Shifting Perspectives on Nature through Pedagogical Practices [webinar].

Once when the world was young, humans and non-humans coexisted with awareness and respect for each other’s place in the world. Those days are gone: ‘Forests burn, glaciers melt and one million species face extinction’ (University of Cambridge, 2019). Attenborough (2019) warns us, ‘Our planet hangs in the balance. The only way to operate is to believe we can do something about it…’. Education is key to this and there are plans, led by nature writer Mary Colwell and MP Caroline Lucas to develop a new optional GCSE in natural history (TES, 2020) designed to help students develop a greater understanding of the natural environment. This will involve consultations between exam boards, DfE, teachers and subject associations. Now is the time to ask critical questions around how we may combine science- and arts-based approaches to shift perspectives away from a human-centred view of the world to one that views humans as only one thread in the web of life. Also, how does this GCSE fit within the wider landscape of lifelong natural history education? Each paper will outline the rationale for the proposed approach and offer evidence-based suggestions for incorporating this into teaching practice. By sharing stories from our research studies we will demonstrate the importance of shifting perspectives through pedagogical practices so that we can positively affect societal and environmental change. There were four papers in this webinar, paper 1: Shifting perspectives through illustrations in children’s literature by Tracy Haye