Today, the Network for Social and Educational Equity will be joining our colleagues at Children’s Neighbourhoods Scotland for an event that brings together pupils from West Dunbartonshire in Scotland with those in Chile.
The children, along with their teachers and researchers from the university will be sharing their experiences of a collaborative project that highlights young people’s concerns about climate change in the run up to COP26.
Despite being most affected by the ongoing climate crisis, young people’s perspectives are largely underrepresented in the policymaking space. This has prompted widespread calls for more research that engages with pupil’s climate concerns throughout the world.
Voices of young people
This is especially relevant to Scotland, where the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was recently passed into law, requiring new mechanisms to amplify the voices of young people.
This event is an exhibition of the ongoing research, between Scotland and Chile, that helps to address these issues. CNS is working with NSEE to organise collaborative workshops between schools in the two countries, using the CNS ‘Capabilities Approach’ which emphasises young people’s agency in the research process.
The workshops have connected the schoolchildren and teachers of Luis Cruz Martinez with St Eunan’s Primary School and St. Peter the Apostle in West Dunbartonshire. For teachers, workshops have facilitated knowledge exchange and pedagogical reflections about how to embed climate-related content into the classroom.
Climate concerns
For the students, the workshops provide a forum to explore and voice their own climate concerns, and to compare the issues in a global context through dialogue with their Chilean counterparts. With COP25 relocated away from Chile in 2019, and COP26 hosted in Glasgow, this project gives a chance for students in both countries to meaningfully participate in international climate discussions.
This event will highlight this research, giving the young people a platform to present their concerns to a live audience, and enabling teachers and practitioners to jointly exhibit their findings and the outcomes of the workshops.
