through creative engagement, these emotions often shifted toward hope and empowerment. Crafting became a medium for emotional expression and resilience, helping students process complex feelings in a constructive way.

This study is a vital contribution to the growing field of climate education. It demonstrates that eco-craftivism is not just about making things – it’s about making meaning. By fostering solidarity with people, nature, and objects, it cultivates a holistic understanding of sustainability that is both intellectually rigorous and emotionally grounded.

As we seek innovative ways to prepare young learners for the challenges ahead, this research offers a compelling model. Eco-craftivism shows that with the right tools – scissors, thread, and a bit of imagination – children can begin to stitch together a better future.

The full reference of this new article is:

Mulholland, J., Jones, V., Pawson, C. and Harrison, L. (2025). De-bordering solidarities: using eco-craftivism as an eco-social pedagogy in primary education. International Journal of Social Pedagogy, 14(1): 8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.ijsp.2025.v14.x.008.

Dr Verity Jones, Associate Professor of Education at UWE reflects on how her research in sustainability has created new and exciting opportunities in Bristol and beyond…

Author Education and Childhood Research Group | Posted on

Dr Verity Jones, verity6.jones@uwe.ac.uk

Sparks have been flying the last few months with some electrifying leaps in sustainable education in Bristol and you are invited to come and take a peek on July 4th 5-6.15pm.

I have had the pleasure of working with Global Goals Centre for four years, throughout which we have been developing exciting, research informed climate and sustainable education. The dream has always been to have a physical site to work with schools and the public to engage, enthuse and educate on issues pertaining to the protection of people and planet for a sustainable future. In May 2023 this was realised with the opening of Sparks, a former department store in the heart of Bristol’s busy Broadmead shopping centre.

Sparks aims to disrupt what a department store is and invites you to reconsider the what, how and why of what you purchase.

Sparks has the usual departments of a large store  – fashion, home furnishings, electrics and food. The difference is that what is on offer has sustainability, education and community at its heart. Furnishings, electricals and clothing are preloved with opportunities to learn how to repair and mend. Food is locally sourced from 60 small producers and the gift shop provides a space for over 80 local creatives to sell their wares. At the centre of the store is the Department of Discovery where schools, colleges and other groups can come and take part in one of the workshops I have developed with Manu Maunganidze. Listening to the needs of local schools we offer creative spaces to explore fast fashion, global food supply, sustainable transport, migration and biodiversity at a time of ecological and climate emergency.

On 4th July, we invite teachers to come for a free tour and see what it’s all about.

We know that many young people are concerned about the planet and we have developed hopeful pedagogies to support learners in navigating their emotional responses to these issues. While it’s important to recognise facts about carbon emissions, habitat loss and changing weather patterns, we believe it’s also important to frame this situation in the good news stories of how people and organisations are working towards mitigation – and how we may be able to support these. Feeling part of the solution can be empowering.

Having opportunities to engage with issues of sustainability face to face is great, but I’ve been extending that reach nationally and internationally through the Climate Change Primary Education Research Network

As Chair of UWE’s Climate Change Primary Education Research network,  I have been organising termly online events that bring researchers, teachers and student teachers together to discuss their work and practice. Developing professional networks where up to date insights in sustainable education can be shared and critiqued are essential. In June I was able to reconnect with Disappearing Dialogue Collective – a community education charity in Kolkata, who I have previously partnered with in researching sustainable education practice in India. We delivered a hybrid event where I shared the work going on in the UK with teachers from India. In it we recognised the common challenges teachers face relating to lack of subject knowledge, resources, budgets and time to plan and deliver important learning about the environment as well as the successes.

As we prepare to end another academic year and plan for a new one, the English Curriculum remains stubbornly married to a view where climate and sustainability are notably missing. Networks, partnerships and collaborations with interesting and engaged people help to move thinking and practice on, and provide hope that the way we approach education for greater sustainable development is possible.

