From local challenges to global agendas: teachers as catalysts in climate education and resilience

• In Event: Climate Resilience, Agroecology, and Environmental Justice

Proposal

The climate emergency is rapidly impacting various sectors of society, including the Environment, Economy, Health, and Education. In Global South countries such as Brazil, the effects of climate change, combined with economic inequality and structural vulnerabilities, exacerbate the impacts of natural disasters such as floods, droughts, storms, and landslides.
In May 2024, the state of Rio Grande do Sul experienced one of the largest floods in its history. More than a thousand schools were partially or completely damaged, thousands of students lost access to classes, and entire communities experienced schools not only as learning spaces but also as sites of care and survival.
In this scenario, teachers emerged as key actors in the community response. Many school infrastructures were compromised, but the greatest challenge was addressing the pedagogical and socioemotional dimensions. Teachers had to improvise practices without systematic support to assist students in distress and recover interrupted content, while simultaneously coping with their own losses. Additionally, the disconnect between curriculum and environmental reality highlighted the need for pedagogical tools that enable the practical, critical, and contextualized teaching of climate change.
Although the Brazilian National Common Curricular Base (BNCC) mandates the inclusion of environmental and sustainability topics, accessible teaching materials, contextualized training, and conditions for implementing these guidelines in practice are lacking. Thus, the central challenge identified was twofold: to support teachers in emergency situations while simultaneously structuring a pedagogical response that strengthens school resilience in the face of climate change.
The problem extends to Brazilian education more broadly: teachers recognize the importance of climate education, yet many lack adequate training and pedagogical resources. Research conducted by Nova Escola, an organization supporting public school educators in Brazil for nearly 40 years, indicates that more than 75% of teachers have never received climate change training, and only 40% feel prepared to teach it, even though almost 90% perceive environmental impacts in their personal, professional, and regional lives.

The Intervention: Nova Escola’s Actions
To address the urgent needs during the floods, Nova Escola provided direct material support to affected educators in Rio Grande do Sul through its educator community Conectando Saberes, including books, tablets, printers, and projectors, allowing the reconstruction of learning spaces. In-person meetings also offered training in Emergency Pedagogy and spaces for listening, strengthening teacher confidence and promoting the exchange of experiences.
The next step focused on teacher qualification beyond Rio Grande do Sul. Since 2024, Nova Escola has produced articles, lesson plans, and an e-book on disaster risk reduction, all freely accessible, aiming to support learning recovery and integrate climate topics into the curriculum. These resources were co-created with public school teachers, ensuring relevance, immediate applicability, and accessible language. Additionally, journalistic reports highlighted the experiences of indigenous, quilombola, rural, and urban educators, reinforcing diverse voices and contexts.
In 2025, Nova Escola intensified its focus on both in-person and online training to equip teachers with climate education knowledge and the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence as a tool to address environmental challenges. A Climate Ambassadors group was created, initially composed of 50 teachers, responsible for multiplying content and practices to approximately 1,500 additional educators. This initiative seeks to connect teachers with global debates, such as COP30, encouraging critical reflection on climate change and environmental justice, and linking global discussions to local realities.

Impacts and Learnings
The intervention demonstrates that teacher leadership is decisive in educational responses to disasters. Combining material and symbolic support proved essential for restoring the capacity for action. The national reach of open-access content allowed innovative pedagogical practices to be shared beyond Rio Grande do Sul, amplifying the project’s scale and relevance.
Research conducted in partnership with the Office for Climate Education (OCE) and the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, involving over 2,400 teachers, shows high interest in the topic: 91.5% consider climate education very important, and 67.1% expressed interest in integrating Artificial Intelligence into teaching practices on the subject. Initial tests with pilot lesson plans showed positive effects on student engagement and teacher confidence in conducting activities.
This Brazilian experience offers valuable lessons for other Global South contexts. The articulation of emergency pedagogy, learning recovery, and climate education can inspire international policies and practices, aligning local initiatives with global agendas such as Education in Emergencies (INEE) and Education for Sustainable Development (UNESCO). Moreover, collaboration with the Office for Climate Education (OCE), a leading international organization in the field, strengthens the legitimacy and global relevance of these actions, expanding the reach and credibility of the work conducted.

Conclusion
The Nova Escola intervention demonstrates that supporting teachers in climate emergencies goes beyond mitigation: it is a strategy for building school and community resilience. By integrating content production, direct support, and ambassador training, the organization provides a structured response to concrete problems, with immediate impacts and lessons transferable to other international contexts. Brazilian teachers show that they can act as central agents of transformation, connecting students, curriculum, and community, and contributing to the development of education that is globally relevant and locally contextualized.

Author

• Ana Ligia Scachetti, Nova Escola Association