Climate Change Education | Encyclopedia MDPI

Climate Change Education: Comparison

Please note this is a comparison between Version 2 by Conner Chen and Version 1 by Eija Yli-Panula.

Climate change education (CCE) is education that aims to address and develop effective responses to climate change. It helps learners understand the causes and consequences of climate change, prepares them to live with the impacts of climate change and empowers learners to take appropriate actions to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. CCE helps policymakers understand the urgency and importance of putting mechanisms into place to combat climate change on a national and global scale. Communities learn about how climate change will affect them, what they can do to protect themselves from negative consequences, and how they can reduce their own climate footprint. In particular, CCE helps increase the resilience of already vulnerable communities who are the most likely to be adversely affected by climate change. CCE is rooted in Education for sustainable development (ESD).

The climate change education (CCE) is understood as a component of environmental education and education for sustainable development. Its core concept is CC literacy, which means that students understand the scientific concepts related to CC and the relationships between them, as well as the effects of CC and their own activities on the environment. CCE is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. Multidisciplinarity means that knowledge of various individual sciences is needed. Interdisciplinarity, on the other hand, incorporates elements from a variety of disciplines and also integrates environmental, economic, social and political issues.

climate change education
education for sustainable development
Finland
multidisciplinary
interdiscipilinary

1. UNESCO Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development Programme

Established in 2010, the UNESCO Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development programme (CCESD) aims to help people understand climate change by expanding CCE activities in nonformal education through the media, networking and partnerships. It is grounded in the holistic approach of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) which incorporates key sustainable development issues such as climate change, disaster risk reduction and others into education, in a way that addresses the interdependence of environmental sustainability, economic viability and social justice. It promotes participatory teaching and learning methods that motivate and empower learners to change their behaviour and take action for sustainable development. The programme seeks to help people understand the impact of global warming today and increase ‘climate literacy’, especially among young people, and aims to make education a more central part of the international response to climate change. UNESCO works with national governments to integrate CCE into national curricula and to develop innovative teaching and learning approaches for doing so.^[1]

2. Selected Country Profiles Regarding CCE and ESD

Australia

Australia has been at the forefront of education for sustainability, adopting in 2000 a national plan entitled Environmental Education for a Sustainable Future. A number of initiatives and bodies were created to implement the national plan, including the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative and Australian Research Institute for Environment and Sustainability. These provided a strong foundation for Australia’s strategy, launched in 2006, to respond to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The strategy set out the goal to mainstream sustainability through a holistic approach that engages the community through education and lifelong learning. Whereas climate change was referred to as one of a number of environmental concerns in the first national plan, a new plan launched in 2009, entitled Living Sustainably: the Australian Government’s National Action Plan for Education for Sustainability, had a greater focus on climate change and its impacts on other natural resources within a wider global context. The new plan incorporated climate change within education for sustainability, rather than establishing a new and potentially competing field of Climate Change Education. Australia introduced its first-ever national curriculum in 2014, including sustainability as one of three cross-curriculum subjects.^[1] Since 2009, Climate Change Education has been most evident in the VET sector. COAG endorsed the Green Skills Agreement in 2009, and the Ministerial Council for Vocational and Technical Education published the National VET Sector Sustainability Policy and Action Plan (2009-2012). These initiatives aimed to provide workers with the skills needed to transition to a low-carbon economy and VET teachers with suitable training packages to promote education for sustainability.^[1]

China

China introduced environmental education in the late 1970s as a result of increased attention to sustainable development and the need to protect the environment. Following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), environmental education moved towards environment, population and development, and finally education for sustainable development.^[1] The Chinese government has produced a number of policy documents identifying environmental education and ESD as key to quality education. In 2003, the Ministry of Education issued the first guiding policy - the Guidelines for Implementing Environmental Education in Elementary and Secondary School - on environmental education in China. ESD was formally incorporated into the national education policy in 2010 in The National Education Outline 2010-2020, and further integrated in some local education policies. National climate change policies and plans in China refer to education but do not specifically address CCE. This has resulted in limited institutional support to date. There is no national ESD or CCE action plan or official policy to inform its implementation.^[1] In China, ESD mainly refers to providing individuals with the scientific knowledge, learning capacity, values and lifestyle choices to meet the country’s sustainable development objectives. CCE is most commonly implemented as a component of ESD. A number of educational approaches have been adopted to facilitate the implementation of ESD. These include integrating ESD values into school philosophy, curriculum development, capacity-building of teachers and educators, ESD pedagogical approaches and ESD and CCE thematic activities.^[1] ESD is a component of compulsory education, but is limited in higher education, VET and adult education. The Ministry of Education has recently issued a guidance document that identified the VET sector in particular as needing to be reformed to meet the sustainable development objectives of the Chinese economy.^[1]

