Critical climate education: studying climate justice in time and space

Abstract

What education should children and youth be offered about climate mitigation choices? Drawing on critical pedagogy, political ecology, and environmental justice, I here suggest the elaboration of a critical climate education that would provide citizens with knowledge and skills to respond to the climate crisis with responsible action. I argue that students need to learn to critically examine options in their own countries for reducing greenhouse emissions and to discuss whether or not each of these measures may contribute to climate justice in time and space. A critical climate education should also offer insight into reasons why some climate mitigation alternatives have been embraced instead of options that could provide more climate justice in time and space. The need for a critical climate education is illustrated with a case study about climate mitigation choices that have been made in Norway without concern for climate justice.

Teacher and youth priorities for education for environmental sustainability: A co‐created manifesto

“…There was a demand for discussion in low‐stakes contexts which would enable young people to disagree and grapple with complex and controversial ideas. Teacher and youth priorities identified in the manifesto are consistent with research in international contexts which has identified the need to prepare people to have ‘sufficient critical knowledge and skills to urge their governments to use suitable and just climate mitigation measures’ (Svarstad, 2021, p. 228). This study adds to these calls and identifies priority actions and barriers to be negotiated in the UK context.…”

The Goals of Science Education Should Be Linked to the Central Tenets of Sustainable Development, Equity, and Social Justice

“…They have the power to foster creativity and encourage curiosity in students. Educators must choose to confront the realities of our changing world head-on while helping students understand its relevance to their communities [25,26]. If they do not, then students will simply replicate existing conditions or be forced to develop these skills and acquire this knowledge without their support: a daunting and potentially insurmountable hurdle.…”

“We’re fighting for our lives”: Centering affective, collective and systemic approaches to climate justice education as a youth mental health imperative

“…More explicitly than conceptions of climate change and climate action, climate justice centers on recognizing that the adverse impacts of a warming climate are not experienced or caused equitably (Stapleton, 2018; Sultana, 2022a; Svarstad, 2021). Climate change can thus be framed as an intergenerational, interspecies and intersectional justice issue.…”

“…Existing conceptions of climate justice education, while still relatively nascent in the literature, do prioritize addressing the inequitable impacts of the causes and effects of climate change and deepening understandings of structural root causes (McGregor and Christie, 2021;Stapleton, 2018;Svarstad, 2021;White et al, 2022). I am inspired by and think with decolonial scholars, including Boaventura De Sousa Santos (2018), Arturo Escobar (2020), Walter Mignolo (2011) and Sultana (2022b), to build on these conceptions and those within the field of climate justice more broadly to advance the framings of climate justice education.…”