Search

This study uses bibliometric techniques to explore the international knowledge base on climate change education (CCE), which considers education as crucial for addressing the climate emergency through fostering climate-literate citizens. Analyzing two decades of scientific literature on CCE, we identify evolving considerations, foci, trends, and recommendations, examining a total of 1,264 articles published between 2000 and 2022 in educational-related fields in Web of Science. Using bibliometric techniques, we assessed research trends, author co-citations and journal citations to reveal an evolving publication landscape, including shifts in locations of productive researchers, influential articles, and leading journals publishing CCE studies. Bibliometric techniques help to identify the intellectual knowledge structure and inter-journal referencing, encompassing Theoretical Basis of CCE, Psychology of CCE and Communication, Climate Change within Socioscientific Issues, Conceptions of Climate Change, and Epistemology in CCE. Based on the trends, association networks, limitations and gaps revealed by this analysis, we conclude with suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question what the focus of climate change education should be has been debated by academics and policy makers. However, this debate is informed to only a limited extent by empirical research on the position of teachers. Based on interviews with nineteen experienced secondary geography teachers in the Netherlands, nine orientations were distinguished, ranging from transmissive to transformative, and from instrumental to emancipatory. The teachers generally found knowledge important as a basis for forming an opinion or making decisions. Many wanted to make students aware that anthropogenic climate change is a fact, as they saw it as a settled issue. However, teachers varied in their opinions regarding sustainable values and behaviour. One teacher advocated sustainable values, while five only wanted to stimulate sustainable behaviour by steering indirectly. The majority focused on well-considered behaviour, but many teachers still provided incentives. Beliefs about the neutrality of education played a major role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although education is acknowledged as an important tool to address climate change, only some countries refer to education within their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Using a mixed-methods approach, we explore the question of how countries frame education within their climate pledges. First, we examine NDCs with a discourse network analysis (DNA) to identify country framings of education and climate change and potential discourse coalitions among countries. Education is most often referred to as an instrument to adapt to climate change and to a lesser extent as an instrument to mitigate climate change. Second, we use a regression analysis to complement the DNA results. We find that countries with a higher exposure to climate change impacts are more likely to mention education, which explains the prevalence of the adaptation framing. Moreover, we find that countries with a higher GDP per capita are less likely to include education within their NDCs. These results confirm the traditional divide between Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 countries also with regard to education in NDCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research arose out of conversations among climate change education instructors teaching at Lakehead University and our shared interest to better understand student experiences in our courses, with the intention of informing pedagogical decisions around course design and content. Data were collected from students at the end of seven courses through a mixed methods approach consisting of an online questionnaire (n = 55), which allowed participant segmentation using the Six Americas Framework, and follow-up semi-structured interviews (n = 22). The questionnaire collected students' self-reported levels of knowledge and understanding, sense of urgency, and sense of agency related to climate change, which are shared learning goals across our courses, as well as responses to open-ended questions on student experiences within the courses. In the interviews, participants were asked to elaborate on these themes. Participants reported increased knowledge, a heightened sense of urgency and strengthened sense of agency—including describing individual and collective changes they made following the course. We engage with the empirical data and present our critical reflections as instructors on course elements and design, encouraging others to teach climate change education in initial teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change education is infused with images of light. Scholars in the field tend to emphasize hope, sustainability, and solution. They foreground knowledgeable humans who construct better worlds and thereby bind themselves to modern understandings of human being and becoming. I draw on agential realism and object-oriented ontology to contest the metaphor of light, the focus on hope, and the modern premises they rely on—particularly in the context of massive sustainability crises such as climate change. The ethical dimension of agential realism and object-oriented ontology—their call for care and solidarity—offers an alternative to hope, one that aligns well with Kropotkin's concept of mutual aid. Instead of opening a pathway to sustainability, I understand education as a sphere of human being and becoming that should have its foundation on care and solidarity. As an alternative to the metaphor of light, I develop a metaphor for education in times of crisis: an education 'in shades of blue.' Blue is an existential color. It relates to dystopian and utopian images, to issues of power and force, and to solidarity and care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a yearlong ethnographic study, we actively participated as members of the national planning committee for fourteen local climate conferences, we examined how citizen participation was imagined and enacted. We introduce a framework for studying the relationship between cognitive engagement, learning, and civic engagement in the public sphere. We describe the different levels of cognitive and civic engagement in the design of climate conference activities. The findings suggest that the planners' approach to democracy, the involvement of environmental NGOs, and individual attitudes toward environmental change, may collectively contribute to diminished levels of cognitive and civic engagement among residents. Furthermore, we observed that more collaborative interpretations of cognitive and civic engagement align closely with deliberative democracy approaches, emphasizing inclusive, dialogical processes. We discuss the implications of these findings for the future design of climate conferences and how they relate to the evolving roles of environmental NGOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change education is associated with negative emotions. Picturebooks are considered powerful resources for teaching complex issues like climate change, partly for their capacity to be emotionally engaging and motivate learners. This article explores the positive emotional experiences supported by picturebook use in climate change education. It draws on data collected