Paul Vare

Verified

Paul verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

Verified

Paul verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

• Doctor of Education
• EdD Course Leader & Postgraduate Research Lead at University of Gloucestershire

Student-led sustainability projects are essential in promoting environmental awareness and community engagement. This research aims to understand the implications of such projects on student learning, teacher roles, community engagement, and project assessment. The methodology involves collaborative planning, execution, and assessment of the projec...

Whether in response to a growing awareness of climate change and sustainability issues or to government strategies in this area, teachers are increasingly encouraged to incorporate these issues into their teaching and ultimately, their assessment practices. In England, however, there are no guidelines on how this might be achieved and no mention of...

This study explores the way in which secondary schools can accommodate student-led, community-based pedagogies within the formal education system. The study identifies benefits and drawbacks associated with different strategies. Through such projects, students can develop their agentic power, that is, an ability to bring about change which is seen...

An analysis of England’s Department for Education support for the continuing professional development of teachers. Prepared by the Continuing Professional Development Forum of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET).

This chapter explores the question of learning outcomes and their assessment in the context of education for sustainable development (ESD). Starting with a brief review of different dimensions of ESD, approaches to curriculum planning and purposes of assessment, the chapter turns to the current tendency to focus on competences, what has been descri...

This introductory chapter introduces the case for competences in education for sustainable development before going on to explore the concept of competence itself. Three types of competence are identified: a pragmatic understanding comprising a focused set of skills, knowledge and attitudes; a broader concept that aligns with the German Bildung tra...

This volume highlights key moments and movements in this "competence turn" in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and explores the different ways in which competences have been conceptualized and implemented. By marshaling a dialogue between chapters and sections, the book provides a coherent whole that will become a key source on ESD comp...

This chapter takes stock of some of the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and relates these back to the core messages of this book. One ‘take away’ from this discussion is the possibility of rapid change, which echoes what is needed for education for sustainable development (ESD), another is the fact that people frequently claim to have learned thin...

The Competence Turn marks a shift of attention away from what is taught, with a focus on curriculum content, to what is learned, i.e. the outcomes of education. It is a shift with some considerable history. This chapter explores the approach to curriculum that underpins the Competence Turn and charts the growing use of the term ‘competence’ in educ...

This chapter comprises a discussion between three international teacher training contexts in Italy, the USA and the UK and explores the tensions that exist in assessing education for sustainable development (ESD) competences. It recognises the need for a form of assessment that is consistent with the aims and values of education for sustainability...

This paper offers a rationale for how ESD related learning at postgraduate level can be assessed. It proposes a framework for evaluating whether assessments in Master’s level programmes align with the pedagogical approach of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). If assessment is to contribute to the overall learning process, then the nature...

Secondary school students are granted few opportunities to change their world, yet they are expected to engage fully as citizens the moment they leave school. This issue is growing starker with multiple global crises contributing to mental health concerns. This situation stimulated a practical education for sustainability project designed to promot...

This book is an introduction to the long history of human learning, the environment and sustainable development – about our struggles with the natural world: first for survival, then for dominance, currently for self-preservation, and in future perhaps, even for long-term, mutually beneficial co-existence. It charts the long arc of human–environmen...

This chapter describes and reflects upon the recent history and contemporary situation regarding Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in the UK. It discusses how ESE is practised and understood in schools and other educational institutions and describes influencers (e.g. policy) on the practice and conceptualisation of ESE. While the fo...

This chapter takes the premise that, in order to create a sustainable world, we need to repurpose and refocus the education system to better equip individuals with the ability to recognise what changes need to be made to move towards sustainability and then how to participate in the implementation of these changes. It argues that there is a close l...

The focus of this chapter is wider than that of other chapters in this book because its focus is the environmental ‘web’ of the Dynamic Interactive Model of Resilience (ahmed Shafi et al., 2020). The environment is characterised as a multi-dimensional, complex adaptive system. Guattari’s notion of different ecological registers (environment, social...

This paper explores a range of theoretical models of resilience and human development to understand the concept of resilience as it has developed over time and how it is understood today. These include both classic and contemporary ideas such as those of Bronfenbrenner, Masten, Rutter and, more recently, Downes and Ungar. Building on this analysis,...

As schools seek to implement frameworks of education for sustainable development it is inevitable that they will encounter contradictions between their own aspirations and external demands. To analyse these contradictions through the lens of teachers-in-context, this research uses Cultural-historical Activity Theory that views schools as activity s...

The government funded two-year project, Stepping Up in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL), sought to align MFL teaching across the transition between primary and secondary schools. This paper describes the results of the project evaluation that was conducted using Cultural-historical Activity Theory as its research approach. This approach viewed the pr...

The purpose of the current paper is to contribute to the overall effort (nationally and internationally) for raising the quality of the delivery of educational programs and redesigning ESD programs by evaluating the use of a "Rounder Sense of Purpose" (RSP) model, as a simple and solid model that supports and facilitates the development of ESD comp...

Over recent decades, education policy has been preoccupied with economic growth while paying insufficient heed to global sustainability challenges. International initiatives to promote education for sustainable development (ESD) have been hampered by a lack of clarity on how to implement this form of education. To address this concern, a Rounder Se...

A Rounder Sense of Purpose: developing and assessing competences for educators of sustainable development Lo studio europeo A Rounder Sense of Purpose per sviluppare e valutare le competenze per gli educatori dello sviluppo sostenibile Abstract A Rounder Sense of Purpose is a three-year European Union-funded project. In its first phase has develope...