Competences for climate change education in a virtual mobility setting

Abstract

Students, citizens and professional practitioners have significant roles in addressing climate change issues. This requires additional competences over and above disciplinary scientific knowledge and related technical skills. This paper introduces two innovative, complementary competences in relation to climate change education, i.e., 'transboundary' and 'intervention' competences. The authors describe the open access Masters track of the 'Lived experience of climate change', in which these innovative competences can be acquired. For transboundary competence, the diversity of perspectives on the climate change issue is a crucial element in the learning process and outcome. By relating the diversity of their own perspectives on 'lived experience', students are encouraged to relate abstract scientific knowledge to knowledge gained through personal, local and social experience, across the boundaries of scientific disciplines and communicating with a diverse group of stakeholders. Intervention competence focuses on the 'problem-solving' aspect in countering climate change, as a next step following transboundary competence. This involves political-strategic thinking, combined with personal and individual goal-directedness (strategic decision making), appreciating the importance of networking or the professional labour market, and paying attention to policy assessments and policy scenarios in climate change issues. The authors regard these two additional competences, intervention competence and transboundary competence, as crucial and inseparable elements in a climate change curriculum.