in a design-based study involving the progressive refinement of a programme delivered in three primary schools with students aged 10 to 12 years. Data included child focus groups, audio recordings of whole-class discussion, teacher interviews and concept maps. Data analysis included coding expressions of emotions in the data by: the emotion, the object of the emotion and the subject expressed as experiencing the emotion. Findings suggest that picturebooks with unhappy endings and difficult thematic content can nonetheless give rise to positive emotions by providing surprising, cathartic and creative experiences, which in turn, support students' critical, complex and creative thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools are central to climate change education and climate-friendly transformations both as places which actually produce CO2 emissions and, above all, as educational institutions. Following a new materialist, transdisciplinary approach, we research here some of the entanglements that constitute schools as whole institutions. As part of the research-education-cooperation k.i.d.Z.21_aCtiOn2 (Austrian Climate Research Program), our innovative approach meant that the situational analyses were conducted both by young people and collaborating researchers. The experiences and accounts were captured in situational maps that illustrate the entangled agencies of people, discussions, places and matter relevant to CO2 reductions and transformation attempts. The analysis of those maps led to new perspectives on the intra-actions between the material and the discursive in schools. In particular, the caretakers' entanglements with areas relevant to climate-friendly transformations are revealed as critical to transformative climate change education. We conclude with an outlook on schools becoming transformative, climate-friendly places by building on these kinds of entanglements and explicitly incorporating non-pedagogical aspects as part of a whole-school approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current anthropogenic climate crisis presents unique challenges to the higher education classroom. Pedagogy in the context of climate change must be attuned to complex and varied student experiences that can contend with feelings of anxiety, disconnection, distress and hopelessness. As educators and researchers, we collate our pedagogical approaches in the humanities and social sciences to progress ongoing discussions about climate pedagogy and highlight possibilities for action from Australia. Drawing on the inherent interconnectedness of our disciplines, we offer an interdisciplinary agenda for teaching in the climate crisis that is attuned to framing, positionality and reflexivity; multiple temporal and spatial scales; other ways of living and knowing; and creative action and activism to cultivate an affective classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of climate change is addressed within Mexico's Common National Curriculum, which serves as the foundation for developing educational materials like didactic guides and videos aimed at higher middle schools located in regions highly susceptible to its effects. However, while the curriculum incorporates climate change, it lacks specific details outlining the objectives and extent of this integration. Nonetheless, this gap doesn't deter educators from recognizing climate change's significance across various subjects and effectively employing the provided educational resources for lesson planning, teaching, and assessment. In this study, the authors performed a comprehensive analysis of the Common National Curriculum, subject syllabuses, and didactic guides within the Telebachillerato subsystem of Veracruz state (TEBAEV). They also administered an online survey to 3,698 teachers. Employing a mixed-method approach with an exploratory sequential design encompassing three phases, they analyzed and triangulated data based on the integration of Education for Change and Educate on Climate as approaches within climate change education. The central findings underscore that nearly 95% of teachers not only identify climate change themes in their teaching materials but also integrate elements of climate change education into their instructional practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Factors that influence students’ knowledge about climate change have been found to be largely external and based on social interactions. Building from this idea, we use factor analysis and structural equation modeling with the 2016 IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study data and create two novel climate change scales (pro-environmental behavior and perceived threats of climate change). We then determine the relationship between open classroom climate, pro-environmental behavior, perceived threats of climate change, and civic participation in secondary students. Findings indicate that when controlling for gender, civic knowledge, and socioeconomic factors, an increase in open classroom climate significantly predicts an increase in activism for climate change. Based on these results, we further examine the relationship between pro-environmental behavior and civic participation in society. Findings indicate that climate variables predict participation positively across the countries, except illegal protest, which was negatively related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractA Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is conducted to ascertain the components necessary for effective climate change education (CCE). In this research, effective CCE is conceptualised as that which possesses the capacity to develop agents of change. This SLR examines the type of content needed, and pedagogical approaches required to achieve this. It also examines the barriers to the implementation of such content and such pedagogical approaches, thus concomitantly examines the barriers to effective CCE. This SLR uses the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), adapted from Chaudhary, Polonsky, and McClaren for the article search. After the articles are finalised, Braun and Clarke six step approach to thematic analysis is used to thematically analyse the articles. It is concluded that effective CCE is founded on the application of pedagogies that serve to promote a deeper understanding of the crisis and our entanglement within it. Pedagogies that serve to enhance understanding and connection are essential in providing a solid foundation for the development of agents of change. However, teacher entanglement, and the entanglement of educational institutions as well as students, parents and other key education stakeholders within the over-arching sociocultural system present a fundamental challenge to effective CCE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article examines the integration of climate change education (CCE) within the curricula of agriculture, biology education, and environmental studies majors at a university in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The study employs a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews and focus groups with lecturers and students to explore their perceptions and experiences. The findings reveal diverse pedagogical strategies, such as hands-on experiences and interdisciplinary projects, but highlight significant challenges including rigid curricula, resource constraints, and