Sustainable Designs for Living and Learning: Embedding Multilingualism into Learning for Sustainability
Sustainable Designs for Living and Learning: Embedding Multilingualism into Learning for Sustainability (AH/Z507404/1) is an exciting 3-year research project that is designed as an interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers, local artists, teachers, LfS stakeholders and young learners in the context of Scottish primary schools. The project has received £1,269,851 in funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
This project brings together a diverse network of partners and explores how languages education, the arts, and sustainability can work together to support creative, ethical, and regenerative learning for the future in our schools. Led collaboratively by the University of Glasgow, the University of Strathclyde and SCILT, partners include Permaculture Association, Scotdec, and Creative Glasgow, in addition to three primary schools: West PS (Paisley), Cradlehall PS (Inverness), and Thornwood PS (Glasgow). At the heart of the project lie the principles and ethics of permaculture and these are helping guide our work as we co-create with our partners resources and ‘multilingual living spaces’ in our three schools.
Grounded in the project’s core values and principles, the SDLL core team aims to collaborate closely with all partners to co-create a learning framework that knits together Learning for Sustainability, multilingualism, and creative practices, shaping school spaces that reflect balance, creativity, and care in action. By weaving together these strands, the SDLL project aims to reimagine what it means to live and learn sustainably — cultivating classrooms and communities where languages, creativity, and care for the planet thrive side by side.
Project aims
Following the permaculture principles, we aim to:
- Develop an innovative interdisciplinary learning programme that integrates shared expertise and collaborative learning in multilingual arts-based approaches, LfS and permaculture design.
- Undertake collaborative longitudinal research in the 3 partner primary schools, exploring how multilingual practices evolve through the integration of arts-based methods and permaculture design.
- Implement and evaluate the impact of these multilingual practices in at least ten additional schools during the second year.
- Co-create innovative resources and ‘multilingual living spaces’ as the basis for a new LfS provision in primary schools.