Learn to Lead: Developing Curricula that Foster Climate Change Leaders

In this chapter, we identify the need for a curriculum that is intended to not only enable educators to teach about climate change, but to also foster leaders who can engage in policy analysis and civic action related to the issue of climate change. Unlike Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-57927-2_3, which details a whole-school approach, we have specifically focused our attention on developing a curriculum with an associated implementation plan since the ability of teachers to build transferable leadership skills in younger generations are integral to any larger reform initiative. Ultimately, the efficacy of the curriculum is enhanced by a more holistic approach to the prioritization of climate change action in the context of schools and broader education systems, so a synthesis of approaches is recommended.The Climate Change Leadership Curriculum was designed in collaboration with the Arava Institute (AI), an organization in Israel that brings together Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and international students from outside the region to engage in environmental and peace-building education. The work of AI is specific to tertiary education, so our initiative to build a climate change leadership curriculum constitutes an attempt to expand the reach of the mission and pedagogy of AI to encompass secondary education. The implementation plan also involves leveraging the network of AI to find partners for implementing the curriculum. The fact that there are AI alumni who work in secondary education opened possibilities for dissemination of the curriculum in collaboration with teachers who have a deep understanding of the pedagogy. As teachers integrate the curriculum into their particular contexts, our plan was to not only support them in the implementation, but to also solicit feedback to continually improve the resources and identify the most effective ways to provide support. This will enable us to make the curriculum accessible to teachers from diverse backgrounds in a wide variety of contexts, inside and outside of the target region.

The Role of Universities Building an Ecosystem of Climate Change Education

This chapter introduces the field of climate change education, noting the paradox that in spite of many efforts at incorporating climate change in education policy and curriculum frameworks, and a diversity of practices in schools, there is little evidence that such efforts are contributing to adaptation, mitigation or reversal of climate change. The chapter reviews the role of international development organizations advocating for and developing frameworks in support of climate change education. This is followed by an analysis of ongoing efforts of climate change education.The chapter argues that more effective education for climate change at the primary and secondary education levels around the world requires context specific strategies that align the specific learning outcomes with the impacts of climate change in that context. Implementing those strategies requires the development of institutional capacity in schools that is aligned to the stage of institutional development of the school. The chapter explains how a multidisciplinary framework that accounts for the cultural, psychological, professional, institutional and political dimensions of the change process can support the development of collaboration and coherence in implementing those climate change education strategies. Those strategies need to also specify the particular populations that need to develop such competencies and the optimal means of delivery. The chapter also situates the literature on climate change education within the larger context of the literature on deeper learning, twenty first century skills and education system change, explaining how deeper learning in climate change education might influence attitudes and behaviors in ways that prevailing didactic approaches focused principally on the transmission of scientific knowledge do not.To develop such context specific climate change education strategies and to build the institutional capacity to implement them, the chapter makes the case for more intentional engagement of universities, in partnership with schools and non-formal education organizations. This would serve the dual role of providing support for schools in advancing climate change education, while also educating higher education students on climate change through problem based, participatory and contextually situated approaches.

Students as Partners. Implementation of Climate Change Education Within the Harvard Graduate School of Education

This chapter notes the efforts of implementing a climate change curriculum within the Harvard Graduate School of Education that helps to build competencies for potential leaders in different education sectors so that they can collaboratively combat climate change. Literature points out the fruitful and productive partnerships of grassroots initiatives with large scale institutions and/or government organizations. The authors explore the conception of a climate change curriculum with explicit content knowledge and thoughtful pedagogy, designed by students and supported by faculty. The authors examine the design elements of the curriculum and then specify the implementation process of a curriculum at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). The authors draw out the limitations and implications of “students as partners” in the co-creation of learning and teaching in the field of sustainable development education within higher education institutions.

Rezistans Klimatik: Building Climate Change Resilience in Haiti through Educational Radio Programming.

