Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools

Rudd, Jennifer; O'Connor, Shannon O'Connor; Lublin, Geraldine

doi:10.1002/curj.70025

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Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools

Jennifer Rudd

, Shannon O'Connor O'Connor, Geraldine Lublin

The Curriculum Journal

Swansea University Authors: Jennifer Rudd , Shannon O'Connor O'Connor, Geraldine Lublin

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© 2025 The Author(s). The Curriculum Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational Research Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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DOI (Published version): 10.1002/curj.70025

Abstract

The Curriculum for Wales intends to help students understand and address climate change, but relies on teachers' knowledge and implementation thereof. This article focuses on “The Lifecycle of My Clothes”, a unit of work (UoW) developed by academics and practitioners. The UoW aimed to increase...

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Published in:	The Curriculum Journal
ISSN:	0958-5176 1469-3704
Published:	Wiley 2025
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71101

first_indexed	2025-12-05T15:25:39Z
last_indexed	2026-01-23T06:51:52Z
id	cronfa71101
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spelling	2026-01-22T14:00:58.0088659 v2 71101 2025-12-05 Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools c2e4cf0f048a86b5ca2f331e6c566aff 0000-0002-5209-477X Jennifer Rudd Jennifer Rudd true false d931f89bfb0a19cfc87c4461641f6728 Shannon O'Connor O'Connor Shannon O'Connor O'Connor true false 5b6cc4d8ea71daa3d6c855cffea8cdfc 0000-0002-7849-3664 Geraldine Lublin Geraldine Lublin true false 2025-12-05 CBAE The Curriculum for Wales intends to help students understand and address climate change, but relies on teachers' knowledge and implementation thereof. This article focuses on “The Lifecycle of My Clothes”, a unit of work (UoW) developed by academics and practitioners. The UoW aimed to increase students' awareness of the environmental impact of clothes and facilitate informed climate change action, delivered through cross-curricular pedagogy methods. Through post-intervention semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 17 teachers across four primary schools in South Wales, this article examines how pupils' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards clothing and the climate have changed since running the UoW, and whether it has empowered primary school teachers to deliver climate change education (CCE) within the framework of the Curriculum for Wales. Teacher responses were analysed within an interpretivist qualitative framework to identify emergent themes, with a reflexive stance maintained throughout the analysis. After the delivery of the UoW, teachers reported that pupils' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards clothing and the climate had improved significantly. Teachers felt more empowered to teach CCE through an increase in awareness and knowledge of how their actions can mitigate climate change, as well as reduced anxiety. The UoW was also cited by teachers as the driver for changes in their personal and professional lives, including their contributions to whole-school changes. We propose that engaging teachers in CCE can help them feel more confident in their teaching and proactive in climate mitigation. Journal Article The Curriculum Journal 0 Wiley 0958-5176 1469-3704 climate change education, climate justice, curriculum for Wales, fast fashion 15 12 2025 2025-12-15 10.1002/curj.70025 COLLEGE NANME Management School COLLEGE CODE CBAE Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) This project was supported by the Swansea University AHRC Impact Accelerator Account. 2026-01-22T14:00:58.0088659 2025-12-05T15:22:32.7452207 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Management - Business Management Jennifer Rudd 0000-0002-5209-477X 1 Shannon O'Connor O'Connor 2 Geraldine Lublin 0000-0002-7849-3664 3 71101__35949__e4eeafb402ee4d5f95a109013384f9a1.pdf 71101.VOR.pdf 2026-01-09T14:42:01.0220956 Output 1200387 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). The Curriculum Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational Research Association. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools
spellingShingle	Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools Jennifer Rudd Shannon O'Connor O'Connor Geraldine Lublin
title_short	Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools
title_full	Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools
title_fullStr	Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools
title_full_unstemmed	Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools
title_sort	Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools
author_id_str_mv	c2e4cf0f048a86b5ca2f331e6c566aff d931f89bfb0a19cfc87c4461641f6728 5b6cc4d8ea71daa3d6c855cffea8cdfc
author_id_fullname_str_mv	c2e4cf0f048a86b5ca2f331e6c566aff_*_Jennifer Rudd d931f89bfb0a19cfc87c4461641f6728__Shannon O'Connor O'Connor 5b6cc4d8ea71daa3d6c855cffea8cdfc_**_Geraldine Lublin
author	Jennifer Rudd Shannon O'Connor O'Connor Geraldine Lublin
author2	Jennifer Rudd Shannon O'Connor O'Connor Geraldine Lublin
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description	The Curriculum for Wales intends to help students understand and address climate change, but relies on teachers' knowledge and implementation thereof. This article focuses on “The Lifecycle of My Clothes”, a unit of work (UoW) developed by academics and practitioners. The UoW aimed to increase students' awareness of the environmental impact of clothes and facilitate informed climate change action, delivered through cross-curricular pedagogy methods. Through post-intervention semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 17 teachers across four primary schools in South Wales, this article examines how pupils' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards clothing and the climate have changed since running the UoW, and whether it has empowered primary school teachers to deliver climate change education (CCE) within the framework of the Curriculum for Wales. Teacher responses were analysed within an interpretivist qualitative framework to identify emergent themes, with a reflexive stance maintained throughout the analysis. After the delivery of the UoW, teachers reported that pupils' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards clothing and the climate had improved significantly. Teachers felt more empowered to teach CCE through an increase in awareness and knowledge of how their actions can mitigate climate change, as well as reduced anxiety. The UoW was also cited by teachers as the driver for changes in their personal and professional lives, including their contributions to whole-school changes. We propose that engaging teachers in CCE can help them feel more confident in their teaching and proactive in climate mitigation.
published_date	2025-12-15T05:34:26Z
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Empowering teachers and fostering pupil climate action in Welsh primary schools

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