Denmark

Denmark and its neighbouring countries began working together in the 1990s to formulate a policy for ESD. While Denmark signed the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) declaration on ESD in 2005, it did not adopt a strategy until 2009, just before the half-way point of the DESD. The Ministry of Education, which was made responsible for the DESD, organised a consultation process on how to promote ESD before adopting its strategy in 2009.^[1] The UN Climate Summit (COP15) held in Denmark in December 2009 provided the impetus to develop of a number of national ESD policy initiatives. A national strategy on ESD was developed with a substantial climate change component. The aim of the strategy is to make citizens more responsible for their actions by improving their scientific knowledge. The ESD strategy notes that climate change should not be the sole focus of ESD, though the concrete initiatives that are part of the strategy mostly support the CCE projects and activities that were part of COP15 preparations.^[1] A new national school curriculum adopted in 2009 included elements of ESD and CCE. The concept of sustainability was embedded in the goals describing the interrelationships between nature and society. CCE is mostly approached as teaching climate science, but it was also included in subjects such as geography and social studies, where the interrelationships between human behaviour, consumption and climate are examined.^[1] There has been no explicit policy change in the TVET sector to upgrade skills to respond to climate change and environmental issues. However, it is important to note that the Danish TVET sector had previously reflected skills related to ecological modernisation in areas such as energy generation, waste management and agriculture. While the new government identified the economic and environmental climate change crises as important, education is only referred to in relation to the economic crisis. There is no mention of climate change or sustainability with regard to education, and the platform documentation on ‘green transition’ does not mention education. Overall, no policy strategy has been set to promote ESD, CCE, or the ‘greening’ of TVET as part of the government’s sustainable development and climate change policies. Government initiatives support NGO-led projects to raise community awareness of climate change. A national network on ESD was established with funding through to 2013.^[1]

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic has taken a lead role in promoting ESD. Environmental education was made mandatory for all schools in 1998 and this has since evolved into ESD. In 2000, the General Law of Environment and Natural Resources changed the way environmental education was taught, moving from a subject matter to a cross-cutting and interdisciplinary theme. Risk management is also an important aspect of MINERD’s strategic plan, and has been integrated into the school curriculum as a cross-cutting subject. In 2004, the Environmental Education Strategy for Sustainable Development was adopted, which fosters formal and non-formal ESD. It is based on constructivism and uses a variety of pedagogical techniques that promote participatory learning.^[1] The Ten-year 2008-2018 Education Plan (PDE) addresses the issue of quality education, including sustainable development and a culture of peace. It also established a process for periodic review of the curriculum. Climate change is also being introduced into the curriculum. The National Teacher Training Institute (INAFOCAM) and the Salomé Ureña Higher Institute for Teacher Training (ISFODOSU) provide support for environmental education through teacher training and curriculum support. The Ten-year 2008-2018 Higher Education Plan (PDES) includes environmental issues in the curricula and establishes a research programme to promote sustainable development.^[1] The Dominican Republic has been involved in a number of ESD and CCE initiatives that have helped build local capacity, including:

formal, non-formal and informal projects on ESD led by governmental agencies, civil society organizations, young leaders and local communities;

UN: CC Learn Project, which supports the design and implementation of results-oriented and sustainable learning to address climate change (see the detailed case study in this Report);

National Strategy to Strengthen Human Resource Capacities to Advance Green, Low Emission and Climate Resilient Development (ENDVBERC);

teacher training supported by the UN: CC Learn-UNITAR, and the UNESCO-CCESD pilot programme.^[1]

UK

In the United Kingdom, the Teach the Future campaign aims to rapidly repurpose the education system around the climate emergency and ecological crisis^[2]; they are cohosted by the UK Student Climate Network and SOS-UK and are in the process of devolving their campaign to Scotland and Northern Ireland from England. They have 3 asks of the Government^[3]

A government commissioned review into how the English formal education system is preparing students for the climate emergency and ecological crisis

The inclusion of the climate emergency and ecological crisis in English teaching standards and training

The enactment of an English Climate Emergency Education Act - the first student written bill in history