limited interdisciplinary collaboration. Students expressed a need for more mandatory and practically oriented CCE, emphasizing the relevance to their local environment. The discussion contextualizes these findings within international perspectives, comparing them to global trends and highlighting the necessity for curriculum transformation to address the identified challenges. The article concludes by advocating for a more integrated and flexible curriculum that leverages digital platforms and community engagement to better prepare students for the multifaceted challenges of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractInvestment in transformative climate change education for graduate students can support emergent scholars and practitioners to produce more ethical, effective, and relevant solutions to address climate inequities. Yet, we lack a framework for analyzing how an educational program impacts the multiple dimensions of student’s scientific training to implement equity-focused practices. This study details the development of a theory of change framework for a transformative climate change education program called Asking Different Questions in Climate Change Science. The program, a 10-week co-curricular course with single module options, is designed for research-focused masters and doctoral students at University of California, Davis (UC Davis). Using a participatory planning approach, we built a theory of change for the program based on a diverse body of literature, empirical examples, and qualitative data from nine UC Davis faculty and 11 UC Davis graduate students who study climate change. The theory of change outlines specific course activities and supports in the social, institutional, and cultural aspects of a student’s learning experience to transform how they do climate science. While this theory of change was formed specifically for the ADQCS program, this study offers an approach and framework that others may adapt for their own purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractClimate change education (CCE) plays a critical role in climate empowerment and addressing the challenge of climate change. We present results from the first social network analysis of CCE in the U.S. We surveyed CCE professionals through an established CCE network and wide dissemination from CCE professionals about their interactions with others across 5 dimensions: (1) climate and energy education; (2) climate action, climate empowerment, or community engagement; (3) workforce development in the climate and energy field; (4) diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism; and (5) climate or energy policy. The resulting network analysis shows some cohesiveness, especially for the first two dimensions; however, network cohesiveness could be improved. The findings also show the keystone organizations and brokers across the CCE field. This study provides a foundation for developing targeted strategies to strengthen CCE for improving coordinated and collaborative climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractDistress about climate change is a growing global phenomenon associated with mental health problems. We sought to understand climate change distress among youth in Brazil, a country that plays a critical role in climate change. After identifying individuals experiencing at least mild functional impairment due to climate anxiety based on a cross-culturally validated scale, we conducted 4 focus groups and 20 in-depth interviews with youth ages 10–16 (total N = 65). Data analysis used deductive and inductive thematic coding done in Atlas-ti. Climate change-related distress was common, including sadness, despair, and anxiety, and was associated with concerns about the local physical environment. Education about climate change in school was lacking, leading to misinformation and uncertainty. Global warming concerns and lack of deforestation policies were stressors, and the media was the most common information source about climate change. Participants expressed concern about Indigenous peoples and demonstrated anxiety about future unknowns, but also showed hope. Results suggest that education about climate change in schools and training for youth facing climate distress are important ways forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractIn Western industrialised contexts, ecological problems such as climate change are sensed and come largely to be known through media representations. In this article, we consider aesthetic practices as a concept for understanding the ways in which the visual sensible world relating to climate change is continuously distributed. Furthermore, we study photography as a pedagogical means to redistribute the sensible. Our data are gathered from a photography course in which participants explored four alternative aesthetic practices: revealing connectedness, recognising agency, compromising the attractions of consumerism, and illuminating alternatives. Through their photographic explorations, participants were encouraged to intervene in two problematic consensual frameworks: human-centredness and consumption-centredness. We found that exploring aesthetic practices through photography helped redistribute the sensible in two significant ways: participants recognised visible traces of the consensual frameworks and shifted the emphasis of perception beyond their personal viewpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractClimate change education is crucial to addressing the climate crisis. Studies show that parents and guardians can play an important role in transmitting knowledge, competencies, and a pro-environmental orientation to their children. Whilst climate change education can span many disciplines, it has been effective within science education. In this paper we embrace evidence-based effective approaches to science education, with parents. Climate change education research literature published to date focusses on school-based interventions and there is a dearth of literature on parental involvement. This paper describes the development of, and outcomes associated with, a programme to promote engagement with climate change education for families from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Data were gathered through post semi-structured interviews and reflections on posters and photos created and collected throughout the programme. Findings indicate that this approach engaged parents in climate change education with their children and successfully addressed various misconceptions. The programme presents a real opportunity to engage parents in their children’s formal education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the future of environmental and climate change education in the United States given the emergence of neofascist and Christian Nationalist political movements during a time of social secularization? In this essay we discuss the politically heterogenous appeal of environmental concern in America, the tenuous nature of environmental education's current Left-liberal political valence, and implications for climate change education amidst ongoing culture wars. We proceed by examining Bron Taylor's influential typology of Dark Green Religions and consider how the American political Right may emerge as having their own Dark Green Religious movement. We are concerned that the field of environmental education remains ideologically