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Susan Carleton discusses coastal education in changing times
CoastNet, originally set up to assist those in coastal education to network and share good practice, has always been committed to increasing youth and community coastal understanding. This enduring involvement in education has enabled us to be at the forefront of current practice and to implement creative processes that are having real impacts and increasing long term learning.
Most children and young people experience coastal education in some context during their school life. Young people also create their own education about coastal issues from personal coast trips, TV and other media. But with climate change an increasing added pressure to the UK’s island status, is current coastal education enough to prepare the next generation for the challenges it will face?
The new sustainable schools strategy is starting to be implemented by schools and the environmental and sustainability agenda also looks set to become embedded in the curriculum. But as yet, it is not clear whether coastal issues will be incorporated. Currently, it looks as though this will depend on individual schools and the priority they give it.
Encouragingly, there is more evidence that UK schools are now visiting the coast again, after a period focusing more on risk that appeared to curtail outside learning, especially that learning hat involved close proximity to water. Good practice is also being carried out by many marine conservation and education organisations that assist schools to access beaches and conduct field trips safely. Young people of all ages never seem to tire of visiting the beach and investigating rock pools.
But will it be enough? There still appears to be a large knowledge gap between the general population and the scientific and political community when it comes to coastal issues. This gap causes many problems. Implementing policies, for example, when they are poorly understood causes mistrust and a lack of support. And it is not always easy to engage the public in meaningful negotiation on coastal issues. Are our communities losing touch with what is happening to their coastline and the changes taking place along it?
Here at CoastNet we believe it is time to increase coastal education with young people and expand on the good practice already being carried out. As the effect of climate change advance it is vital that coastal education keeps pace with it and the coastal literacy of the nation is advanced.
As part of CoastNet’s Tides of Change project* in the city of Plymouth, along England’s South West coast, young people of all ages and backgrounds are discovering their coastal heritage. This is not something most of them would choose to take part in. Neither is collecting oral histories from the older population, another important project feature. Yet such projects are vital in helping young people understand their local coastlines from an historical perspective too, giving context to an issue that rock pooling alone could never do. And it is why we feel such projects are a vital addition to the coastal education curriculum.
Innovation and creativity in delivery is without question vital. With Tides of Change, the seven year olds participating did not think they would be collecting oral histories from older people or carrying out a history project about their local area. Instead, there were first introduced to a film maker and puppets and given the challenge of producing a film about their local area that others would find exciting. They were given support needed to research, script and produce this film and learnt their local history without realising they were doing so.
Similarly another group of older young people, some of whom had trouble even attending their schools, became successful trained collectors of oral histories from the local community largely because of the way they were approached and the context the work was set in. Providing creative, stimulating and fun training using technical equipment in a non formal environment was key to success. The work they carried out showed how innovative and creative approaches can bring out young people’s potential, especially with hard to reach groups, who are often the most important to instigate change within.
Across the UK, these strategies and techniques are proving successful. In Essex, the Holding Back the Tide project engaged communities in coastal education through strategies such as bringing sea shanties from local fisherman into school, creating drama productions from research, and making sculptures and art from history uncovered. And the CoastNet Media Box project in Essex also inspired coastal learning in young people in Jaywick, one of the most deprived communities in England. Collecting oral histories and other research resulted in the creation of a series of short films about the floods of 1953, which left an enduring impact on the community.
Incorporating the past into the coastal education of the future has helped to equip this future generation with the understanding necessary for them to take part in the issues that will affect them in the future.
Coastal education is being carried out nationally but it is patchy and not nearly cohesive enough to make the nation coastal literate. We face an uncertain future along our coast and innovative, creative coastal education programmes are one of the main ways to close the coastal understanding gap of our communities. Funding and momentum for a national strategy for coastal education is vital so the UK can rise to the challenge of climate change and preserve our coastlines.
*The Tides of Change project was made possible by funding from the National Lottery and the support of RIO.
