International perspectives on the pedagogy of climate change

Abstract

Education is key to the advancement of environmental sustainability. Climate change education is a complex topic where a number of factors play key roles. One such factor, namely the ongoing debate around whether climate change is real poses a significant challenge to the delivery of a climate change curriculum. This factor and others suggest the need to revisit the question of education for sustainability across wider social contexts. The purpose of the following article is to extend previous research and consider how education for sustainability is envisioned across culturally diverse settings around the world. Drawing from survey and interview data, distinguished scholars from Brazil, China, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the United States of America provided detailed analyses of the social context of climate change and their visions of an education for sustainability. Results of the survey data indicated that the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Change agreement, political and economic barriers to climate change, sustainability initiatives, and university-industry linkages were notable contextual features of a climate change pedagogy across the countries studied. In addition, the scholar's visions of an education for sustainability revolved around five main visions: teaching all forms of scientific knowledge as rooted in some level of uncertainty, complexity, and nuance; comprehensive empirical knowledge of climate change that includes its main principles, myths, and debates; critical inquiry, integration, and engagement with global and cross-disciplinary perspectives; transformative and learner-centered pedagogies conducive to a climate change and sustainability curricula; and student-learner authentic participation in the study and mitigation of climate change. The implications for the practice of education for climate change are discussed. It is argued that global insights have the potential to enrich the practice of education for climate change and towards a more sustainable future.