blinkered toward other normative educational projects on the political Right, a situation that leaves us unprepared for how projects such as climate change education can be appropriated for reactionary and sometimes violent ends. We argue that the field of environmental education needs to pay greater attention to the multifarious political and cultural conditions that shape its enactment and develop considerations for an anti-fascist environmental education accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractAs trusted public institutions, museums could offer crucial opportunities for climate learning. Yet, empirical research on effective approaches is limited. One potential pathway is through strategic framing, given that much research in climate communication suggests the value of specific frames. We developed an innovative climate exhibit, A Climate of Hope (ACOH), guided by five strategic frames: hope, gain, local, community, and playful. To investigate visitor learning at a prototype of ACOH, we collected data from 31 groups as they interacted with a prototype of ACOH while wearing audio recorders. Integrating theories of knowledge and discourse, we investigated learners’ use of resources at ACOH through qualitative discourse analysis and mixed-methods analysis. We found that learners brought a diverse array of resources, some of which were related to incoming views of climate change. We interpret our results as speaking to the potential of framing climate messages through a gain frame. We provide implications for educational practice around climate change in informal spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe recent IPCC report (IPCC, 2023) highlighted the need to increase the perception of risk and prompt climate action through education. The question is what contribution science and environmental education can make—if any—to this challenge. Psychological research has suggested that knowledge (topical and epistemological) and beliefs about self-efficacy are relevant starting points, but the evidence is scarce and inconsistent. We conducted a transversal correlational study to test the direct and indirect effects of system knowledge of climate change, personal engagement with science, and trust in climate science on the willingness to mitigate the effects of climate change. The participants were 386 students attending high schools in Chile. The results reveal that there is no direct effect of climate change system knowledge on the willingness to act. We did find indirect effects of system knowledge on the willingness to act, mediated by personal engagement with science and trust in climate science knowledge. The results also demonstrate a direct effect of personal engagement with science, and an indirect effect mediated by trust in science. The implications for science education are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractA qualitative study adopting a phenomenological approach examined the feedback of 53 sixth-grade students (aged 11-12) who participated in an annual educational program on climate change and environmental activism. The program was structured around instilling hope while utilizing the ‘head,’ ‘heart,’ and ‘hands’ pedagogical framework. Research tools included two open-ended questions and a reflective summary of their participation in the educational program. Through first- and second-cycle coding methods, it was revealed how some students acquired scientific literacy, developed global awareness, and honed critical-thinking skills. Furthermore, the experiential learning fostered by the program generated advantages, challenges, and recommendations expressed by the students. Despite the challenges, students reported a positive experience from the program and emphasized the importance of continuing environmental action even after its completion. In summary, this research underscores the school’s ability to foster active student engagement in combating climate change, emphasizing optimism over apprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper approaches climate change as a superordinate concern that should guide a holistic transformation of formal schooling towards integration and sustainability. The call for climate change education (CCE) has been amplified by international organizations and youth protestors alike, united by a shared concern for our planet. By combining CCE with principles of transformative learning (TL), the paper outlines a framework for transformative climate change education (TCCE). If climate change fits the description of a super wicked problem, this is also true of TCCE, which requires the simultaneous transformation of curricula, pedagogies, and assessment systems. The paper argues that the implementation of TCCE faces significant challenges because it disputes the underlying values of our transmissive educational systems. Those challenges are formulated here as a series of questions, which are followed by a discussion of sustainability pedagogies that help learners build capacity for understanding and acting on climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractEducation plays a crucial role in addressing the climate crisis, with textbooks serving as influential vehicles for shaping societal perspectives and students’ competencies. However, in Colombia as in many countries worldwide, no prior research has delved into the portrayal of climate change in school textbooks. In this study, we analyze 41 natural science textbooks, examining their treatment of climate change in terms of quantity, related topics, scientific validity (i.e. in line with the state-of-the-art knowledge in climate sciences), uncertainty (i.e. introduction of more substantial doubts or controversies than the ones exposed by climate sciences) and the use of iconography and activities. The results indicate that textbooks inadequately cover the topic, allocating on average less than one page of text to it, with simplistic and sometimes misguided approaches that overlook complexities and contextual variables. Although we observed correct scientific validity and low uncertainty levels in general, 10% of the books have low validity scores and close to 30% contain worrisome uncertainty. The iconography utilized fails to bridge the subject matter with national students’ experiences and activities predominantly focus on rudimentary cognitive skills. In summary, despite certain positive aspects (e.g. low levels of climate denial), Colombian textbooks still require more climate change content with growing complexity, to move beyond their function as mere information sources on climate change and to transform into effective tools for facilitating interaction between knowledge and students’ real-world experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper begins with a broader discussion of the current efforts to address the gap in integrating the topic of climate change across university curricula. This context informs the study’s primary objective of evaluating the efficacy of a two-phase faculty learning community (FLC) and student climate literacy assessment model, designed and implemented as an exploratory case study at an American Midwestern university, in promoting (1) climate change pedagogy and (2) climate change literacy and engagement among students. Methods include: surveys of the FLC to assess how well it prepares faculty to add or revise climate change coverage in their