Place-based environmental education: A capabilities approach using head, heart and hands

Many young people feel worried and powerless about damage to the natural world. Schools often teach about the environment, leaving little room for caring about it or acting for it. How can a program build all three?

The authors studied the Morecambe Bay Curriculum, a network of teachers and partners around Morecambe Bay in northwest England. They analyzed its strategy documents, teachers' written reflections, and 16 teaching packs that local teachers created with university researchers.

The authors used a "head, heart, hands" framework. Head is knowledge and thinking, heart is care and connection, and hands is skills and action. They link this to the idea that education should widen the real choices young people have to lead lives they value.

The authors found:

1. Head: regular subjects through a local lens. Primary children identified local plants and animals. Secondary students learned about photosynthesis through regional crops. The King's Guide to the Sand anchored lessons in history, geography, and safety. Local birds inspired lessons that joined science (sound waves and adaptations) with art (sculpture).
2. Heart: the part teachers valued most. Early years children studied the coastline up close and from a distance, then made artwork. Secondary students responded to the Bay's waters through photography, sketching, and writing. They also learned what research says about how time near water can support calm. College students reflected on how their food, leisure, and travel choices affect people, animals, and nature.
3. Hands: action and skills. Students collected data on local plants and debated local issues, such as a proposed tidal barrage across the Bay. The authors warn that a narrow focus on job skills can shrink this dimension.
4. Local examples were the easiest way in. Teaching existing content through local places needed the least change to how schools run. Outdoor learning was harder in secondary schools and colleges because of complex timetables and exam pressure. Three teachers who co-designed packs could not use them because of fixed curriculum plans or bought-in schemes.

What this means for your practice:

• Start with what you already teach. Pick a topic on your plan and find its local version, like a regional crop for photosynthesis or local birds for sound.
• Check each unit against head, heart, and hands. Ask what students will learn, how they will connect, and what they will do.
• Try a two-visit sequence. One resource prepares pupils in class on how the coast formed. A first beach visit lets them observe landforms and creatures. A class discussion follows on how to protect the beach, and pupils act on their ideas during a second visit.
• Build heart indoors too. When outdoor time is scarce, the authors suggest classroom tasks that build empathy and care, such as reflecting on how everyday choices affect others.
• Pair feelings with evidence. Share research on how nature can support wellbeing, then let students respond creatively to a local place.
• Keep hands broader than careers. Include students' relationships with their community and other species, not just job skills.
• Bring school leaders in early. Leaders' support decided whether packs reached classrooms.
• Find a research partner. Teachers gained confidence from research summaries and plain explanations shared by university partners.
• Ask students what they value. The authors plan to bring students into deciding the curriculum's priorities.