  • To join the Climate Change Primary Education Research Network please email verity6.jones@uwe.ac.uk and follow Verity on @VerityJones_Edu

latest publications:

Jones, V. & Podpadec, T (2023) Young People, Climate Change and Fast Fashion, Environmental Education Research, 10.1080/13504622.2023.2181269

Jones, V., Gupta, N., & Mitre, S. (2023). Climate change and sustainability education in India and the place for arts-based practice: Reflections from East Kolkata Wetlands. London Review of Education, 20(1), https://doi.org/10.14324/lre.20.1.48.

Jones, V., MacLeod C. (2022) Why Children Need to Read About Plants at a Time of Climate Change, Children’s Literature in Education, 10-29  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-022-09511-x

Don’t just listen to young people ….

Author Bristol Inter-disciplinary Group for Education Research | Posted on

Over the last few years we have watched the sound of young people’s voices get louder in response to global climate change. Before lockdown we saw thousands gather to protest in public places around the world demanding change. Demanding action. Young people leading young people to insist that the global community act now, and act quickly to ensure a fairer, more sustainable future for all.

Here in Bristol the voices of young people are not overlooked. This year I have been privileged to work with the Global Goals Centre; an exciting new visitor centre that will offer immersive ways of learning about the climate and ecological emergency framed around the Sustainable Development Goals. Learning about these important issues through fun and engaging ways – with an emphasis on what we can do to make a difference – is a key theme running through all stages of development.

As young people will be an important audience for the Centre, I ran workshops across the city to enlist their help in the designing the first of the immersive experiences. Through the Youth Design Challenge young people were invited to design a space around the theme of fast fashion. Entries were judged on creativity, engagement with the theme and consideration of different learning experiences. Whilst knowledge of ocean plastics and the need to reduce carbon emissions was acknowledged, few young people had previously considered their connection with the fast fashion supply chain, but they did not disappoint with their thinking and creative response to the situation.

On 23rd November a host of dignitaries gathered on a zoom call to celebrate the work of those who had entered the competition. Marvin Rees (Bristol’s Mayor) was delighted to make the presentations after the young audience listened to Bristol’s leading young climate activist, Mya Rose Craig (also known as BirdGirl). Finisterre, a Cornwall based company specialising in sustainable clothing donated the prizes.

The competition was not a token nod to the voices of the young. It was not a cheap marketing technique to get buy in from sponsors and lead the headlines. Instead, this competition is just another step in engaging and enabling young people’s voices to be heard in the development of the Centre. These designs will now be used by the creative team to inform pilot designs which are hoped to be tested later in 2021.

Young people aren’t just making noise about wanting a sustainable future, they are full of amazing ideas and ready to think through difficult problems in new ways. We mustn’t just listen, Instead, we need to provide ways in which young people’s voices can inform change.   It is not up to our youth to make the change – such pressure is both unfair and untenable with many experiencing eco-anxiety and grief as a result. Instead, we need to work together – old and young – for a better future.

Check out the Mayor’s blog for more information https://thebristolmayor.com/2020/11/24/teaching-us-a-thing-or-two/

[This research is made possible by UWE’s Vice Chancellor’s Early Career Research award]

Dr Verity Jones is a Senior Lecturer on the Initial Teacher Training Programme (ITT) in the Department of Education and Childhood at UWE.

Follow Dr Jones on twitter @VerityJones_edu

We deserve to be taught about it: climate crisis classes for all students – a word of caution

Author Bristol Inter-disciplinary Group for Education Research | Posted on

Recently The Guardian reported on how some universities are ‘bowing’ to student pressure and including classes on climate throughout all courses – whether they be geography and environmental studies (where such issues have traditionally been included) or music and fashion (where issues of connected with climate may not seem so obvious).

A report published this month by Winchester University  showed that 54% of 16-18 year olds saw climate breakdown as the second biggest threat to the UK (after the quality of the NHS). The same percentage considered universities failing in their job of addressing it.

Without doubt, the demand and need for engagement with issues relating to the climate and ecological emergency have never been so clear. We are all aware that there is a need for action if we are to secure a more sustainable future. However, there is growing evidence that with the emergency increasing numbers of young people are reporting the effects of eco-anxiety. Higher Education institutions need to consider how they approach embedding these issues and what the impact may be.