courses, climate literacy and engagement tests of students in these courses, and faculty debrief reports at the conclusion of course revision implementation. Faculty surveys indicated appreciation of interdisciplinary dialogue and collaborative learning, though debrief reports highlighted a need for additional training on climate change and guidance in assignment design and assessment. Climate literacy and engagement surveys demonstrate improved scores among the student population in the assessed areas, and growth in levels of student engagement with the topic. The paper offers suggestions to address FLC time constraints and the reliability of the climate literacy results for those considering employing this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractTrain-the-trainer programs are an effective method for improving educators’ content knowledge and pedagogical skills. They also offer a way to reach more educators than by traditional professional development models. This manuscript shares the results of a retrospective study conducted with a cohort of informal science educators who participated in a climate change train-the-trainer program. Using expectancy-value theory and the Professional Development Motivation Model, this study explored the components of the program to identify what contributed to the outcomes of the train-the-trainer model. The positive components included in person meetings, a paid coordinator to support the educators following the training, and evidence-based pedagogical strategies for teaching about climate change. Negative features included interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts related to learning new pedagogical strategies. A small number also felt the curriculum was not applicable to their communities. Organizations should consider these factors as they design new programs to best serve their participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education has recently gained new attention as a key strategy for addressing climate change. Much of these efforts are aimed at young people via formalized climate change education. At the same time, young people are increasingly engaging with climate change via activism and social movement participation. But to what extent does existant climate education actually supporting action? This research article addresses this question through oral histories with young climate activists to explore their experiences of climate education. These narratives reveal that most young activists learned about climate change through formal, school-based science learning. The pedagogies that these youth experienced framed climate change as an abstract, scientific issue, removed from daily life. However, this framing failed to address the political and justice-related aspects of climate change, as well as strategies for addressing it. The impact of the pedagogies is that youth were immobilized and experienced panic and dread about climate change. The implications of these findings are discussed, including recommendations for climate pedagogies that support substantive climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change denial is often treated as a binary opinion. However, an individual can express acceptance of climate change, while still denying other aspects of the field such as its causation by humans, impacts, or our ability to mitigate these impacts. Here, we conduct a semester long survey and discourse analysis of a class of first-year undergraduates as they complete a course on climate change to assess changes in their attitudes on climate denial verse acceptance across these more specific factors. Our results suggest that acceptance of the scientific facts about climate change is higher than acceptance of its impacts and solutions. However, acceptance that personal and societal changes can mitigate climate change increased throughout the term. These results can help create course curriculum with more effectively targeted content to assist in shifting perspectives on climate change in young undergraduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa remains the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, in Africa. As such despite the glowing government policy documents addressing climate change, efforts towards achieving the targets of the sustainable development goals (especially SDG 13) at grassroots level remain significant. We identified relevant published articles and grey literature on CCE. A thematic analysis of these publications focused on identifying the common CCE initiatives being actioned in SA. The major themes on CCE in respect of mitigation and adaption included: CCE initiatives promoted and articulated through the media, school community projects, the development of the school and higher education curricula for CCE, the development of associated teaching materials and guides. The findings revealed that despite the evidence of robust education initiatives for climate change mitigation and adaptation in published reports, there was greater emphasis on short term responses at the expense of long-term mitigation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been an international call for action from the United Nations secretary general, individuals' abilities to engage with climate change and actions to mitigate it can vary. In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 and related school closures caused significant upheaval across the world; schools made immediate shifts to remote delivery, increasing workloads and decreasing access to outdoor spaces and opportunities to connect with nature. In this paper we will explore a rural, mid-Wales school's approach to climate change education (CCE), and their experiences running the CCE programme 'You and CO2' through interviews with teachers and analyses of creative interactive digital narratives (IDNs) the students created on the programme. The paper will discuss what the school was doing before the COVID-19 pandemic, the effect of the pandemic on CCE in the school, and how the You and CO2 programme raised the aspirations and confidence levels of the school's humanities department for teaching CCE. The findings in this study highlight the importance of localised knowledge, and engagement with local groups in successful delivery of CCE programmes, which was reflected in students' IDNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change education (CCE) brings about existential concerns of students. Teachers in turn are confronted with didactic demands to take into account the existential challenge climate change elicits. However, conceptual haziness about how to understand 'the existential' in CCE complicates didactic research on the topic, impedes researchers to get a nuanced understanding of 'the existential' in CCE, and, thus, hinders the development of empirically grounded knowledge that can offer guidance for teachers. Therefore, this article presents an empirically informed typology that categorises and illustrates diverse expressions of the existential dimension of CC in concrete educational practice. It employs a methodology inspired by Wittgenstein's user perspective on language, focusing on ordinary and basic traits in our use of language to identify and classify diverse recognisable ways in which the existential is expressed in educational practices. The empirical material comes from case studies of 15 CCE courses in higher education in