Climate change education in primary schools: using arts-based methods to access student voice and examine the UK National Curriculum

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Education plays a critical role in shaping national responses to the climate crisis. Research on climate change education (CCE) promotes its integration into national curricula, with calls for it to be prioritised by policymakers, researchers, and practitioners, and for effective teaching to be extended beyond science and geography. This article contributes to the ways in which these calls can be answered. Drawing on a case study of a Climate Change Club in a UK maintained infant school (a state, local authority owned school for children aged four to seven), it explores how learning through arts-based methods enables access to student voice in ways which can inform pedagogic practice and generate ideas for curriculum change. Theoretically informed by critical climate justice praxis, the article’s main findings indicate the need to integrate CCE in foundation stage 2 (students aged 4 to 5) and key stage one (students aged 5 to 7) curricula; that climate change should be approached through a topic-based curriculum; and the importance of incorporating student voice into curriculum design. While the study is small-scale, it offers important insights on some ways of addressing students climate change learning in Key Stage 1.