Cluster for Climate Change Action and Education
An action research cluster highlighting the vital importance of climate change education
Anthropogenic climate change is here, now, devastating all life. The time is long overdue for every discipline in the academy to address the climate and biodiversity crisis head-on.
The Cluster for Climate Change Action & Education (CCCAE) was launched in 2018 as the Centre for Climate Action and relaunched in 2021 as the Centre for Climate Change Action and Education. In 2023, CCCAE became a cluster in the newly formed Centre of Research for Educational Action and Theory Exchange (CREATE). CCCAE is an interdisciplinary research and knowledge exchange cluster focussing on the contribution of Education in moving communities and individuals from understanding of the climate crisis to taking action.
The climate crisis is also a crisis of social, environmental and ecological injustice, with those communities and bioregions, species and ecosystems which have done least to cause the crisis, and which are least able to address it, facing the worst impacts. We therefore work closely with the University's Institute for Climate and Social justice.
Aims and objectives
- To investigate educational responses to the climate and biodiversity crisis
- To explore the relationship between understanding and action for climate change mitigation and adaptation
- To raise awareness of the urgency of action on climate change and biodiversity loss
- To galvanise desire on the part of the University and wider learning communities to collective action to address climate change
- To create a research and knowledge exchange environment that supports personal and collective change to mitigate the impacts of climate change and adapt to reduce its risks
We are addressing these aims and objectives by acting as both a motor and a clearing house for research and knowledge exchange related to climate change impacts across disciplines, stimulating conversations to set the agenda and drive change, and by developing projects to embed climate change education both within the University's programmes and culture and in the school curriculum.
Current activities
Postgraduate research supervision
CCCAE currently supports the postgraduate research project 'A Transdisciplinary Approach to Climate Change Education: The Ambidextrous Framework to Implementing Climate Change Education within University Business Schools', alongside colleagues from the Winchester Business School and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Collaboration
Gilbert White's House and Gardens
We are working closely with Gilbert White's House and Gardens, the birthplace of modern ecology, on supporting teachers in climate education in schools and co-organising public engagement activities around climate change and biodiversity.
National Survey on on Education for Sustainable Development
The University is one of the partner institutions in the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Collaborative Enhancement Project, led by De Montfort University with 10 partner universities and Students Organising for Sustainability (UK). How can processes such as programme validation, module review, curriculum renewal, student course representation and student co-design help enable taught university courses to address big societal issues of our time such as climate change, social justice and equality and diversity? This project is seeking the views and experiences of students and staff in the UK Higher Education sector on these questions through a national survey.
Responses are encouraged from any staff member or student, particularly those with relevant roles (e.g. programme/module leaders, Academic Quality staff, student union staff, ESD and sustainability leads). Students who complete the survey can be entered into a cash prize draw (£200 first prize and four £50 runner-up prizes). Full details and participant information are available via the survey link here. If you have any questions on the survey, please contact Dr Andrew Reeves at De Montfort University.
Further information
Find out more about Climate Change and Sustainability Education at Winchester
Find out more about Sustainability and Social Justice at Winchester
Find out more about Climate and Social Justice at Winchester
Contact us
For more information, please contact the Convener, Dr Simon Boxley, Senior Lecturer in Education.
Collaborations
The Cluster works closely with the following organisations, groups, networks and campaigns:
UK Universities Climate Network
A growing group of UK-based universities and research centres working together to raise ambition for tangible outcomes from the UN COP26 Climate Change Conference. The Network will create lasting partnerships and legacies that reach beyond this single event.
Sustainability Community of Practice
Dr Tammi Sinha, who founded the centre as the Centre for Climate Action and is now a Senior Lecturer at Southampton Solent University, leads on the Sustainability Community of Practice, a collaboration between Solent University, the University of Winchester and Wessex Green Hub, which aims to develop more sustainable business activities and behaviours in the Winchester and wider Wessex area.
Winchester Action on Climate Change (WinACC)
WinACC can lay claim to being one of the most active local climate action groups in the UK. The organisation is hosted and supported by the University.
Hampshire Climate Action Network
Led by WinACC, Hampshire Climate Action Network is an informal way for local groups to share ideas and collaborate. Meetings take place every six months; 'Hampshire' includes Southampton and Portsmouth.
UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PriME)
The University of Winchester Business School is a PRiME signatory and Champion.
We are a member of the University's Sustainable Futures Steering Group
National Union of Students' Sustainability Team
Driving sustainability across campuses, curricula and communities.
Recent blogs and news stories
Blogs
May 2022: To fly or not to fly? A climate change visit to the farthest north
March 2022: Green Marxism: Where's the green among the red?
COP26
Led by the then Centre, the University engaged pro-actively and on many levels with COP26, the global conference on the climate emergency that took place in November 2021, hosted by the UK. Through the Centre, the University joined the UK Universities Climate Network, and Centre Convener Dr Simon Boxley is an author on the Network's briefing paper Mainstreaming Climate Change Education in UK Higher Education Institutions. A team drawn from across the University and external collaborators developed a programme of events and initiatives for COP26, with a strong focus on student and community engagement.