Lancaster University
Bringing hope to the bay: How the Morecambe Bay Curriculum is embedding place, sustainability, environment and hope into education.
The Morecambe Bay Curriculum (MBC) is an educator-led movement which champions place-based learning. Inspired by the Eden Project, local teachers have been collaborating and thinking more deeply together about how to weave themes of sustainability, environment and hope into their day-to-day practice in locally meaningful ways. This grass-roots collective now has over 250 members, six working groups and has delivered 33 projects to date.
This paper reports on significant milestones in the MBC’s development, by sharing how it evolved through democratic and participatory principles. We present our theory of change, which was co-designed with our members, and draw upon examples from recent projects to explain how this has been enacted. These include:
• A curriculum co-design project, which supported teachers and academic researchers to co-create place-based resources (Early Years to Further Education).
• A story-telling project involving 8 primary schools in which they created their own origin stories through writing workshops and pupil research.
• An environmental programme for Further Education students in which they explored the connection between sustainability and their future careers and designed personalised projects.
Through reflection on this work, we highlight how aspects of place and a pedagogy of ‘Head, Heart and Hands’ have engaged young people across the region to develop positive relationships with their surroundings, built on care and respect. We also demonstrate the positive impact on teachers’ motivation, by providing creative spaces to take control of their own practice and reigniting their love for the profession. Finally we share how to get involved with the MBC!