Climate change, a challenging topic in the French curriculum (in 7th grade)

Abstract

As part of a renewed focus on current environmental concerns, the new geography programs set out for middle schools introduced new subjects on global change in 2015, subsequently replaced by a focus on climate change in 2020. The case study approach to teaching, imposed by official directives, makes it difficult for middle school students to understand these complex notions. This research attempts to analyze how students appropriate these notions and to verify whether they are capable of reasoning in a systemic way, i.e. of adopting the required approach for understanding such complexity. This article explores an epistemological analysis of global change and climate change, a didactic study of school textbooks and an examination of teachers’ discourse and students’ work in order to address this question.

Keywords:

• Global change
• climate change
• sustainable development
• Anthropocene
• case study

Notes

1 Special Official Newsletter (BO) n°6, 28 August 2008

2 National Education Official Newsletter (BOEN) n°1 of 22 January 2019

3 Circular n° 2004 -110 of 8 July 2004

4 Circular No. 2007-077 of 29 March 2007

5 Circular No. 2011-186 of 24 October 2011

6 Circular of 4 February 2015

7 Circular No. 2019-121 of 27 August 2019

8 UNESCO, Education for Sustainable Development, 2017. Extract from https://fr.unesco.org/themes/%C3%A9ducation-au-d%C3%A9veloppement-durable, UNESCO, 12 May 2021. Extract from https://fr.unesco.org/news/lunesco-preconise-faire-leducation-lenvironnement-composante-essentielle-programmes-scolaires)

9 Circular of 24 September 2020 (NOR: MENE2025449C)

10 National Education Official Newsletter (BOEN) n° 11 of 26 November 2015

11 National Education Official Newsletter (BOEN) n°31 of 30 July 2020

12 National Education Official Newsletter (BOEN) n°31 of 30 July 2020

13 National Education Official Newsletter (BOEN) n°11 of 26 November 2015, BOEN n° 31 of 30 July 2020

14 National Education Official Newsletter (BOEN) n° 31 of 30 July 2020