Playing with climate fresk : an interdisciplinary project to promote French and education for sustainable development (ESD)

This article examines the implementation of a Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) at the University of Strathclyde, aimed at connecting French-language students and Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students under a common goal: to embed Education for Sustainable Development in French to Primary pupils. The VIP allows for interdisciplinary research and offers French and ITE students a chance to collaborate on designing educational activities based on Climate Fresk, a card game created in 2018 which raises awareness and understanding of climate change science. First, this article offers an overview of research on Climate Fresk. It then focuses on a case study, which describes how French and ITE students discovered and collaborated on Climate Fresk. Students of French acted as language experts while ITE students acted as mentors to the former to develop their pedagogical skills. This exchange of expertise created bonds between the two student groups, as they shared their knowledge of pedagogy and language learning. Finally, this article offers reflection on the VIP and Climate Fresk, and offers suggestions for further development of the project.