Effecting Change Through Learning Networks: The Experience of the UK Teacher Education Network for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship (GC)

The article discusses and evaluates the experience of the UK Teacher Education Network for education for sustainable development (ESD) and global citizenship (GC) as a community of practice dedicated to embedding ESD and GC across teacher education in the UK. The article sets out the global and UK policy context for ESD and GC and outlines the differing government support and guidance for ESD/GC within teacher education across the four nations of the UK. The development and activities of the Network as a community of practice are evaluated in relation to the original aims of the Network with respect to the development and sharing of good practice and the embedding of ESD/GC across teacher education in the UK. The article concludes by arguing that the Network is successful in the first of the aims as there is now a vibrant UK wide teacher education community of practice in ESD/GC whereby radical practice can be explored, questioned and shared. However, the rapidly changing government policy context for education particularly in England makes it difficult to predict how effectively the Network can affect policy change and/or long lasting change in course content so as to embed ESD/GC in teacher education across the UK. The authors suggest that the Network will need to work alongside new and existing alliances to try to convince policy makers of the critical need to ensure that new teachers are equipped to develop effective ESD/GC in schools.