3.3 Ongoing support
We hope that what you’ve learned through your study of this course will support you in your teaching.
As you make plans to teach others about the climate emergency and about how they can act and make a difference, you’ll be thinking about the ongoing support that your learners might need to do this. As you’ve discovered, for people to take action, they need opportunities to talk about their climate concerns within their own communities, explore the emotions they feel and realise they’re not alone. One of the best ways to make a difference is to involve others and to collaborate.
Your own wellbeing and support
As we’ve emphasised throughout your study of this course, it’s also important to think about your own wellbeing on an ongoing basis. Who will support you as you continue to build on your own learning and put it into practice after you’ve completed the course?
Perhaps you have friends and colleagues in your own context you can share your learning and ideas with? If you found this course valuable, please tell others who may find it useful, spreading the word to friends and colleagues or on social media.
For continued support, why not join one or more communities of practice where members can share ideas and perspectives, ask questions and discuss solutions for addressing the climate emergency? These are initiatives based in the UK, although many of them will be of interest to educators around the world. However, if you are not working in the UK you may wish to also investigate whether similar initiatives exist in your own country.
The Open University Sustainability Network
The Open University Sustainability Network [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] on LinkedIn provides a space to continue to connect to each other in a supportive, professional network and to share sustainability news, tools and tips. Membership is open to everyone in the OU family with an interest in sustainability, including learners from other formal and informal curricula, OU course teams and contributors, and wider OU staff and alumni.
Sustainability in Higher Education Developers (SHED)
If you’re working in further or higher education in the UK, you might be interested in joining SHED, a community of practice within the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education. This group is for educators who specialise in education for sustainability or incorporate sustainability issues in their work.
UK Schools Sustainability Network (UKSSN)
Multiple regions of the UK have seen networks set up for school students to share information and take action on sustainability. The UKSSN brings together all of those networks under one national umbrella. You can read more about them at the Transform Our World website.
Activity 5 Connecting with others for ongoing support
Think about the support that you’ll need to take action after you’ve completed this course. Make some notes about the sources of support that might be available to you and if you’d like to do so, join one or more of the communities listed above.