Education for What? Shaping the field of climate change education with children and young people as co-researchers

Children and young people are often positioned as the next generation of leaders in whom the public imagines or expects to overcome the legacies of climate and environmental inaction. Increasingly analyses of progress in environmental education independently identify the need for researchers and teachers to ‘listen to children’s voices’. In this paper we argue that climate change education presents a significant platform not only for youth voices, but also for a genuine activation of children’s political agency in schools, universities, and the public domain. In so doing, we draw upon the government funded project Climate Change + Me, which has involved working with 135 children and young people from across Northern NSW, Australia as co-researchers investigating young people’s voices in climate change. We conclude that climate change education can open up an entirely new field of educational experience and inquiry when it is inclusive of and led by young people

A systematic review of climate change education: giving children and young people a ‘voice’ and a ‘hand’ in redressing climate change

The reality of anthropogenic climate change has been established ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ by leading scientists worldwide. Applying a systematic literature review process, we analysed existing literature from 1993 to 2014 regarding climate change education for children and young people, with the aim of identifying key areas for further research. While a number of studies have indicated that young people’s understandings of climate change are generally limited, erroneous and highly influenced by mass media, other studies suggest that didactic approaches to climate change education have been largely ineffectual in affecting students’ attitudes and behaviour. The review identifies the need for participatory, interdisciplinary, creative, and affect-driven approaches to climate change education, which to date have been largely missing from the literature. In conclusion, we call for the development of new forms of climate change education that directly involve young people in responding to the scientific, social, ethical, and political complexities of climate change

Selenium isotope evidence for progressive oxidation of the Neoproterozoic biosphere

Neoproterozoic (1,000–542 Myr ago) Earth experienced profound environmental change, including ‘snowball’ glaciations, oxygenation and the appearance of animals. However, an integrated understanding of these events remains elusive, partly because proxies that track subtle oceanic or atmospheric redox trends are lacking. Here we utilize selenium (Se) isotopes as a tracer of Earth redox conditions. We find temporal trends towards lower δ82/76Se values in shales before and after all Neoproterozoic glaciations, which we interpret as incomplete reduction of Se oxyanions. Trends suggest that deep-ocean Se oxyanion concentrations increased because of progressive atmospheric and deep-ocean oxidation. Immediately after the Marinoan glaciation, higher δ82/76Se values superpose the general decline. This may indicate less oxic conditions with lower availability of oxyanions or increased bioproductivity along continental margins that captured heavy seawater δ82/76Se into buried organics. Overall, increased ocean oxidation and atmospheric O2 extended over at least 100 million years, setting the stage for early animal evolution

Children of an Earth to Come: Speculative fiction, geophilosophy and climate change education research

Over the last three years, the Climate Change and Me project has mapped children and young people’s affective, creative and ontological relationships with climate change through an emergent and child-framed research methodology. The project has involved working with 135 children and young people from across Northern NSW, Australia as co-researchers responding to the rapidly changing material conditions of the Anthropocene epoch. In this paper, we position speculative fiction as a mode of creative research which enabled the young researchers to inhabit possible climate change futures. This node of the Climate Change and Me research was initiated by co-author Jasmyne, who at the time was a year seven student at a local high school. Through an ongoing series of visual and textual posts on the project website, Jasmyne created an alternate world in which children develop mutant forces and bodily augmentations that enable them to resist social and environmental injustices. Drawing on these visual and textual entries in dialogue with Deleuze and Guattari’s geophilosophy, we consider ways that speculative fiction might offer new conceptual tools for a viral strain of climate change education that proliferates through aesthetic modes of expression

Ecological literacy : the 'missing paradigm' in environmental education (part one)

Environmental educators often maintain that primary school education should endeavour to improve and protect the environment through producing an ‘environmentally informed, committed and active citizenry’, yet existing research shows that the implementation of environmental education in primary schools is problematic and has had limited success. The reasons for these shortcomings are far from clear, with present research merely speculating about barriers to effective implementation. To this extent, there is a dearth of empirical research about primary school teachers’ knowledge of environmental education and the degree to which teachers’ knowledge inhibits environmental education practice. As such, this article investigates Australian primary school teachers’ knowledge about environmental education, and in so doing utilises a combined-methods approach and the theoretical concept of ‘ecological literacy’ (eco-literacy) to assess primary school teachers’ knowledge (and beliefs) about environmental education. Based upon the findings of this study, we contend that Australian (specifically Queensland) primary school teachers are likely to be functioning at a ‘knowledge’ level of ecological illiteracy and/or nominal ecological literacy. Furthermore, such primary school teachers tend to dismiss the importance of knowledge, preferring to focus upon attitudes and values in the teaching of environmental education. As shown in existing research, these trends can be placed in wider theoretical debates to do with knowledge and education generally. In any case, such levels of ecological literacy are inadequate if ecologically literate students and thus an ecologically literate citizenry are to be achieved within schools

Toward a model for early childhood environmental education: foregrounding, developing, and connecting knowledge through play-based learning

Environmental education represents a growing area of interest in early childhood education, especially since the inclusion of environmental principles and practices in the Australian Early Years Learning Framework. Traditionally, these two fields of education have been characterized by diverse pedagogical emphases. This article considers how teachers in particular see different types of pedagogical play, such as open-ended play, modeled play, and purposefully framed play as providing opportunities for young children and teachers to develop knowledge through experiences about environmental education in early childhood settings. As a result of findings based on our qualitative research study involving early childhood teachers and children, an emerging model for thinking about environmental education in early childhood is proposed as a way of integrating these pedagogical emphases traditionally associated with environmental and early childhood education. Avenues for future research associated with this model are also identified

A chasm in environmental education : what primary school teachers 'might' or 'might not' know

Over the past thirty years, it has often been stated that primary school education should endeavour to improve and protect the environment through produdng an 'environmentally informed, committed and active citizenry '. To this end, environmental education has been incorporated into the existing discipline 'Studies of Society and Environment'. However, research shows that the implementation of environmental education in primary schools is problematic and has had limited success.The reasons for these shortcomings are far from clear, with present research merely speculating about barriers to effective implementation. This chapter presents a detailed discussion and analysis of the existing literature concerning environmental education in the primary school years. In so doing, the chapter identifies a perceived gap within the field of environmental education research and literature. This field has neglected studies of Australian primary school teachers' knowledge and beliefs about environmental education as a factor affecting the capacity of schooling to achieve environmental education goals. We conclude that this omission is a significant factor limiting environmental education theory and practice