Educating for an energy transition in Scotland

contributed

The energy transition is transforming society, from the jobs we do and the skills we need, to how we live and care for the environment. As fossil fuel industries give way to renewable and regenerative energy, communities must adapt, upskill, and learn new knowledge to succeed.

Education plays a key role in this shift, providing young people with curiosity, critical thinking, and practical skills to navigate a changing world. Ensuring that Scotland maintains a progressive and globally respected education system, despite well-documented underfunding, is essential if we want to build a sustainable future. But how do we do this?

Perhaps the answer lies in the question: what does it mean to educate in the heart of an energy transition, and why does this make Scotland an important case study? How do we prepare young people for a future that is already arriving faster than our schools can adapt? Part of the answer is learning to live in the complex world we have helped create. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) call this world ‘VUCA’—volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.

Society often looks back nostalgically to a golden age when nature was pure and humans lived in harmony with it, yet history shows this age never truly existed. From the Ice Age to the present, humans have reshaped ecosystems and caused mass extinctions. Even those considered to have a much better relationship with nature are not innocent. First Nations peoples arriving in the Americas from Siberia, for example, drove the Mastodon and giant sloth to extinction. Five hundred years ago, Māori settlers in New Zealand wiped out the moa bird. Closer to home, humans in Scotland wiped out bears, wolves, lynx, and beavers while causing extensive damage to native woodlands. Our complex relationship with nature reminds us that education must also evolve, as we undergo an energy transition.

At the other extreme, some imagine that new technologies, such as carbon capture, storage, or nuclear fusion, mean we don’t have to wrestle with problems. But we do. While these technologies may go some way to supporting the energy transition, they cannot solve all the challenges we face. Philosopher Donna Haraway invites us to reject golden age or utopian thinking and “stay with the trouble”.  Our goal should be to learn to live and die well in the rich, interconnected present.

Stuart MacAlpine | contributed

This was the focus of a three day educational gather called North by Northeast (NXNE), organised by the International School in Aberdeen (ISA) this month, which brought together leading educationalists from the MIT Media Lab, Education Scotland, the University of Cambridge, Oxford University, Harvard Project Zero, along with early years’ forest educators, Gaidhlig practitioners and most importantly young people. 

The goal was to explore nature, energy, and relationships, and ask how we live and die well at the heart of the global energy transition, in Scotland’s energy capital.  It was an immersive experience of walking, talking, and reflecting in the rivers, landscape, and streets of a city that is living the paradoxes and tensions of the transition we are all going through in a particularly intense way.

One visitor from Education Scotland summed up what’s at stake for education: “The future is now. These are things we need to wrestle with and engage with now.” She was right. 

Concerns with a rethinking, or ‘making kin’ with nature, might seem quite niche or academic.  But you can see this shift in mindset reflected far beyond education policy. Walk past the front window of a Waterstones, and the books front and centre include Robert Macfarlane’s ‘A River is Alive’ and Sophie Yeo’s ‘Nature’s Ghosts’. These bestsellers invite us to question humanity’s place in the world.  Elsewhere, local government is echoing this change, with two English Councils (Southampton City Council and Test Valley Borough Council) recently declaring that waterways have rights akin to individuals and granting rivers the right not to be polluted.

During NXNE, an education insider highlighted that many students in school are now described as ‘lappers’ because they are just lapping the corridors in school, physically removing themselves from lessons as a sign that they are refusing what is being offered and are unable to see the process of education being offered as meaningful.  This is not just a tale of COVID; this is a new reality that our education is desperately outdated and meaningless to many young people.  This story is told again and again in schools across Scotland, despite the hard work of the profession. 

If we add the disruptive effect of Generative AI to the current and near future job market, the question of what we are educating for becomes more than urgent. This approach starts with who we are, not who we think we should become. It is about cultivating curiosity, adaptability, and care amongst our students rather than chasing fixed outcomes. Education should not be a factory for grades, exams, and credentials. Humans are not a means to an end: the young person’s well-being and happiness are a goal in themselves, and children should be valued for their perspectives, questions, and ways of relating to the world. As my former boss at LEGO said: if you are a good corporate citizen and focus on children, the money will take care of itself.  Likewise, you could say: if you stay with the trouble of living in the present, and express love and care for young people, the exams will take care of themselves.

In Aberdeen, the International School is rethinking its relationships, curriculum, learning spaces, and purpose in the lived reality of a city transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables. With our IB curriculum and global perspective, which encourages students to explore Theory of Knowledge and one of our most popular subjects, Environmental Systems and Societies, we are well-positioned to engage with Education Scotland and other educationalists at the NXNE event.

Our International Baccalaureate (IB) exam results speak for themselves, with children across the board getting into leading universities both in the UK and internationally, including Cambridge, Oxford, and Edinburgh, and offers from every single Scottish university. But this success is a side effect of profound care and belonging. Doing the right thing works.

Scotland, and indeed Aberdeen, is uniquely placed to lead this conversation. Our energy transition is happening in real time.  It is reshaping communities, economies, identities, and schools. By embracing openness, prioritising wellbeing, and nurturing students as responsible global citizens, we can inspire a generation that cares deeply for both their communities and the world around them.

Stuart MacAlpine is Principal of Middle and High School at the International School in Aberdeen, and a former senior leader at the LEGO Foundation and founding principal of the Green School New Zealand, bringing over twenty years of experience as a practitioner-informed perspective and academic leadership. His book The Hesscairn Guide To Learning will be published this autumn.