In this chapter we address the challenge of responding to climate-related issues for vulnerable nations such as Haiti by adopting a non-formal radio-based approach to educate adults outside of the school system. We argue that to inform populations on climate change, we cannot solely rely on the K-12 school system. This is especially true for countries such as Haiti. where there is an inadequate education infrastructure, and much of the population, both juveniles, and adults, is not in school or has not attended school for some time. The effects of climate change are changing the lives of people globally, and third-world nations such as Haiti are even more susceptible to climate-related disasters. Given the severity of ongoing circumstances, a sense of urgency is necessary, and addressing the issue requires an approach that has a far, broad and rapid reach and concludes in immediate climate action as opposed to delayed. In order to efficiently respond to climate-related events, a population needs to build resilience through awareness, understanding, and skill development in the context of the country and region, which in this chapter is specifically Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Creating a Culture of Shared Responsibility for Climate Action in Guatemala Through Education

Guatemala is a country particularly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Residents of the country are increasingly experiencing frequent natural hazards, witnessing rising temperatures, and grappling with maintaining sources of income and nutrition. For these and other reasons, it is crucial that Guatemalans have access to effective climate change education in order to be equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to appropriately adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change in their communities. With Atitlán Multicultural Academy, a K-12 school located in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, as our pilot school, we have created the blueprint for a region-specific guidebook focused on incorporating the spirit of climate action into the areas of leadership, curriculum, community partnerships, and professional development within the school. It is our hope that this guidebook can continually be adjusted and made relevant for schools around the globe as they work to create a culture of shared responsibility for climate action.

Learning from Teaching Graduate Students How to Design Climate Change Education Programs

This chapter discusses lessons learned engaging my graduate students in education policy analysis at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in designing climate change education curricula in partnership with educational institutions around the world. Studying those programs developed by my students, I draw out seven cross-cutting themes about what such an approach yields for students, for the educational institutions they partnered with and for my own institution, while drawing parallels between those curricula and the graduate course in comparative education policy analysis in which these curricula were developed. In addressing those themes the chapter revisits some of the central arguments presented in the introductory chapter about the urgency and the challenges of enhancing the effectiveness of climate change education, and some of the key conclusions of critical reviews of the literature on education and climate change about the limitation of existing approaches to the subject.Those themes are: Educating students to address climate change is about engaging them in active problem solving, not contemplation. While learning from doing is valuable, to advance the field of climate change education, it is necessary to conceptualize and theorize practice. The need to think broadly about learning outcomes in climate change education The power of contextually situated learning A Signature project-based pedagogy to Change Climate through Education Augmenting the capacity for climate change education among teachers and schools The limitations of infusing climate change education in existing courses The chapter concludes examining some blind spots in the climate change curricula presented in the book and drawing parallels between the education response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 and the education response to Climate Change.

Adaptation, Migration, Advocacy. A Climate Change Curriculum for Out-of-School Children in Badin, Sindh

This chapter identifies the urgency for climate change education in vulnerable communities that are already experiencing the effects of climate change-related disasters. Designing curricula for vulnerable communities, in this case out-of-school youth in Badin, a rural district in Pakistan’s Sindh province, demands a focus on strategies that can be leveraged for survival. This chapter illustrates the need to match curriculum design with research and reportage about the needs communities are facing. In Badin, where the local economy is driven by agriculture and threatened by the salinization of land as well as an increased risk to flooding, the possibility of migration is real. This shifts our understanding of what adaptation and mitigation mean for this population—youth need to be prepared not only to survive where they are, but to survive where they might end up.Vulnerable communities tend to reside in districts where the rates of literacy, school enrolment and retention are low—this is certainly the case in Badin. This curriculum had to rely on pedagogies for which literacy was not a pre-requisite. Project-based learning provided a unique solution to the conundrum of designing a no-literacy curriculum to teach strategies for survival in a community where best practices for adaptation, mitigation or migration have not yet been established: it allowed youth to work in teams, building their social and collaborative skills, to develop their own solutions and recognize the power of their own voice to advocate for their rights.