Belgium. The results distinguish Existential moment, Life quake, Existential dilemma, Existential deliberation, Existential reflection on existential questions, Existential reflection on existential experiences and Existential norm. This typology can be seen as an analytical tool for didactic research on how to recognise and handle expressions of the existential tendency in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change decision-making happens at the intersection of knowledge, values, and experience, usually requiring action with incomplete information. Yet, climate change education prioritizes improving knowledge gaps, not communication and contextual understanding. Role-playing games highlight the interaction of evidence and values in decision-making; they have also been shown to help participants cope with uncertainty. Here, we used a role-playing activity in 8 undergraduate science class sections to explore how role-playing affected climate change decision-making. We found that students selected significantly different climate proposals based on differing affinities with their characters. Students' articulation of 'uncertainty' and 'concreteness' in justifying their final choices were significantly related to their chosen proposals. Students' understanding of circumstance and perspective in driving different priorities/decisions increased significantly. This activity is scalable and broadly applicable; by empowering participants to discuss data and values and make decisions with incomplete information, we might encourage confident participation in the global climate conversation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty complicates the issue of climate change. Climate change education should therefore help students to address uncertainty. The question, then, is how to educate students about that which is 'in the dark'. Here, we might find a role for games as a resource for climate change education. This study explores which climate change-related uncertainties were represented in three games. A qualitative content analysis was conducted using a framework that distinguishes between different types of uncertainty. Most uncertainties in the games concerned questions such as, 'What will happen?' and 'What should I do?' Five main topics of uncertainty were represented in the games: (a) climate change measures, action and cooperation; (b) climate change consequences; (c) resource availability and management, and survival; (d) events; and (e) perspectives on the climate crisis, on measures and on the treatment of others. The games approached these uncertainties differently. The study forms a starting point for research on the potential of games for addressing climate change-related uncertainty in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education plays an important role in preparing future citizens and leaders with the capacity to address systemic issues behind complex problems such as climate change. There have however been few attempts to assess systems-related competencies in the context of complex problems. This study adapted an existing scenario-based assessment tool to measure Taiwanese undergraduate students' systems thinking competency in the context of climate change. This tool included a climate-related problem scenario and eight follow-up prompts along with a scoring rubric. The scenario was set in a contextual setting familiar to students in Taiwan. Using this tool and an additional knowledge survey, we investigated undergraduate students' (N = 110) systems thinking competency and its relationship to their content knowledge, and further examined the effect of an interdisciplinary climate change course on students' systems thinking and content knowledge. Data analysis revealed a modest level of systems thinking competency among the students, and a significant, positive association between the competency level and content knowledge. Participating in the semester-long course positively influenced student learning outcomes. However, the effect was focused on STEM students. These results provide important implications for teaching and learning of systems thinking competency in the context of complex issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic climate change is a scientific fact, but U.S. public discourse around the issue remains mired in controversy, including in education. Our study leverages natural language processing methods to give a precise look into the extent to which climate change-related topics are covered in 30 of the most widely used high school history textbooks in California and Texas. We find that history textbooks situate climate change-related topics within narratives of U.S. progress and development, and focus on the role of government in climate action. Consistent with analyses of science curricula, we also find that history textbooks emphasize controversy in climate discussions. Despite differences in state-level standards, the content of textbooks in California and Texas is surprisingly similar in the extent and nature of climate change-related discourse. Our study indicates that history textbook reform is an important arena for expanding and improving climate change education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching about climate change should be a top priority for all education sectors. However, research to date suggests that climate change education is sparse and ad hoc across school contexts, is not mandated, and relies on the efforts of an impassioned few. Here, we present educators' experiences of teaching climate change in Australian classrooms. We find that biases remain in educators' perceptions of which discipline subjects are, and should be, responsible for teaching about climate change. We reflect on these apparent disciplinary siloes, and advocate for holistic approaches that cut across curriculum divides. Further, we reveal the challenges educators experience in navigating affective dimensions of climate change education. Finally, we recommend that professional capacity building opportunities be developed, alongside additional support services. We outline that such work does not require radical changes in education systems, and highlight that pedagogies already exist within school contexts and subject areas that can support effective and action-oriented climate change education for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change education is seen as an important contributor to climate change mitigation. Yet, its predominant focus on cognitive learning tends to omit the emotional effects of learning about climate change, which often entails learners feeling anxious and overwhelmed and therefore struggling to engage with and enact 'solutions'. This paper addresses a gap in current environmental education research relating to the role that the design of educational content might play in engaging with the emotional dimension of learning in environmental and sustainability education. In this effort, the paper draws on constructive journalism to provide an account of how the design of content influences the appropriation of content on both a cognitive and emotional level by the learner. The paper outlines three content design tools (solutions orientation, future orientation, community orientation) that aim to reconcile the emotional and cognitive dimensions of learning while supporting the agency of learners and a democratic conception of