England

Environmental and development education have been present in England since the 1970s, when civil society organizations took the lead. From the late 1990s, the UK government promoted sustainable development and ESD at the local, regional and national levels. However, while a number of strategic government reports addressed CCE, government policy has focused less on ESD since 2010.^[1] The 2008 report Brighter Futures – Greener Lives: Sustainable Development Action Plan 2008-2010 outlined a number of specific initiatives related to Climate Change Education using an ESD approach. This included empowering youth with the skills, knowledge and freedom to voice their opinions and make a difference. The same year, CCE was introduced into the Key Stage 3 (11 to 14 year-olds) geography curriculum.^[1] The report Education for Sustainable Development in the UK 2010 noted that there were signs of substantial progress in embedding ESD-related policies and developing practices in the UK across a wide range of sectors in 2008 and 2009. For example, documents in 2009 highlighted the ‘Sustainable Schools’ project that aims to empower youth to cope with the future challenges facing the planet. The aim is for all schools to be ‘Sustainable Schools’ by 2020.^[1]

Scotland

The Scottish Government commissioned a climate change TV advert, ^[4] possibly as part of public awareness program.

Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea has a number of policies and initiatives supporting environmental education. In 2008, the Environmental Education Promotion Act encouraged the development of environmental education. It aimed to raise national environmental awareness, to encourage people to develop research and inquiry skills, and to put what they learn into action.^[1] The Ministry of Environment, in its 2011-2015 Environmental Education Master Plan, proposed a policy agenda for environmental education to be implemented through formal education, social environmental education and educational infrastructure approaches. The various approaches in the formal education area include:

‘Environment and Green Growth’ as an elective subject in middle and high school curricula, and classes in elementary school designed to integrate environmental education;

the establishment of the Natural Environmental Studies Institute that o ers interactive youth programmes for environmental studies;

Environment Model Schools, designed to demonstrate best-practice;

‘Low Carbon Challenge’ involving ten universities;

in-service training for teachers to upskill, specializing in environmental education.^[1]

Vietnam

The development of ESD in Vietnam took place in the most recent decades. The National Council of Sustainable Development was formed in 2006 to acknowledge the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) (^[5]). A committee consisting of high-ranking leaders such as government leaders and ministers were appointed to develop an education for sustainability guideline. The Ministry for Education and Training (MOET) played an important role to push forward establishment goals for ESD and CCE. Furthermore, they were also able to recognize the climate change impacts overall in Vietnam such as increase in average temperature and sea rise level. From 1951-2000, Vietnam’s global average temperature increased about 0.5-0.7 Celsius, and sea level had risen about 20 cm (^[6]). These two factors had put a hold on the growing socioeconomic achievements; therefore, MOET acted on the development education aspects to mitigate climate change in the future (^[6]). The first key steps MOET promoted toward ESD and CCE were the National Action Plan of Education for Sustainable Development of Viet Nam in 2010 and the Action Plan for Response to Climate Change of the Education Sector for the period of 2011-2015 (^[5]). Action Plan of Education for Sustainable Development In 2016, Vietnam, Costa Rica, and Kenya started their partnership with UNESCO to establish high standard ESD policies at a regional and global level (^[7]). Through UNESCO, there were four main projects that the countries can get involved in different socioeconomic levels such as Advancing ESD policy development, A whole-institution approach to climate change through the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet), Sustainability starts with teachers, Empower youth ESD leaders as change agents, and Community for ESD. Climate Change Education In 2009, MOET was able to develop and implement environmental education (EE) and CCE education into formal education curriculum. This gained approval from ESD standpoints (^[8],^[9]), however it was still not considered to count towards all ESD approaches (^[5],^[10]). Furthermore, one of the main challenges MOET was facing during this time was an increase of materials on top the regular curriculum, resulted in overloading students with knowledge^[10].

1. Specific Features of Climate Change Education (CCE)

For over a decade, the United Nations (UN) and the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have played prominent roles in promoting sustainable development [28,29]. In sustainable development and education of sustainability, several different concepts (e.g., sustainable education, sustainability education, and education for sustainable development) have been and continue to be used. These terms contain similar ideas, but they do not mean the same thing [30]. Sterling [31] defined the term sustainable education as “a change of educational culture, one which develops and embodies the theory and practice of sustainability in a way which is critically aware. It is therefore a transformative paradigm which values, sustains and realises human potential in relation to the need to attain and sustain social, economic and ecological well-being, recognising that they must be part of the same dynamic”.

The concept of sustainable education thus refers to finding sustainable solutions to environmental, social, and economic problems through education [32]. It is a concept that challenges both formal and non-formal educational sectors to actively participate in the creation of economic, social, and environmental programs that improve the quality of life, increase the empowerment of students to perform as active citizens, and respect interdependence [33].

Sustainability education is an interdisciplinary, collaborative, experiential, and potentially transformative process of creating a space for inquiry, dialogue, reflection, and action about the values and goals of sustainability [34]. Again, education for sustainable development is a holistic and transformational lifelong learning process which aims to enhance the cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of learning [35].

