In 2021 Dr Jennifer Rudd, Senior Lecturer in Innovation and Engagement, was approached by Dr Chinwe Ogunji from Alex Ekwueme Federal University in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, to collaborate on an application for an Association of Commonwealth Universities fellowship to support a project entitled "Engaging a critical mass of change agents through climate action".
The proposal was very exciting with the idea of training twenty teachers across Ebonyi State in climate change and climate change education. The teachers would then set up climate clubs within their schools and together they would learn about climate change, culminating in a mass tree planting exercise.
“The work that Dr Ogunji proposed is very similar to work that I have been doing in the UK through the You and CO2 project, combining science-, digital- and arts-based approaches to empower learners to act on climate change, not just learn about it. Dr Ogunji's project was funded in July 2021 and started with a 2-day education event for the participating teachers. Not only were the teachers taught about the science of climate change, but they were also encouraged to use creative methods to approach teaching their students about climate change.
Dr Ogunji's programme ran for a year and I have been able to support it along the way through knowledge exchange and developing methods to assess the impact of the project. Last summer I was delighted to be able to hear from all of the teachers who had participated in the project by video link. It was amazing to hear some of the stories of the learning that had taken place and how it had not been limited to the students but had spread out into the community as well.” Dr Jennifer Rudd
Dr Ogunji and Dr Jennifer Rudd are now in the process of writing up the findings of this work and discussing next steps.