by Cathy d’Abreu, Chair of the SEEd Board of Trustees and Co-Chair of the Our Shared World coalition
In a time of intersecting crises – ecological, social, economic and cultural – the need to reimagine what education is for and how it is done, has never been more urgent. Against this backdrop, Our Shared World[1] (OSW) has hosted a new space for educators and changemakers to connect, reflect, support and learn from each other.
The OSW Learning Lunches, a series of monthly online gatherings, ‘showcase, share and amplify’ some of the outstanding cutting-edge work for and by educators, organisations and changemakers of all shapes and sizes, towards a more just, equitable and sustainable future. They are collaborative and participatory, celebrating some of the outstanding work of those shaping ‘education in dangerous times’ (Sterling, 2024). They are bite-sized and breakneck (never long enough!) with each session featuring a short input from a speaker who then poses a provocation for discussion among attendees. These provocations – deliberately open-ended and generative – invite deep thinking and collective reflection on some of the most pressing educational questions of our time. The first series saw some brilliant contributions and fizzy discussions under the following themes:
1. Policy, Curriculum and Institutional Change
Several sessions explored the role of national policy, curriculum, and system reform in shaping sustainability education. The inaugural lunch opened with an exploration of the Department for Education’s Curriculum and Assessment Review, prompting reflection on what counts as evidence, who defines it, and how to meaningfully contribute to the review process. Fizzy discussions ensued on whether we need educational ‘evolution or revolution’.
A session from the National Association of Environmental Education (NAEE) team – Dr Bill Finnegan, Dr Isobel Talks and Professor Justin Dillon – invited lunchers to consider how to scale up effective sustainability practices in the classroom, drawing on insights from their recent national report ‘The state of environmental, sustainability and climate education in UK schools and effective practice in the classroom’.
These discussions were followed by a powerful example of ‘chalkface’ experience shared by Archway School in Gloucestershire. Headteacher Kieron Smith and SEEd (Sustainability and Environmental Education) Young Changemakers Lead, James Hayes, offered an honest and practical perspective on embedding sustainability across a full and already stretched school timetable. The conversation highlighted both the challenges and creative opportunities of integrating climate and sustainability work at school level, and raised the question: Should sustainability education be left to individual schools, or embedded through national curriculum policy?
These sessions underscored the structural levers at play and the importance of embedding sustainability not only in individual schools, but across educational policy, curriculum and educational systems.
2. Youth Voice, Participation and Agency
A further thread across the series was the role of young people as active participants and change agents in sustainability education. The session on PACTS (Politicians Accountable for Climate to Students) showcased a bold initiative co-led by SEEd, Reboot the Future and The Harmony Project supporting young people to hold their MPs and political representatives accountable for climate commitments and other sustainability related concerns. This session highlighted that education must do more than inspire young people’s personal agency – it should also encourage their agentive power.
Another politically powerful talk by Sir Jonathon Porritt, drawing on decades of experience as an environmental campaigner and author, headlined the need to nurture critical agency, civic courage, and radical imagination. He explored what needs to change in the education system beyond the curriculum, with attendees then chewing over whether education should be ‘reformist or revolutionary’. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, many lunchers favoured the latter!
3. Values, Psychology and Wellbeing
Several lunches turned towards some deeper dimensions of transformation: values, identity and emotional wellbeing. A session with Ruth Taylor from the Common Cause Foundation explored how intrinsic values like empathy and community, often sidelined in educational settings, are crucial for meaningful education and engagement.
Rachel Musson and Holly Everett from ThoughtBox Education introduced the Triple WellBeing framework – a cycle of emotional, social and ecological wellbeing that offers a regenerative model of practice for learning. They pointed to ‘a connection crisis; with ourselves, each other and the natural world’.
In an emotionally resonant session, Steffi Bednarek, Director of the Centre for Climate Psychology, invited participants to consider how climate anxiety, grief, and inherited cultural patterns shape our responses to a planetary polycrisis, inviting reflection on ‘what it means to be human in these challenging times’. Lunchers reflected on her challenging provocation ‘Which parts of you are well-adapted to an ailing culture? Steffi shared the deeply thought-provoking statement that ‘what we are witnessing is not a tsunami of mental health issues but a long overdue outbreak of sanity’ (Lawton, 2019).
4. Stories, Language and Systems Thinking
Other sessions critiqued the systemic narratives and worldviews underpinning education today. Professor Arran Stibbe introduced the concept of econarratives, illustrating how language and culture profoundly shape our relationships with each other and the living world. He invited educators to consider the ethical and ecological implications of “the stories we live by.”
Culture was also examined in Dr. Morgan Phillips’ talk, where he questioned the slow progress in mainstream environmental education noting ‘the problem isn’t primarily technological, cognitive or behavioural; it is cultural. The problem is hyper individualism’. Morgan forwarded that hyper individualism, the cornerstone of western centric identity, increases our consumption, reduces our collective/civic action and depletes our cultural creativity and imagination. This story is another that needs challenging.
The series concluded with an expansive session led by Professor Stephen Sterling, one of the most respected figures in sustainability education, who traced the evolution of the field over several decades. Stephen introduced the idea of ‘Education and the good of the whole’, proposing that in times of deep social turbulence and ecological challenge, we need to embrace ‘wholeness as a normative principle’. He called for a radical change from the current reductive, mechanistic, deterministic paradigm to one that embraces an ecological, relational and holistic worldview. He noted most of our thinking is done atomistically ‘in boxes’ rather than holistically ‘in webs’ – highlighting again the dominant narratives that reduce the world to individual parts, rather than relational wholes. He shared the pertinent observation that to transform societies ‘education itself needs to be transformed’ (UNESCO, 2024).
Our Shared Purpose
The lunches served a rich banquet of ideas and insights, and we are deeply grateful to all the speakers and the many attendees who came, connected and contributed their thoughts. At a time when we can feel isolated or limited by social, institutional and political constraints, the speakers and their important work offered nourishment, inspiration and a sense of being part of a collective educational community. They remind us that we are not working alone, and that transformative education is already underway, in many places and many forms. Gill Scott Heron said ‘the revolution will not be televised’ – how right he was, it is still emerging and gaining momentum!
Many thanks also to George Edwards (SEEd) and Sarah Frazer (SEEd) who ensured the smooth running of sessions and created a wonderful webpage housing the recordings, slides and resources.
Our Shared World will continue the Learning Lunches in September and warmly welcome all committed to learning, unlearning and co-creating ‘education of a different kind, an education that takes us into the depth of things’ (Schumacher, 1974).
Do join us to connect and attend upcoming lunches and catch up on missed recordings and slides.
Cathy d’Abreu on behalf of the Co-Chairs of Our Shared World: Cathy d’Abreu, Holly Everett, Elena Lengthorn and Ann Finlayson
[1] OSW is a diverse coalition of 183 members and 381 associate members that includes NGOs, organisations, universities, educators and individuals, working in education towards a more just, equitable and sustainable world, and is co-chaired by SEEd, Thoughtbox education, the University of Worcester and Oxford Brookes University.
