The Bedford College Group is leading the way in creating a sustainable curriculum

The Bedford College Group is honoured to have their project on creating a sustainable curriculum published by The British Educational Research Association (BERA).

This appeared in their prestigious Teaching and Learning Resource publication, ‘BERA Bites 12: Education and the Environment’.

The project, which was led by Dr Mahruf Shohel, Group Head of Research, Innovation and Scholarship Engagement, focused on involving students as the co-creators of a sustainability curriculum for The Bedford College Group with the intention of making it available to other educational institutions.

Working with three other colleagues, students and teachers worked together to develop a Level 4 undergraduate module outline to provide knowledge, skills and tools to better understand climate change, social justice and sustainability. Through a collaborative effort, the students and teachers developed an introductory module titled ‘Introduction to climate change, social justice, and sustainability’.

Dr Shohel said:

“To have our work featured by The BERA is an absolute privilege and demonstrates the impact The Bedford College Group is making in the research field and the impact on sustainability education. The research outcomes offer invaluable insights into student engagement and involvement in curriculum development. The Bedford College Group envisions the integration of climate change education and sustainable development across its diverse education and training programmes.”

The research project was made possible following the award of the BERA BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant. This was the first phase co-creation initiative of the Group. Winning this BERA grant and completing the project is evidence of the Group’s existing commitment to sustainability issues across the board. This project also won an Advance HE Innovation Grant 2024 in the Innovative Teaching and Learning category.

Dr Shohel added:

“It is a priority to make research, innovation and scholarship engagement an integral part of activities for our students and staff across the Group. To achieve the strategic objectives of the Group, a research and development strategy will be embedded in a way that creates a research-informed, teaching-focused, community-oriented, leading educational institution.”

Based on this project, the second phase of the co-creation initiative was designed to develop the materials for the developed module and funded by the Skills and Education Group Foundation and also successfully completed.

The research team is now looking forward to getting funding for the third phase of the co-creation initiative to publish the teaching and learning materials developed during the second phase.

The featured blog can be found here: BERA Bites, issue 12: Education and the environment | BERA