In today’s post, Kate Greer and Melissa Glackin write about what counts as meaningful climate change education in schools drawing on a recently published article. As ever with our blogs, the authors’ views are not necessarily shared by the Association.
Recent civil action has called for ‘more!’ climate change education but ‘more’ of what and why isn’t there already ‘more’ in our schools today? In a recent Special Issue of School Science Review we attempted to respond to these questions by drawing on findings from Kate’s recent PhD study. This research explored what climate change education is or should be, by examining the views of a range of people who could potentially influence climate change education policy.
Below we share from the article the six key qualities identified in the research literature that contribute to a meaningful education response to climate change. However, if you want to find out about the ‘policy influencers’ views, or the answer to the second part of the question, as to why there isn’t already ‘more’ in our schools today, we encourage you to read the article in full.
Six key qualities that contribute to a meaningful education in response to climate change are:
1) An education needs to offer, and be open to, alternative visions of the future and alternative approaches to education. Visions need to promote living that achieves equity and sufficiency among humans and all species on the planet.
2) The education on offer must accept and embrace complexity, and recognise the trade-offs associated with mitigation and adaptation, disaster risk and social justice.
3) The education needs to incorporate multiple types of knowledge. This includes disciplinary knowledge, knowledge of critique and problem solving, alongside, spiritual, and emotional knowledge.
4) The education needs to re-orient towards justice. This involves recognising both global and local perspectives and that everyone shares the risk, and, by engaging students in local participatory learning, it involves understanding that local solutions are fundamental to a global response.
5) Related, the education needs to develop ecological worldviews where there is an opportunity to explore the relationship between humans and the more-than-human world, that is, with all other species on Earth.
6) The education needs to recognise and support students as agents of change. This involves recognising young people as participants in society’s response to climate change and collaborators in society’s transformation through action-oriented approaches and authentic engagement.
Full article citation
Greer, K., & Glackin, M. (2021). ‘What counts’ as climate change education? Perspectives from policy influencers. School Science Review, 103(383), 15-22.
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Kate Greer is Associate Director of the Monitoring and Evaluating Climate Communication and Education (MECCE) Project at the University of Melbourne.
Melissa Glackin is an NAEE Fellow and a senior lecturer in Science Education at King’s College London. As with all our blogs, authors’ views are not necessarily shared by NAEE. Corresponding address Melissa.glackin@kcl.ac.uk