Initial Teacher Education

At the University of Reading, we believe that climate and sustainability education is everyone’s responsibility. This is why we’ve set out our vision that all initial teacher trainees should be able to access training that empowers them to effectively incorporate climate education within their teaching – across all levels and subjects – as part of our National Climate Education Action Plan.

We have developed a Climate Education and Sustainability Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Framework for providers of teacher training to enable trainee teachers to develop their knowledge, understanding and skills related to climate change. The Framework supports student teachers to graduate with a core set of competencies to support young people to build resilience and become future change-makers in the climate and sustainability landscape.

The Framework was piloted during 2022/23 and is now shared, for free, to support other training providers to deliver on this important agenda. Initial teacher training providers may request a copy under licence by completing our Climate Education and Sustainability ITE Framework form.

The hard work of the team involved in producing the framework, has also been recognized by Advance HE who have since awarded the team with the prestigious Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE).

Across all the ITE programmes at the University of Reading’s Institute of Education, trainee teachers continue to learn about:

• what is happening to our climate, how to help children learn about climate and sustainability in an age-appropriate and accessible way, and how to consider their own positioning as teachers
• climate justice, the impact of current and future changes to our environment and climate on ourselves and others, and implications for teachers
• how to translate knowledge and theory into change and personal and collective action through building climate and sustainability education into planning, teaching, and children’s learning.