Learning Passport Roundtable

The past year has seen unprecedented disruption to education and learning, potentially providing an insight into the scale of disruption which could be caused by the impacts of climate change. The education sector is particularly vulnerable to and underprepared for the impacts of climate change and displacement, this is exacerbated by the limited funding given to education in emergencies. Yet, learners themselves have been some of the most active and strongest advocates for climate action in the last few years through protest and civil society movements, such as the Fridays for Futures and the Sunrise Movement. Many of these children and youths have periodically opted out of formal education, opting instead for strike action, as a means of calling for accelerated and more radical climate action.

Early in 2020, UNICEF launched the Learning Passport, a partnership with Microsoft and the University of Cambridge aimed at supporting the world’s most vulnerable learners in getting access to quality education, and to ensure learning can continue in contexts of displacement and in emergencies. As highlighted, the issues that motivated the development of the Learning Passport have taken on renewed importance. 

This roundtable will focus on how curricula can be developed that are suited to the needs of teachers and learners in emergencies and contexts of disruption, and particularly the development of curricula for contexts and systems affected by climate displacement. It will cover the specific demands of different subject areas and the necessity of socio-emotional support within the curriculum, and also discuss if findings and insight from developing curricula for climate emergencies can be applied to ‘mainstream’ education.

The panel will include contributors to the Learning Passport, who will share the approaches taken to developing the curricula for education in emergencies and contexts of displacement, and reflect on the lessons learned and the challenges faced in shaping this project. They will also explore how these lessons can be applied to climate displacement settings. 

Panel Participants: 

• Dr Rosiana Lagi, Lecturer, University of the South Pacific, Fiji
• Dr Eolene Boyd-MacMillan, Senior Research Associate and Co-Director of IC Research, Cambridge Public Health, University of Cambridge
• Prof Valerie DeMarinis, Senior Professor in Public Mental Health, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, University of Umeå, Sweden
• Dr Martin Johnson, Research Division, Cambridge Assessment
• Dr Christopher Martin, Cambridge Partnership for Education
• Dr Jackie Greatorex, Research Division, Cambridge Assessment 
• Tori Coleman, Research Division, Cambridge Assessment
• Chair: Kate Moriarty, Senior Advisor, Strategic Engagement & Dialogue, International Network for Education in Emergencies