Designing Climate Change Learning for Action

What Is The Issue?

Authors:

BY ELIZABETH SCHMITZ, DEB L. MORRISON, JEANNE NORRIS, MEREDITH LOHR, SAHAR ARBAB, BRIAN MACNEVIN, BECKY BRONSTEIN, ANNITRA PECK, STACY MEYER, PRISCILLA BROTHERTON | SEPTEMBER 2022

Things To Consider

• People are becoming more alarmed about climate change and fewer people doubt that climate change is being caused by human actions.
• People want to take action but may not know what actions are best to take. There is significant support for policy-level climate action but less understanding about how to learn about our own behavioral changes.
• Youth want to learn about climate change, understand what actions are being taken, and learn how they can contribute to solutions. You should connect them to organizations like the Sunrise Movement, Youth Climate Action, The Global Youth and Mayors Forum, and Roots & Shoots.
• Activism can serve as a buffer to climate change anxiety experienced as students learn about local and global impacts of climate change, and collective action is one method for coping with this anxiety.

Attending to Equity

• Ecopedagogies can be used to empower youth to examine issues of environmental justice in their community.
• The most severe impacts of climate change disproportionately affect underserved communities who are least able to prepare for, and recover from, extreme weather and pollution. Centering their interests require collective action. Also, every community is affected and so every community should have access to information about how climate change is impacting them locally and how to be involved in local decision making.
• Education is integral to ensure access and opportunities are available to every person; learning opportunities around climate science must be provided for each and every student. This learning must be contextualized for students’ lived experiences, their specific interests and identities, and for the issues most meaningful to their communities.

Recommended Actions You Can Take

• Consider how to navigate conversations with community members. Create space for discussion of eco-anxiety and gear student discourse towards action. Explore the political dimensions of climate change learning and this EPA overview of environmental education. Unpack language of action-oriented learning to ensure shared meanings—given that words have political and cultural differences in meaning.
• Develop your knowledge on climate change. Address arguments that climate change is “just” a theory, or out of human control, including ideas about scientific consensus and models, and past examples of collective action. Read climate reports (IPCC, NOAA) and recommendations. Learn how scientists and activists engage in action by following accounts and hashtags such as @NASAClimate, @UNCCLearn, @NOAAClimate, @ClimateGenOrg, #ClimateAction, #ClimateEmergency, #ClimateJustice, and #TeachClimate.
• Build a partnership network. Reach out to community partners such as businesses, universities, scientists, government, Tribal Nations, and families. Build a unified team, including school administrators. Connect with educators locally and nationally. Find and share resources such as The Climascope Project.
• Connect climate change to your school and community. Explore connections between global climate change and impacts on your community. Consider what action can be taken. Codesign actions with students, community partners, and families. Encourage students to identify solutions. Explore climate change actions by grade-band.
• Design interdisciplinary lessons including civics and Career and Technical Education (CTE). Educators can support students in media and digital literacy to both promote socio-emotional wellbeing and deepen critical thinking within science learning.

Supplemental Materials

• Glossary of Common “Learning for Climate Action” Terms
• Grade-Banded Examples of Climate Change Learning for Action
  

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