For everyone Teaching climate change without the anxiety
When Melbourne mother Kate’s 11-year-old daughter returned home from school with a dark and ominous poem she wrote about climate change and the state of the world’s environment, Kate wasn’t surprised.
“The poetry has got this vein of hopelessness because no one’s doing anything about this bad thing. So, the anxiety, if you want to call it that, is not so much from the fact of climate change – it’s more from the inaction,” she says.
Across Australia, children are more informed and aware of the human impacts on climate change and environmental issues than ever before. They are also more active in demanding change.
School Strikes for Climate have taken part in every major city in Australia, with thousands of students calling for more action from adults and the government. This has caused some in the media and politics, including Liberal leader Peter Dutton, to accuse teachers of creating “climate anxiety” among their students and promoting a political “woke” agenda.
But educators who work in this space say that children are fully aware of the need to tackle climate change, and evidence-based education is essential. Many teachers are using hands-on, solutions-focused learning at the local level as a practical way to help children see the planet as something they can have a positive impact on.
“If we engage our students in practical projects, we empower them in the face of things like eco anxiety and climate distress.”
– Geoff Holt
Supporting student agency
Geoff Holt, co-convener of national group Teachers for Climate Australia, says education curriculums across the country are too focused on rote learning when it comes to topics such as science and climate change.
“I would argue that the education system’s going in the wrong direction, focused on high-stakes tests, data and things like explicit instruction that denies students’ agency,” he says.
“If we engage our students in practical projects, we empower them in the face of things like eco anxiety and climate distress, which is a growing phenomenon in the world.”
Each week, Geoff engages his Year 8 and 9 students in climate-focused practical projects, both around the school and in the local community, such as collecting soft plastics, or native revegetation. He says student engagement in these projects is positive and they feel a sense of ownership over what can be achieved.
“If you go to primary schools, they are exceptionally good at doing problem-based and project-based learning because the teacher has the same students all the time, so they can integrate the curriculum and enrich students’ learning that way. But as soon as they come to high school, it becomes very compartmentalised,” he says.
“I think the high school years are essential for preparing kids with those green skills they need for the challenges ahead. Employers are crying out for knowledge and skills in sustainability, and that’s exactly what such an approach provides.”
“If young people have questions, our school system should be using those questions to bring answers, solutions, inquiries and investigations to the classroom.”
– Peta White
Climate change as a backdrop
Deakin University Associate Professor Peta White and her husband, Professor and Chair in Science Education Russell Tytler, have been contributing to climate change education for decades. White says the recently updated Victorian curriculum provides some opportunity to address climate change but it’s not enough.
“The curriculum matters – it’s the mandated document, but it’s also a political document and therefore a bit limited in terms of how it attends to climate change,” she says.
“If we focus on the content descriptors, the greatest number of times you’ll see climate change, or the concepts of anthropogenic climate change, mentioned are in Year 10 science and geography,” White says.
“Yet, across Australia, most of our Year 10 students don’t take science and geography as a full-year unit. So, they’re not given the opportunity to undertake that learning.”
Tytler was recently working with a Year 5/6 teacher who was concerned that the climate change content would cause angst amongst her students. However, he hasn’t found that to be the case in practice, he says.
“We’ve developed resources in a positive way that talk about the situation, but not exacerbate it as a disaster. More to say, it’s happening, and these are the steps that we need to take.”
White agrees that no age is too young to begin talking about the topic, if taught correctly. “We have to remember that our young people have grown up with climate change as a backdrop. They see the TV, they see the media,” she says.
“So, if young people have questions, our school system should be using those questions to bring answers, solutions, inquiries and investigations to the classroom for them to explore.”
Geoff adds that international studies show teachers are aware of climate change and want to address the topic in the classroom, but other factors can get in the way. “There is huge awareness and understanding that it’s a massive issue, but teachers are overworked and overstressed,” Holt says.
“We need to cut back on workloads, reduce the administrative duties and the numbers of assessments that teachers are having to do – all the high-stakes testing and formulaic teaching approaches – and get back to what our education system is fundamentally supposed to be about. And that’s meeting the needs of our students for the future.”
