Comparative and Cross-National Perspectives on Climate Change Education

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

According to recent IPCC reports, global warming will most likely exceed 1.5°C. Strong responses however could avoid crossing the 1.5°C threshold. But preparing everyone with the knowledge and the skills to tackle this climate change crisis requires a multi-faceted approach. In education, protest and action around climate change take different forms at different levels. This panel takes a cross-national approach to emphasize different forms of action from teachers, cities and nongovernmental organizations around the world.

Much of the work on elevating youth voices and understanding about climate change happens inside and outside of the formal curriculum and is offered through civil society organizations (Pizmony-Levy & Kessler, forthcoming). Nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations have been advocating for and active in environmental, sustainability and climate change education for decades. Many have been active since the 1970s and have expanded the capacity of schools and communities in providing local and place-based education programs that aim to preserve natural habitats, diverse ecosystems, and climate change education. In addition, prior studies have found that formal education has been slow to take up climate change in policy across the domains of overall governance, teaching and learning, facilities and operations, community partnerships, and research. Recent public opinion studies in the United States have shown growing support for holistic climate change education (Pizmony-Levy, 2023; Pizmony-Levy et al., 2023). The first paper of this panel provides findings from a global survey on the role and activities of organizations and groups that work across community, local, national and international scales to carry out climate change education in different countries and regions of the world. This research identifies and maps the networks that advocate for and provide climate change education.

In a similar vein, mayors of large cities around the world have struggled with the inaction of national governments. They have taken swift action and enacted local environmental laws to protest national inaction. Current urban theories argue that large cities are global hubs and practical control centers of the world (Sassen, 1991, 2019), and note that sustainability and climate strategies drive further growth for cities (Fitzgerald, 2010). In 1992, for example, the UN Earth Summit launched an initiative called Local Agenda 21 which resulted in a number of global urban networks such as Healthy Cities, Good Governance Cities, Sustainable Cities and Cities for Climate Protection (Brugmann, 2009). Climate Action Plans of global cities, spearheaded by inter-city organizations such as C40 or ICLEI, include educational programs: they allocate funds for them, and spell out the role of schools and higher education institutions in collecting data and providing training for jobs in greener economies. This is the focus of the second paper in this panel. It explores Climate Action Plans of global cities to highlight the role of education and schools in the urban fight to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Lastly, to create interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts to teach climate change, teachers need to work with each other. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 1992) specifically calls on countries to promote, facilitate, and collaborate on the development and implementation of educational programs and materials on climate change and its effects. The Conference of the Parties in 2012 (COP 18) and the Paris Agreement (2015) further elaborated Article and put forward the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) framework and guidelines. Research on national reports to the UNFCCC shows two concerning patterns: “(a) while climate change education and communication content appeared in submissions, little is currently suitable for monitoring purposes; and (b) there were notable gaps in climate change education and communication activities, given a pronounced emphasis on cognitive knowledge over affective and action-oriented approaches” (McKenzie, 2021: 631). The OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) will document in 2024 to what extent this is happening in schools in more than 50 countries. This third paper will discuss the process used to advocate for this module to underline that environmental and sustainability education is more than a transfer of knowledge.

This panel thus brings together three global and cross-national approaches of protest and action at the intersection of climate and education. The papers provide original empirical research -both quantitative and qualitative- to support schools, policymakers, foundations and community organizations in strengthening climate change education in multiple forms.

Sub Unit

• Environmental and Sustainability Education SIG

Organizer

• Carine Verschueren, Columbia University Teachers Colleg

Chair

• Carine Verschueren, Columbia University Teachers Colleg

Individual Presentations

• International Survey of Climate Change Communication and Education Organizations - Erika L Kessler, American Institutes for Research

• Advancing Climate Education through the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey - heather E price, Learning Policy Institute