climate change education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing recognition of the multi-faceted injustices of climate change has resulted in shifting public and policy discourse around how to understand and address climate change, yet justice considerations are rarely present in climate change education (CCE). With aims of bringing visibility to existing efforts and building a foundation for more widespread justice-driven CCE, this systematic review examined how justice frameworks are being employed in a range of CCE contexts, within and beyond the classroom. Analyses of 55 peer-reviewed articles with data from 57 countries published between 2007 and 2020 demonstrate that the empirical literature on justice in CCE has grown significantly in recent years. Notably, justice-driven CCE in this review took place within and beyond STEM education settings, was fueled more by people-focused aims (e.g. advancing equity) compared to planet-focused aims (e.g. protecting the environment), and encompassed a remarkable diversity of educational processes, goals, and outcomes—with learners of all ages—across formal, community-based, and activist learning contexts. Findings have implications for scholars, educators, and practitioners across disciplines committed to educating for justice in the face of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth currently in secondary school will spend most of their adult life in a hotter climate associated with climate change (CC). This study investigated attitudes of youth living in an Australian Biosphere Reserve to identify their understanding of CC causes, impact, and mitigation measures, as well as their feelings of self-efficacy and hope. An online survey of 425 youth found that although participants reported a high level of understanding of impacts, they had significant knowledge gaps regarding the most effective measures to mitigate CC. In addition, youth expressed little hope that society will take action, and a lowered sense of self-efficacy. Significant gender and age differences were found for knowledge, experience, and concern about CC impacts, as well as perceptions of how well school had prepared them for navigating the impacts of CC. These findings inform communication and education interventions to mobilise youth to respond to the global climate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caribbean nations are amongst those considered the most vulnerable to climate change impacts. This necessitates climate change education (CCE) to enhance the mitigation and adaptation capacities of the region's populace. CCE is necessary at all levels of the education system, from pre-primary through to the tertiary level. To facilitate this, teachers must be exposed to CCE, understanding what climate change is, its impacts, and how to respond to climate change. Additionally, in order to facilitate students' (as well as their own) abilities to visualise various climate futures and respond to the range of emotions associated with climate change, teachers' own visioning skills must be developed. This article focuses on educators' engagement' with a low-carbon visioning exercise in a CCE course for educators at a regional university in the Caribbean. Thematic analysis of the document and interview data offers illustrations of the possibilities of visioning for awakening students to alternative future possibilities and engendering hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformative learning is important for handling climate change. How to include this kind of learning in formal education is, however, still debated. This article takes a bottom-up approach by learning from young people who make climate-friendly food choices to a high degree. Interviews were performed with Swedish adolescents. By focusing on conflicts and coping the aim was to explore if there are elements of prefigurative practice (e.g. to actualize ideals about the future in the here and now) in the young people's everyday engagement and to discuss how to utilize these to promote transformative learning. The young people experienced, for example, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and structural/practical conflicts. They coped in two overarching ways: strategies to support climate-friendly choices despite conflicts and strategies to deal with less good choices. It is argued that by critically discussing conflicts and different ways of dealing with them transformative learning can be promoted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassroots initiatives towards climate resilience in cities are likely to embed environmental education practices with potential transformative impact among young people. Through interviews and document review, we examine two initiatives involving different non-formal educational actions in Barcelona: a civic ecology practice based on the community gardening of tree pits and an energy citizenship project with the school community. Despite their diverse nature and outcomes, these educational actions promoted by grassroots groups intend to boost young people's critical reflection, responsibility, and agency for taking individual action towards more climate-resilient cities. However, connections between agency, empowerment and transformative learning become more challenging when translated to the collective. Limitations relate to the lack of effective engagement approaches that reinforce social connectedness and local identity, and insufficient evaluation strategies. By discussing these potentials and challenges, we shed light on the synergies concerning transformative learning between the fields of environmental education and urban community resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop targeted climate change curricula, it is imperative to understand how students perceive and observe the localized effects of climate change. Our work used a quantitatively driven, parallel mixed methods research design to study potential factors that contribute to undergraduate biology students seeing the local effects of climate change. Our research questions asked students to provide examples of climate change occurring in their state and examined the predictive power of connection to nature, psychological distance, and other factors on whether students see climate change or not. Our quantitative data show a student's connection to nature, their spatial climate awareness, and their geographic location were the three most important factors in predicting a student seeing and discussing climate change occurring in their state. Further, our qualitative data support our quantitative findings indicating that personal experiences in nature are integral for students connecting with nature and seeing climate change at scales smaller than their state. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2022.2042205. