Enhancing climate change education in Iraq. A report for the British Council

Citation

Rushton E & Greer K (2023) Enhancing climate change education in Iraq. A report for the British Council. British Council. London.

Abstract
Executive Summary: This report describes the activities and outcomes of a consultancy project carried out by UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE), on behalf of the British Council. The project, part of the British Council’s Global Schools Programme, aimed to develop recommendations and outputs that could support enhancement of climate change education in Iraq. The project included three phases: Project development and planning: During December 2022 and January 2023, the British Council and CCCSE researchers held a series of meetings to discuss the project, deliverables and to prepare for the dialogue in Erbil, Iraq. Dialogue with policy makers and teachers: In February 2023 a series of knowledge exchange activities involving UCL researchers, and Iraqi policy makers, teachers and school leaders were undertaken in Erbil, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. These activities, which took place during a week-long visit by CCCSE researchers, included policy maker dialogue (workshop and meetings), teacher dialogue (workshop and school visits) and meetings with key stakeholders. Development of outputs and recommendations: Between February and May 2023 the research team developed a series of outputs that could support enhancements in policy, teacher professional development and teaching practice, by drawing from the research literature and insights generated through the engagement in Erbil. The principal outputs are a series of recommendations to enhance climate change education in Iraq, stimulus for extra-curricular activities, a survey tool to identify teachers’ professional development needs, and draft climate change standards and indicators for the Iraqi Human Rights Award. This report is structured as follows. In the first section, we provide a summary of recommendations to enhance climate change education in Iraq. We set out the context for this project including an overview of climate change in Iraq, of relevant government and policy context, the schooling system, and an introduction to the Human Rights Award. The second section summarises the key activities and insights arising from these activities. The third section provides the research context for enhancing climate change education through extra-curricular activities. The Appendices include the extra-curricular activities, the survey tool, and the Human Rights Award standards and indicators. The workshop resources, which could also be the basis of ongoing work in this region or adapted for use in other regions in consultation with local partners, have been provided separately to British Council Iraq colleagues.