Towards climate justice education: views from activists and educators in Scotland

Abstract

In the context of a resurgence of civic activism to address climate change, we present findings from an exploratory research project on climate justice education (CJE). We conducted deliberative focus groups and interviews with activists, advocacy workers and educators in order to address three broad aims: to consider the ways in which different stakeholders conceptualise climate justice; to examine how teachers and activists perceive challenges to, and opportunities for, developing climate justice education; to explore the potential for recognising activism and civic engagement as an educational process, considering both activists’ views on education and educators’ views on activism in this context. Activists recognised the potential for CJE which is connected to social movements (especially youth-led movements), local communities, and addresses the affective dimensions of the climate crisis. Although our teacher participants shared some of the analyses of the activists, they were less well informed about climate justice as a concept and were more ambivalent about the prospect of learning through and from activism.

Keywords:

• Climate justice education
• learning for sustainability
• cognitive justice
• cognitive praxis
• sustainability education
• social movement learning
• activism
• education
• teachers

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, our colleague Mary Collacott for her expert insight and analysis and the University of Edinburgh Principal's Teaching Award Scheme for funding this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Unfortunately, these focus groups were smaller due to the non-attendance of some people who had previously agreed to participate.

2 In Scotland, Community Learning and Development (CLD) is a recognised profession, encompassing community development, community-based adult education and youth work: http://cldstandardscouncil.org.uk/ for more information.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Edinburgh, Principal's Teaching Award Scheme.

Notes on contributors

Callum McGregor

Callum is Lecturer in Education and Programme Director of the MSc Social Justice and Community Action at the Institute for Education, Community and Society, University of Edinburgh. Callum’s research and teaching interests are located at the intersection of education and social movement studies. In particular, Callum's research has examined the public pedagogies produced by different cultures of climate change activism, in the wider context of neoliberalism. He is currently carrying out action research into the possibilities for, and obstacles to, addressing climate change from a social justice perspective in Scottish education

Beth Christie

Beth is Senior Lecturer and Programme Director for the MSc Learning for Sustainability at the Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, and works closely with Scotland’s UN recognised Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (Learning for Sustainabilty Scotland). She is passionate about re-imagining the ways in which education, in its broadest sense, can support learning for sustainability. Her research spans policy and professional practice, to understand the structural, theoretical and practical processes of, and possibilities for, such change. Recently she reviewed the educational outcomes of Scotland’s policy framework on sustainability education.