An innovative climate change, social justice and sustainability course development project has been awarded the BERA BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant 2022-23.
Newly appointed Dr Mahruf Shohel has won the prestigious British Curriculum Foundation’s grant along with his colleagues, Vice Principal, Alex Mortby, and Charles Whewell, Head of Higher Education and Partnerships, to support research-led course development activities at The Bedford College Group.
The British Educational Research Association (BERA)’s biennial awards are much sought after across the UK and Mahruf and colleagues won the substantial sum based on the Group’s existing commitment to sustainability issues across the board. The title of the project is, ‘Students as the Co-creators of the Sustainability Curriculum: Developing an Introductory Course on Climate Change, Social Justice and Sustainability’.
The BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant won by Dr Shohel is intended to support research led by schools and colleges with a focus on curriculum inquiry and investigation. The theme for this year’s applications was “Developing a curriculum for climate and sustainability education”.
Said Dr Shohel:
“This demonstrates how much work is already being done in relation to climate change, social justice and sustainability within The Bedford College Group which is worthy of recognition at the highest level. This will be an exciting project and we look forward to making the project outputs available for others to use them’’.
Dr Shohel joined The Bedford College Group as the Research and Development Manager this summer.
He previously worked in research, teaching and development roles in several universities including Cambridge, Manchester, Sussex, Glasgow, Leicester, Sunderland, Aberystwyth, the Open University and Bucks New University, as well as development organisations including UNICEF.
