Teacher Union Efforts to Address the Climate Crisis in Classrooms and Advocacy

• In Event: Education in the Climate Crisis: Perspectives from Science, Students, Teachers, and Policy

Proposal

The teaching profession, school systems and nonformal education programs around the world have already been drastically affected by the global pandemic and other manifestations of the eco-disruptions (drought, floods, wildfires, population displacement, etc) driven by climate change in this phase of the Anthropocene age. As climate disruptions accelerate, how should education be adapting? And how might climate-relevant sectors begin to adapt education solutions and engage the education sector? This paper will first outline the results of a ground-breaking study commissioned by Education International (EI’s), the network of teacher trade unions, of the readiness of many national education systems and climate policy mechanisms to engage students about the climate crisis, its implications and the skills, knowledge and pathways of action needed to avert catastrophe.
Secondly, this paper will describe the focus of EI’s Teach for the Planet campaign, an attempt to mobilize teacher unions in key countries to prioritize teaching climate science, climate change challenges and solutions, and to join forces with other civic efforts to call for drastic climate public and industrial policy change. The paper will introduce the EI Climate Change Education Ambition Report Card as an example tool that teacher unions can use to hold governments accountable to their commitment to Article 12 of the Paris Agreement on action for climate empowerment, which includes education as a key pillar. Finally, the paper will highlight additional examples of emerging teacher activism on the climate issue and ways teachers can join the global effort to press for international cooperative efforts to shift policy and practice.

Author

• Christina Ting Kwauk, Kwauk and Associates