At UWE, Bristol we have been mapping how every programme across the university engages with the Sustainable Development Goals. This has provided an opportunity for us to engage and enable learning for students around real issues associated with the climate and ecological emergency; making explicit links, providing up to date information and opportunities to problem solve. What it has also allowed for is time; time to discuss these issues in supportive groups, share both fears and hopes; share the problems which affect us all.   Delivering the knowledge isn’t enough. Making the time to talk and problem solve together is essential in order to combat feelings of isolation, hopelessness, and despondency that our current situation is having on many people. The emotional landscape attached to these issues must be carefully negotiated.

As someone who delivers the Initial Teacher Education programme here at UWE, and undertakes research with young people regarding eco anxiety and sustainable futures, it is clear that emotions are running high in classrooms in both the university and primary classroom. Anger and helplessness are common emotions displayed by the learners. This is often mirrored by the fear or hope embedded in many educational resources used to engage with climate discussion. It is all too easy to say ‘teach climate’. We need to be thinking carefully of how we teach it, and what the impact of the teaching is having both in the short and long term.  

At present I am working with The Global Goals Centre in developing immersive experiences which support young people in learning about the climate and ecological emergency. At the heart of this project is young people’s voice: what they want to learn, how they want to learn and how they feel about the issues. Workshops and focus groups are informing every step, in order to develop a unique learning experience, meeting the needs of the audience rather than socially engineering emotional appeals. Finding out who they think can help and be part of the solution is critical – the image shows one example of how an 8-year-old sees this jigsaw; they are very much part of the solution. However, not all young people have such a sophisticated and hopeful vision.

Teaching about the climate isn’t something that can be done quickly or easily. This is something we need, we need to do well, and we need to think through carefully and with support.

Dr Verity Jones is a  Senior Lecturer on the Initial Teacher Training Programme in the Department of Education and Childhood at UWE and is a member of UWE Bristol’s Knowledge Exchange for Sustainable Development group. Her research with the Global Goals Centre is funded by UWEs Vice Chancellors Early Career Researcher Award.

Follow Dr Verity Jones on twitter

Project Zulu Research Seminar

Author Bristol Inter-disciplinary Group for Education Research | Posted on

The Department of Education and Childhood Presents: The Bristol Inter-disciplinary Group for Education Research (BRIDGE)

Project Zulu Research Seminar 2nd April 2019 — 5pm – 7pm — Room 2S704 , Frenchay.

Project Zulu is a UWE educational development initiative which works with partner schools in township and rural areas of Kwazul-Natal, South Africa. Collaborations between school communities in SA and UWE staff and students seek ways of enhancing infrastructure, pedagogy and learning opportunities through knowledge exchange, action research and practical support. The three research projects presented in this seminar have developed over the last three years and are based on such collaborations.

Dr Alex Palombi and Vanessa Parmenter LD Nursing and Occupational Therapy collaboration at township SEN school

Over the last two years, learning difficulties nursing and occupational therapy students have volunteered for 4 weeks within a special educational needs (SEN) school within Madadeni Township in South Africa as part of Project Zulu. This research used five semi structured interviews and a focus group to explore the impact of Project Zulu on the health and social care students’ professional learning, and on the participating SEN school’s teachers and principal. Transcripts of the interviews and focus group are to be thematically analysed to explore the nature of the learning derived from this experience and the extent to which teachers and principals view the project as a partnership and the extent to which their mutual learning. Initial findings indicate mutual perceived value in cross cultural learning and useful professional develop alongside managing concerns about sustainability and measuring value.

Dr Jane Carter and Karan Vickers-Hulse Reading Partner intervention at two rural South African primary schools

This project builds on current RET funding (An evaluation of the Bristol Reading Partner (BRP) Intervention) and the work to pilot BRP in two of the UWE Project Zulu (PZ) partnership schools. South Africa was the lowest performing country (out of 50 participating countries) in reading in the Progress in International Reading Study (PIRLS 2016) and is the priority area of the PZ schools’ Principals. In Feb 2019 we trained teachers in the pilot schools in the BRP intervention programme; PZ UWE student volunteers will be trained in BRP in March 2019 and will work 1:1 with children in the two pilot schools in KwaZulu Natal in August. This work will also add to the body of data and knowledge we have about BRP and EAL learners.

