My career in the environment and education sectors has spanned roles in practice, policymaking and research (www.linkedin.com/in/kate-greer). From early career foundations in secondary teaching, I built a 20+ year career working on climate change and environmental projects in non-government and government organisations. Highlights included my time as Manager of the Education team at Sustainability Victoria, a government organisation in the state of Victoria, Australia, where I lead a team to implement Victoria’s award-winning sustainability education initiative – ResourceSmart Schools. Another highlight was while working as the Southeast Asia and Pacific Regional Director of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) where I supported governments and businesses in the region to develop clean energy policies and business models.

Since moving to the higher education sector in 2016, I have been involved in research and teaching focused on environment and climate change-related education, and STEM education policy and practice. In 2017 I won the competitive Rosalind Driver Scholarship Fund scholarship to undertake my PhD at King’s College London, which I completed within three years of starting (no corrections) and for which I was nominated for a KCL Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award. I was then awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Program (2021) to extend upon my PhD research with a range of impact generating activities with policymakers and political actors, and research at COP26.

I have held several research posts, working on collaborative projects as a member of research teams. Between 2017-21 I was a Research Assistant/Associate on several projects at King’s College London. These included COMnPLAY Science, a pan-European project examining the nature of coding, making, gaming and playful science activities as potential vehicles for youth engagement in science learning. I also was a collaborator on Understandings of Global Competence in PISA and Schools (2019) which explored teacher and student understandings of global competence as assessed in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). I have played key role in coordinating an ESRC large grant application for a multi-year, theoretically informed, empirical research project investigating the capabilities of educators in higher education settings to teach in response to the climate crisis. This collaborative project is ongoing.

I was the Associate Director/Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education (MECCE) Project (University of Melbourne/University of Saskatchewan). This involved working with a multi-national, interdisciplinary team on research and policy engagement activities designed to enhance the quality and quantity of climate change education globally. Currently, I am Research Fellow in UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE). Central to this role has been the development and administration an online survey of teachers in England to investigate their views and experiences related to climate change and sustainability education. The survey has generated qualitative and quantitative data from 800+ respondents and the findings will promote enhanced provision of climate change and sustainability education by informing the design of teacher professional development programmes and policy dialogue with the UK Government. I am also involved in a CCCSE consultancy partnership with the British Council to explore opportunities for enhancing climate change and sustainability education in Iraq through policy dialogue with Iraqi policymakers and teachers.