Climate Action Guide – Thinking critically, collaborating sustainably, Acting justly

The I-CAN Project is developing the knowledge and skills of teachers to support work in the classroom. Your starting point is to download this practical Climate Action Guide and start to explore what we mean by ‘Thinking critically, collaborating sustainably and acting justly.’

In the guide you will find out more about delivering on these issues in schools. It will help build your confidence and give you new ideas and approaches to make lessons inspiring. There are links to lots of relevant, up to date resources from the project partners.

It is an interactive guide with a chance for you to relate the issues raised to your own experiences, school setting and values. Use the series of ’Your Reflections’ activities to help you think about how to support young people to think critically about and be able to make positive responses to the climate crisis.

Download The Climate Action Guide (PDF)

Explore Reflections Map Room

Reflections

Explore your own ideas on teaching this important issue, reflect on your own school setting and start to consider your priorities as a teacher when working with young people on climate justice.

What has changed and what has stayed constant in learning?

By the 21st century many elements of the learning process have changed but there are also those that have hardly changed or are constant.

Task (10 minutes):

1. Take a few minutes now to reflect on your own activities and experience as a teacher, even thinking back to your time as a student
2. Make a note in two columns of what do you consider to be the most significant changes in school life, and what has remained constant for young people’s learning
3. Compare your reflections with our thoughts overleaf and see if there are any you would want to include or might perhaps disagree with.

Download Your Reflections form (Editable)

Download Our Thoughs (PDF)

Teacher identity and bringing about change in society

Teachers involved in this ‘I-Can ‘project may find it useful to stop and ask themselves about their own ‘teacher identity’ and how this identity fits with teaching about Climate Change. Think about your original motivations to become a teacher and your ongoing reasons for carrying on in this role.

Task (10 minutes):
1. What are the top three values that underpin your work as a teacher?
2. How far does the work you do [around sustainability] reflect your values and ideas?

Now write a short reflection on how you see your own identity as a teacher

Download Short Reflection form (Editable)

What does it mean to be an adaptive teacher?

There is no indication that the pace of change in the world will stop accelerating. We may have different strategies for how to respond to this, but the ability to adapt is essential both in private life and at work.

Task (10 minutes):
1. Immediately after reading the list of attributes below (feel free to add your own), write down what you believe to be the challenges of being an ‘adaptive’ teacher
2. From your experience, think of one example of a time when this has worked best
3. Where do you think there is more opportunity / where can you make room in your teaching for a more ‘adaptive’ approach?

An adaptive teacher who adapts to the situation must have the following attributes:

● Dares to make mistakes
● Sees change as a challenge
● Is not afraid of children’s success
● Dares to ask his/her colleagues
● Learns new things with children
● Doesn’t want to be perfect
● Is not ashamed when doesn’t know something
● Let the children teach each other
● Deals with things that interest children today

What do we understand by the Climate Crisis?

The climate crisis raises challenging questions both in how we understand the issues ourselves and how we help young people to critically engage with such complexity.

Task (10 minutes):
1. Choose either one of the specific issues raised above (e.g., Intergenerational Justice) or watch one of the videos linked below of most relevance to your own subject / of most interest to you.
2. Make a note as you re-read the paragraph or are watching of how you respond i.e.
What are your impressions?
Is anything confusing for you?
What are your feelings?
3. Then think about where the challenges and opportunities might be in facilitating your students’ engagement with this issue in your own work.

Related videos

Please go to the Map Room and select from the videos lists.

Creating safe ports for thinking critically about the Climate Crisis

Developing a school approach for talking about Climate Change is an important step in the process of creating a safe space for dialogue. It is useful to reflect on the positive benefits of this process for your young people and to have thought about your practical approach for delivery.

Task (20 minutes):

A – Think first about where to start with this project

● Consider what you are hoping will be the positive benefits for your young people in your school setting. Write down the top three benefits. Can you share these with school leadership in a concise and positive way?

● Where will you deliver this project? EG in your curriculum area or as part of a wider school focus on climate change?

● How will you go about implementing your climate action initiative?

B – As you develop your plan, think about possible different responses in school to this project and how you might bring people on board including:

● Students and student leadership

● School leaders

● Other staff including the canteen, procurement, school grounds

● Parents and the wider community supportive of the school

Related information:

Download the Climate Actions Log (Editable)

Climate friendly action and climate friendly schools

Thinking about the outcomes of this project, imagine your school in 5- or 10-years’ time and reflect on the differences you would like to see for school, young people, and your wider school community.

Task (10 minutes):
Imagine that some newspapers have written positive headlines about the impact of this project in 2 years’ time. What would you like them to say about?
● The actions and voices of the young people

● The impact of action and the issue of climate change in your school

● The wider impact of collective action in your country?

Related information:

Jamboard for training

Fact or fiction?

This reflection is one that can be used between teachers in a training session or with students to help think about the way that the issues around climate change are presented.

Task (15 minutes):

Select articles from different media sources. You might access different websites you know e.g.:

Subject associations articles and conference proceedings
News, television programmes and social media
Charities’ campaigns and resources
Blogs

Or use any of the links provided in this guide.

Read the article and use the table below to assess whether they are presented factually, as verifiable opinion, or are unsupported. This can be used for group-work in class.

Fact and opinion in the media:

Factual public information

Objective

Authentic, verifiable

Clear

Author’s point of view is not recognizable

Informed and reasoned opinion

Based on a personal point of view, opinion, judgment
Presents the facts in the context of its own interpretation
Substantiated by arguments, examples, evidence
Open to interpretations, debate
Not always verifiable

Unsupported opinion

Unsupported by facts or evidence (or they are not relevant to the message)

Assumptions, speculations, rumours

May mislead recipients

Highly subjective

Can never be checked or verified

Map Room

Develop your classroom resources by finding out what teachers use to support learning in the project countries of Hungary, France, Italy and the UK. In our project Map Room, you will find many practical ideas to use with young people, games and a link to briefings to run your own climate conference in the classroom.

Climate Action Guide – Thinking critically, collaborating sustainably, Acting justly

Reflections

Map Room

France

An alarming report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Young people finding a way to act

Humanity’s impact in time-lapse

Hungary

News report on Copenhagen conference on Climate change (2014, Euronews)

AR campaign for the Oceans on the World Oceans Day

Italy

Little Lies and Big Truths – how much weight do we have on the planet?

The story of Alex Bellini, lone navigator raising the alarm against pollution

The ABC of waste, from A to RECYCLING

Plastic heart: children show you how your actions will destroy their future

United Kingdom

No Point Going Halfway: why we have the SDGs (emotive)

Prince EA, Sorry future generations: (rap) on challenges and solutions

BBC Biodiversity heroes: Teenagers working on sustainable farming practices in Madagascar

UNICEF project for young people using digital mapping

Waters of Paradise: solutions focused in Maldives

Kai Tempest, Visions for our future: poem

Other videos and resources

BBC – Our Planet Matters: Climate change explained (short film)

InterClimate Network

Le Partenariat

Leeds Development Education Centre

Liverpool World Centre

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

UNFCCC

Mongabay

United Nations (UN) and other international bodies acting on climate change

Climate Action Tracker

COP26 and Pre-COP Youth Summit

C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group

EC Joint Research Centre – The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR)

European Climate Foundation

International Energy Agency

UN Development Programme (Sustainable Development Goals)

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

UNFCCC Race to Zero

World Meteorological Organisation (State of the Global Climate 2020)

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