Climate change is an ecological phenomenon. CCE therefore requires a transformative education based on an ecological vision, with holistic, systemic, and multi- and interdisciplinary planning and implementation at its core. Sustainable education is built on this view, which is why it can be considered useful in the context of CCE.

The notion that CCE is crucial to redirecting teaching and learning in the face of the contemporary climate emergency is now widely established and accepted [36,37,38,39]. In this context, universities [40,41] and teacher education departments [8] are of great importance in CCE.

According to Kagawa and Selby [42] (p. 4), the aim of CCE is to reflect in depth on what is very important and to envision future perspectives together. Education should increase holistic understanding of CC causes, consequences, and mitigation and adaptation measures [42] (pp. 241–243). To achieve this, critical and systemic as well as strategic thinking are needed. Critical thinking is a key skill on which systemic thinking is based [43]. Systemic thinking refers to the ability to understand the world as a complex system in which everything is connected to everything else [44]. This is an essential part of eco-social civilization, especially in identifying interdependencies and outlining causal relationships between ecological, social, and economic realities and their local and global dimensions [45]. Strategic thinking is crucial when creating viable strategies to implement solutions to environmental problems. It unites the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to identify opportunities and formulate a vision on how to use those opportunities to solve a problem [46].

Increased knowledge of CC threats and other pertinent information concerning CC phenomena about the causes, processes, and consequences have caused young people to feel helplessness and environmental anxiety [46,47,48,49,50]. As in environmental education [51], the importance of emotional processing is also emphasized in CCE [9]. Through communality and working together [42] (pp. 241–243), CCE can foster feelings of empowerment and promote the development of action skills, providing opportunities for participation [52,53]. In addition, cooperation with individuals or groups outside the school or educational institution increases the effectiveness of CCE [11]. Climate-friendly behavior on the part of school or university leaders has also been found to strengthen the motivation and commitment of other members of the work community to achieve the goals of CCE [54]. In the literature, many authors [55,56,57] consider all types of behavior to be included in climate-friendly behavior. In CCE, from the perspective of the development of climate change mitigation behaviors, it would be important to discuss how the behavior of individuals would cause less change in global weather patterns. Issues to be discussed could be, for instance, energy conservation behavior, willingness to use or to select (or willingness to pay more) renewable energy, usage of environmentally friendly transportation, and the purchase of green products [58].

2. Challenges of Climate Change Education (CCE)

The challenges of CCE are affected by social, political, and educational perceptions. An example of those could be Unesco’s 17 SDGs, which are politically drafted, may not always be the same, and are appreciated in all school and research societies. Societal value choices and the ways in which the media deal with conflicts between political interests and environmental problems impact the perceptions, attitudes, and values of both teachers and students, as well as perceptions about the division of responsibilities for action against the challenges posed by CC in the context of CCE [52]. From an educational perspective, the ever-increasing amount of knowledge and the inconsistencies between different data sources make it difficult to stay up-to-date and increase suspicion concerning research data related to CC [59]. Previous research has shown that teachers’ and student teachers’ knowledge of CC is incomplete, fragmented, and narrow, with many misunderstandings [10,11,52,53,60,61]. The multidisciplinary nature of CCE is also often perceived as challenging and even intimidating [11,62]. The implementation of CCE is often the responsibility of individual teachers [11,54]. Increasing multidisciplinarity is hampered by challenges in teaching staff collaboration, such as the epistemic starting points and the pedagogical perspectives of teachers in different subjects, which are not always easy to combine [61]. Addressing controversial issues such as CC can arouse strong opinions and feelings in both teachers and students and can therefore be an unpleasant experience for teachers especially [60,61,62,63]. Teaching topics about CC is also hindered by the lack of appropriate teaching methods [11,41] and teaching materials considered appropriate and functional [62]. One key challenge is that very little attention is still paid in teacher education to the development of CCE and teachers’ competences in sustainability education, such as integrated problem solving, transformative learning, and learning or proactive competences [8,9]. Achieving the goals of CCE is obstructed not only by the challenges and obstacles associated with teachers and teaching but also by various factors affecting students and learning. Students’ knowledge of CC has been found to be incomplete and to contain many misconceptions about, for example, the link between CC and other environmental problems, such as ozone depletion and environmental pollution [10,11,52,53,64]. Learning science-based knowledge is important to alleviate CC anxiety [51]. Students’ feelings and attitudes related to CC also pose challenges to CCE. Unaddressed negative emotions can manifest as, for instance, denial of CC, anxiety, apathy, or hopelessness, making it difficult to address climate issues [26,62,64]. Ratinen and Uusiautti [65] found that mitigation knowledge of CC among Finnish female upper secondary students was better than among Finnish male upper secondary students. Yli-Panula, Laakkonen, and Vauras [66] showed with Finnish upper secondary students that the ability to learn about and solve CC issues is linked not only to topic knowledge but also to people’s beliefs regarding the topic, a result congruent with those generated by Leiserowitz [67] and Poortinga et al. [68]. The research by Yli-Panula et al. [66] also revealed that upper secondary school students’ academic achievements are influenced by the structure and certainty of knowledge, as well as by the justification of knowing studied in relation to CC, which are results that are in line with those of Cano [69] and Mason et al. [70]. The nature of CC also poses its own challenges for CCE. Compared with many other environmental problems, the effects of CC are broader, less directly visible, and much more gradual, which makes it difficult to perceive the problematic nature of CC [26,52]. Because of the holistic and multidimensional nature of CC, students can perceive the empowerment of the individual to be very limited [52,62]. In addition, the huge amount of information and contradictions related to CC can confuse and frustrate students [11,52,62]. All in all, CC is a controversial, multifaceted, and contextual concept and may not be easy to comprehend. For this reason, this study took into account what is provided in the Finnish national curricula for basic education (primary and secondary) [14] and upper secondary education [15] for teaching of CC at these school levels. Community action by schools and educational establishments is essential for the development of CCE. This includes climate-responsible and climate-friendly activities and engagement by learners in shared goals [11,53,71,72]. Of particular importance is the development of critical thinking skills and the perception of the need to change attitudes, beliefs, values, and practices that are detrimental to the climate. Future education and future visions are considered essential for the empowerment of individuals. The inclusion of the principles of CCE in teacher education is important, as is the development of teaching methods that will better support different students. In addition, it is important to increase cooperation between various sciences and other disciplines.

