It is the fruit of a “long work of negotiations”still far from complete. At the Faculty of Sciences of the Paris Cité University, a project has begun that promises to be enormous: training teachers from all disciplines for the challenge of the century, that of the climate crisis. Convince of “the emergency” to undertake a profound change in teaching in the face of a world turning upside down, and therefore give all the keys to those who provide it, Gaëlle Charron, teacher-researcher in physics, has been dragging her pilgrim staff for years an ambitious policy in this matter.
How to do this when French universities are already tightening their belts? “At Paris Cité, the faculty budget was cut by 20% last year. So, when we talk about the need to find money, we inevitably receive some strong reactions of rejection.notes the one appointed vice dean for ecological transition. However, it manages to use an envelope allocated by the National Research Agency for educational innovation – 2 million euros over ten years – and the first training courses for students and teachers will see the light of day in 2023.
“It made it possible to acquire resources. Not yet up to the challenge, but we are making progress.”she remarked. Each year, approximately fifty volunteer teachers are trained, spending eighteen hours exploring the issues of planetary boundaries and sustainability, and the educational tools to integrate them into their discipline. “We are striving to make it mandatory for all incoming teachers. But this has not yet been ratified: for this there must be strong political will at university management level. »she emphasized.
Goal 2025
However, it is impossible to do without thinking about the in-depth training of teaching staff, while universities and large schools are asked to massively integrate the issues of transition into their courses. All undergraduate students should be effectively trained in these issues by 2025, urges the Ministry of Higher Education, in a 2023 framework note, including recommendations from the report by climatologist Jean Jouzel on the subject.
But this order was first made without any working group being set up on the issue of supporting teachers, who, not being specialists in these issues, will have to transform their courses and models – but still the crux of the matter. Finally, after a consultation at the beginning of the summer, a new specific framework note was sent to headteachers in September. She recommends that all new entrants take awareness courses and add a mandatory component in their secondment hours already devoted to their educational training.