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the experiences of rural, underserved middle school students in afterschool clubs. Culturally relevant climate change education strategies were used to enhance students' climate change literacy. We investigated changes in students' climate change literacy, perceptions of strategies used, and what they valued about the clubs by analyzing a pre-post survey (N = 97) and structured written reflections (N = 113). A new integrative framework brought together climate change education design elements to promote culturally relevant programming in an afterschool setting. The effective climate change education strategies and Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) guided data analyses. Overall, students demonstrated significant growth in climate literacy; beliefs, attitudes, and subjective knowledge did not increase significantly. Students' reflections indicated some climate change strategies resonated more than others. Analyses using EVT found that students' interest/enjoyment and identity were most often described, followed by self-efficacy and expectations for success with club tasks. Implications for practice are shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to mitigate climate change, individuals need to make lifestyle changes that help reduce carbon emissions. As teachers play an important role in modeling pro-environmental behavior to their students, this study investigated whether there are some types of climate actions which pre-service teachers themselves are most reluctant to take. The findings show that the participants were especially reluctant to change their travel habits, car-use habits and dietary habits. The reasons for inaction were diverse, but in most of the categories, the predominant reasons were related to hedonic aspects, such as ease of actions, enjoyment of life and comfort. The domains in which pre-service teachers were most reluctant to make lifestyle changes make up a significant portion of their carbon emissions, begging the question of how action competent our future teachers are. Educational implications of the findings and suggestions for pre-service teacher training are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to growing recognition for the mental health impacts of climate change, understanding the full range of children's psychological experiences in climate change education (CCE) contexts is critical to developing approaches that support children's constructive engagement and overall well-being. Through surveys and focus groups conducted with fifty-five children (ages 10–12), this mixed-methods study examined the affective and attitudinal impacts of a multi-site CCE program that encouraged children's learning, reflection, and action. Findings suggest that, through the program, children acquired stronger pro-environmental attitudes, a deeper respect for nature, and a greater sense of urgency towards the need for climate action. Importantly, children's negative emotions (e.g. fear, worry, anger, sadness) were mitigated by positive emotions grounded in youth-led climate action in family and community contexts. Findings are interpreted through theories of cognitive and affective transformation, which shed light on the beneficial micro- and macrolevel outcomes of children's perspective shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we argue that drama can provide complementary knowing for climate change education and shed light on the complexity of related psychosocial issues. We bring together an interdisciplinary understanding of eco-anxiety, psychosocial responses to climate change, and drama education. We draw on performance narratives created with young people in Finland and explore the psychosocial dynamics of climate change education. Three key themes are discussed in more detail in relation to education: 1) psychosocial dynamics; 2) alienation; 3) tragedy. The performance workshops provided a safe and creative space for exploring young people's thoughts and images related to climate anxiety. Many relevant but often silenced issues became visible and were lived through in the process of performance making. This seemed to be fruitful both to the performers, teachers, and researchers, and suggests future, longer-term work would prove beneficial for engaging with these issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent intergovernmental commitments to advancing climate change education and communication (CCEC) internationally, there remains a lack of global data to enable tracking or target-setting on country progress. This article shares findings from an analysis of CCEC content in 377 submissions to the UNFCCC Secretariat. Submission types analyzed included National Communications reporting on recent activities, and Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans outlining future plans. Key findings about CCEC in primary to tertiary education, government, media, civil society, business, and public communications sectors are that: (a) while CCEC content appeared in submissions, little is currently suitable for monitoring purposes; and (b) there were notable gaps in CCEC activities, given a pronounced emphasis on cognitive knowledge over affective and action-oriented approaches. Regional variations were also found, with European countries on average including more content in relation to both Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) elements and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator components. Recommendations for future UNFCCC submissions on the quantity and quality of CCEC are highlighted, as well as for research and research-policy collaboration to further monitoring of CCEC implementation and progress globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging with new materialist/posthuman approaches to agency, in this paper I explore what might happen to the goal of cultivating climate action if we decentre the human from our climate pedagogies. Specifically, I engage with Karen Barad's concept of intra-action which argues that agency is not possessed by individual things or beings, but emerges through relationships. I work with experiences and occurrences from Climate Change Responses, an undergraduate social science course that I tutored in 2015 (CCR15). I explore how in CCR15, while trying to learn to better mitigate climate change, we became climate killjoys, resisting, challenging and disrupting pleasurable carbon intensive practices. Through these empirical examples, I show that 'climate intra-action' can enable us to attend to how human and more-than-human identities change through engagement with climate change; how our human capacities to affect climate emerge through acting-with more-than-human entanglements; and thus how unanticipated, different actions can emerge in climate change education. I therefore suggest that an intra-active approach to climate change education research and practice might enable less anthropocentric and more relationally attuned climate change 'response-abilities', for both teachers and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last years we have observed a growing interest in the use of gamification approaches for climate change education. While most practices are related to digital gaming, there is a new trend which is still academically unexplored: escape rooms. The main objective of this paper is to serve as an initial exploratory study in this field by identifying and analysing climate change-related escape rooms. For that purpose we carried out a web search and a qualitative content analysis. A total of 17 initiatives are described and compared, unravelling their main audience, country of origin, topics, scenarios and objectives covered. The paper also highlights what escape rooms can offer to climate change education: experiential and immersive learning, problem solving and critical thinking skills, and a sense of collaboration and urgency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]