3. Climate Change (CC) in Finnish Upper Secondary Education

In the Finnish school system, basic education (primary and lower secondary education) and upper secondary education follow the national core curricula and quality requirements [73,74]. These curricula form a continuum. Thus, education in one level is built on the previous level. Our respondents are also targeting different levels of education in their teacher studies. Some of them will be class teachers in primary schools, and some will be subject teachers in the lower or upper secondary schools. The institutions providing education (mostly public, some private, and all free and accessible) and the individual teachers have, however, wide pedagogical freedom to choose the teaching methods and materials and to emphasize certain topics. However, all topics taught, including the foundations of CCE, should be constructed as a continuation from basic education to upper secondary education. In basic education, climate change is addressed from the perspective of building a sustainable future by looking at one’s own activities [14] (p. 242). In upper secondary education, CC is part of the transversal competence themes, and it is mentioned in both the common goals and guidelines for upper secondary education and in connection to the specific subject aims and objectives [15,16,27]. CC is brought up in shared values of education: “Students understand the importance of their own activities and global responsibility. in mitigating climate change.” [16] (p. 17). It is also mentioned in connection to the topic “Sustainable Lifestyle and Global Responsibility”, where “the student knows the factors influencing climate change and they are aware of the significance for the environment and human activities” [16] (pp. 60–64). For individual subjects, CC has been mentioned in the main contents of biological “Ecology and Environment” studies, which states the ecological effects of CC [15] (p. 142), and geographical “World in Change” studies, according to which the lessons dealt with CC [15] (p. 148) already in the previous curricula, published in 2015. Before that, CC was already mentioned in the geography contents in the upper secondary curriculum published in 2003 [75]. In the most recent curriculum document [16], CC is connected to an increased number of subjects (multidisciplinary), such as language studies, natural science subjects, philosophy, and ethics. For teachers, two models are designed to facilitate the planning of CC-related teaching: the so-called bicycle model [71] and the problem-centered process model [65]. The bicycle model outlines CC in all its dimensions and as a whole, but in order to function and stay in motion, the CC “bicycle” must actively incorporate every component and requires an active user. In this model, the essential aspects of CCE are described in a simple but comprehensive way: knowledge and thinking skills (wheels); identity, values, and worldviews (frame); action to curb CC (chains and pedals), motivation and participation (saddle); operational barriers (brakes); hope and other emotions (lamp light); and future orientation (handlebars). The problem-centered process model concerning CC, introduced by Ratinen et al. [65], supports teachers in outlining the wide multidimensionality and comprehensiveness of CCE, which in turn facilitates the integration of different aspects of CC into education [10]. In these models, knowledge and thinking skills form the basis for CCE. The bicycle model especially [71] pays attention to other educational views, such as values, motivation, identity, emotions, actions, anticipatory hope, and worldviews.