Dr David Wyatt and Ben Knight ICT project at a rural South African primary school

This three year ICT intervention project at one rural primary school in South Africa aimed to enable integrated ICT learning for pupils. Actions at strategic, infrastructure and teacher digital literacy levels were implemented over three phases and evaluated via teacher questionnaires and a focus group interview. Findings highlight the opportunities and challenges of managing international sustainable enhancement projects, and illustrate the critical role teachers play in pupil skills development and the importance of investing in their digital literacy.


This event is free to attend but pre-registration is required. Register here to book your place. 

Who Made My Clothes? Making sense of the world through creativity

Author Bristol Inter-disciplinary Group for Education Research | Posted on

 

Fashion Revolution follows the mantra: be curious, find out and do something.

As I write this, we are at the end of the second week of the free, three week, online course Who Made My Clothes? written by myself and Prof. Ian Cook (Exeter University).

In week one we encouraged learners to begin to be curious about their clothes; delve into their own wardrobe and begin to think about the journey their clothing had made. In week two we have been ‘finding out’. This has required our global class of (so far) 7500+ learners to become clothes detectives and research those journeys in greater detail. Using resources such as Fashion Revolution’s Transparency Index as a starting point, we have uncovered the hidden, lost and forgotten stories that we carry round in our clothing every day. Learners have shared their findings, and often their disquiet over what they have found.

Over the week the team of mentors work in a virtual classroom; assisting learners on the discussion boards and signposting further areas of interest. But, each Thursday we gather in Exeter to film a Q&A session, inviting an expert panel to answer some of the pressing questions the learners have raised. This week one of our panellists was Heather Knight (Head of Branding, Design and Communications for Fashion Revolution).

Heather drew on her years of expertise to help learners with their concerns regarding how to make sense out of their research. How could they develop their own creative response whether it be through writing, vlogging, infographics etc.? This is a central activity to week 2 – making sense of the ‘finding out’ – and one many learners find challenging.

As members of the team we not only provide support for those taking the course, but we also recognise ourselves as learners. After all, every piece of clothing tells another story, uncovers a different thread of understanding in the global supply chain narrative. This means that, along with the 7500+ participants, I too have been finding out about an item of clothing from my own wardrobe and thinking about what kind of creative response I could make.

So, this week I have drawn my research together; the story of my Finnisterre jumper which I lovingly darned with yellow mending thread when the elbows became worn.  It has taken me on a journey that has left me uneasy as I discovered how great swathes of woollen textiles are born from animal cruelty through the act of mulesing (slicing skin from around the backside/ tail area) – as well as how these animals end up in countries with no interest in animal welfare at the end of their ‘useful’ lives. With relief I found my jumper was not part of this system. However, the thread I mended it with told an altogether different story; one of war, refugees and child labour.

Bringing these worlds together in order to create a response is a challenge and I have been reminded of the inspiring and eclectic mix of writing from last year’s course; reports, narratives, heartfelt letters to loved ones and poetry being just some of the genre chosen.

As an Educator, I encourage learners to write, whether in the primary classroom, or the university seminar. If they are stuck for ideas I advise them to look around them for inspiration, to read widely and read often as it is frequently through the innovation of other’s words that we can develop our own voice.

For my own work, I have turned to Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris’ inspirational book The Lost Words. A collection of inspiring poems based on words no longer found in the Oxford Children’s Dictionary. Words from the natural world such as heather, conker, newt and wren. It was this idea of words becoming lost, unheard and invisible that struck a chord: The voices of garment workers have become just as muted.

And so I have written my response which you can read:  poetry based on finisterre jumper

I have written poems. I have unpacked the skills, thought carefully about the structure of both what I am reading and what I am then writing, unpacked the themes and rhythms and made critical decisions on the journey.  This process has brought a clarity of thought to the final product. And, as a result, further clarity to my own practice and how I will support writers in the future.

We are all writers, but sometimes forget the power of the process. Where it can take you and how you use it is the theme of week 3 when we consider how we can all ‘do something’.

It’s not too late to join the course and see what journey your clothes will take you on.

 

Dr Verity Jones, Senior Lecturer in Global and Sustainable Education

Twitter: @VerityJones_edu 

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