The Climate Connection - Episode 6: Global schooling

Download the sixth episode, show notes and transcript from our podcast series 'The Climate Connection'.

The Climate Connection series overview

The Climate Connection is a ten-part podcast series from the British Council which explores the relationship between the climate crisis and language education.

Across the ten episodes, we’ll hear from a wide range of leading practitioners working in the sector – teachers, trainers, researchers, publishers and authors. We’ll travel from Colombia to China, Moldova to Mali, and Palestine to Poland in our quest to share what’s happening at the cutting edge of climate action in language education.

In partnership with the Oxford English Dictionary, we’ll also learn more about the origins of climate-related language, in both English and other languages. 

Episode 6: Global Schooling 

The focus of episode 6 is on educational institutions themselves, and what they can do to promote climate literacy. Our first guest is Asha Alexander, the dynamic principal of a large kindergarten in Dubai and UN climate champion who is a pioneer in climate literacy. In From the Field, we journey to Croatia to find out about ‘The Green Schools Initiative’, and how we can make environmental changes in our own schools. Similarly, in our second interview, Beccy Wigglesworth from International House World talks about their environmental sustainability programme, joining Rose Aylett in reflecting on the role of the ELT industry as a whole in creating a more just world, and how language can be a central part of that. The Green Glossary takes us on a whistle-stop tour of localized varieties of English spoken around the world, looking at words including kaitiakitangai (Māori), bayanihan (Tagalog) and jugaad (Hindi).

Show notes

Each episode contains downloadable show notes. These include the following:

  • Information about the interviewees and the 'From the field' section of the podcast,
  • The 'Green glossary', kindly provided by Oxford University Press, with links to definitions of key vocabulary in the Oxford English Dictionary
  • Ideas for how you could use the podcast in your teaching
  • Bonus material

How to listen or subscribe to the podcast

You can listen and subscribe to the podcast in the following ways:

This episode is produced for the British Council by Chris Sowton and Kris Dyer

See other episodes in this series

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

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