This paper explores, grounded on life history interviews, the work of a set of fifteen teachers in England who self-identify as actively engaging with environmental issues and action at different school levels and across a wide range of subjects. One of the core aims of this paper was to construct, based on these teachers' voices and experiences,…

Between 2007 and 2017, El Sistema -- Venezuela's national system of youth orchestras -- enjoyed a seemingly unexplainable meteoric rise, followed by an equally spectacular sunset. Although it would be easy to dismiss this Sistema decade as being no more than a peculiar aberration of music education history, I assert that El Sistema more accurately…

The neoliberal rationale in English higher education promotes institutional and individual competition for economic success, often at the cost of equity and universalism. Within such context, there is a tendency to formalise student voice, for example, through professionalisation of students' unions. This paper argues that neoliberalism and its…

This paper highlights the transformative potential of place-based community organizing as a theory and practice of progressive social change and as a critical approach to the social purpose of community engagement in Higher Education Institutions. The aim is to expose power asymmetries and civic renewal "from below" through a focus on…

We explore a site of unplanned, informal critical pedagogy and how raising critical consciousness occurs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students in England were required to pay rent for accommodation they could not occupy, or which offered reduced amenities. These undergraduates, who were largely first years, had yet to meet each other.…

Considering globalization as part of a post-colonial conjuncture, the examination of the politics of decolonization is essential to understand key conflicts in global civil society. Recently, a global movement for the decolonization of higher education has played a key role in this context, with the #RhodesMustFall movement being particularly…

This paper delves deeply into the creative pedagogies which support cutting edge digital STEAM practice across primary and secondary school settings. It contextualises the research within current STEAM agendas including transdisciplinarity, and STEAM and technology and goes on to offer insight from the novel context of ocean learning to develop…

Processes of market-making and regulation are recalibrating the work of teacher education. While an established body of research has examined changes to the content and control of teacher education in the UK and internationally, the impact of audit-based accountability on the work of academic leaders is neglected. This study explores the career…

Many institutions have found the strength to name racism and seek space for curriculum and other systemic changes. We argue this is happening against a backdrop of curriculum, regulatory and policy changes in education, and particularly initial teacher education and training (ITE/T), which are de-racialised. We propose that a 'pocket of…

Creative activism is an approach to education that asks: 'What can happen when we take learning outside the classroom and think of it happening everywhere?' Two charities--House of Imagination and Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination--have been asking this question in their creative place-making programmes working with socially engaged artists and…

In this paper, we discuss core ideas arising from research undertaken in a Leverhulme Trust (IN2016-002) funded international network project. The project examined youth activism, engagement and the development of new civic learning spaces within and across six countries (Australia, Canada, England, Hungary, Lebanon and Singapore). Arising from…

This article examines the teach-outs organised by staff and students at Lancaster University during the 2021-22 UCU strike. Guided by a critical discourse analysis of blog posts co-produced by staff and students during the strike and teach-outs, this article will examine how the teach-outs developed an education programme critiquing the neoliberal…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to think through the value of History as a way of interrogating ideas around environmental change as well as bridging the gap between definitions of natural and cultural heritage. In terms of the sustainability in higher education imperative, it argues that youth climate change movements and endeavours to…

This predominantly conceptual paper explores "uncertainty": it foregrounds students engaged with climate change, in all its socio-political and more-than-human complexity, as political subjects within and beyond the school. It combines conceptual work on Rancièrian political philosophy with empirical work on teaching climate change in a…

Presently, we are being inundated with climate news and its ever-expanding impact on the world around us. We are at a tipping point and how we choose to respond will have longterm consequences for current and future generations. Historically, we have responded with the view that these issues are scientific and not social and have been addressed…