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Brighter Thinking Pod – Ep 43: Introduction to Climate Change Education
Paul: Hello, welcome to our latest episode of the Brighter Thinking Pod from the International Education group of Cambridge University Press and Assessment. I’m your host for this episode. My name is Paul Ellis and I’m head of thought leadership at Cambridge.
We created our brighter thinking pod to support teachers and school leaders around the world. Each episode brings you helpful advice and interesting conversation from authors, teachers and academics. Today we’re going to be talking about climate change education and moreover, the key role that education plays in tackling the climate crisis.
Before we begin, remember, all the links and info that we discussed today are available in the show notes. And if you want to get your voice heard on the show, you can get in touch on X, formerly known as Twitter, or Instagram, at, CambridgeInt.
At the end of January 2024, we, at Cambridge published an introduction paper to outline our approach to climate change education. In the paper, we have set out our plan to build a community that empowers learners to address the challenges of the climate crisis.
Here to talk about the key points, I am joined by our special guest for this episode, Christine Ozden. Christine is the Global Director, for Climate Education at Cambridge University Press and Assessment and is focused on the climate related contexts, challenges and opportunities for all. Of us working and studying within the world of education. She believes in the importance of international collaboration, building great partnerships and the need for sustainability in all our actions and interactions. Welcome, Christine.
Christine: Hi Paul.
Paul: Great. Well, let’s get into today’s topic straight away.
Why is education a key part of tackling climate change?
Paul: So, first question for you, Christine, is why is education a key part of tackling climate change?
Christine: I think there are a number of things to highlight here about the importance of education. First of all, knowledge to make sense of the root causes of climate change is really, really important. We also need to be able to address the issues of climate change and the consequences and think about how we can find solutions.
I think education shifts attitudes. It absolutely does. And it changes behaviors towards more sustainable lifestyles potentially. I think it’s also really important when we think that we need to build a workforce that is ready and able to work in a low carbon or a no carbon world going forward. Plus we need to also help our learners understand the unequal nature of the climate crisis, that the climate crisis doesn’t affect all of us the same that more vulnerable communities and groups are disproportionately affected. So there really is something here around protecting livelihoods and ultimately in disaster related contexts, the ability for education to save lives, and then looking at it very differently, that education also helps us distinguish information and truth from misinformation.
Paul: Absolutely. Thank you.
Paul: When we’re talking about education here, can have quite a wide scope. So are we talking about all levels of education, all the way from, say, early years education through to higher education?
Christine: Yeah, absolutely. I, think we can consider education in this context right from the start of, formal and indeed informal schooling, right the way through our education stages.
Paul: Great. So it’s to do with the curriculum, it’s to do with the support that we give to teachers and school leaders. It’s to do with the assessment as well. And so I’m just wondering here, how do we measure the impact of using education as in a sense, a tool to help tackle climate change?
Christine: So I think the ultimate measure of impact is actually action, whether we can take that knowledge and understanding and skills and then turn that into action, into agency and empower that action.
What do we mean by ‘high quality’ climate change education?
Paul: Great. This leads us into this introduction paper to climate change education, which emphasizes that high quality education matters. And high quality, of course, can then lead into great high quality action as well. So can you expand a bit more on what we mean by high quality education and why it matters?
Christine: Yeah, so I think we can think about, the high quality words and what it means from at least a couple of angles. I think for a start, it refers to the integrity of knowledge. And often that is rooted, and the science is rooted, in subjects such as science and geography. So there’s the integrity of the science, but we’ve also got to understand that while a lot of science is uncontested, we absolutely know for a fact what is true. Science is also emerging. It’s also dynamic. So how do we enable students and our learners to really engage with that?
And also it’s about not being overly simplistic. For example, we can’t say, well, carbon is bad. There are more nuances.
I think also that high quality refers to our approach. In the paper that we published, we are really talking about a multidisciplinary approach. We’re talking about a holistic approach, and we’re really talking about the importance of pedagogy, how we deliver, that education. And really important in that high quality context, is the critical nature of evaluative skills, and also that the global and the local aspect of this, and maybe we’ll come back to that later, Paul.
Paul: Would you agree that it’s not just the knowledge, it’s also the skills that schools need to think about here? So it’s not just the facts of climate change education, it’s trying to help people. Again, to use that word, action, how they take action and what they do in terms of high quality education. How can we make sure that high quality education includes not just the knowledge but also the skills?
Christine: Yeah, I think the skills is an absolutely crucial part of this in terms of the action that will deliver the solutions to the climate crisis. We’re looking for creative problem solving, we’re looking for really great collaboration, really great communication. And those evaluative skills, as well, are fundamental.
Paul: Excellent.
How can we make sure climate change education isn’t just left to the science and geography department?
Paul: So, I mean, you mentioned in your previous answer there to do with science and geography. Some people might consider there’s a tendency that this will rest on the shoulders of science and geography teachers. So how can we make sure that climate change education isn’t just about the science department and geography department in a school?
Christine: Yeah, well, absolutely, we should acknowledge the importance of science and geography at the same time. This is a multidisciplinary endeavor. So really acknowledging the opportunities that we have in other parts of the curriculum and the school, to work on or to consider climate change, what are the different lenses we can apply?
And if I think about subjects, let’s think about mathematics, data literacy. There’s a wonderful opportunity to bring in climate change context, maybe thinking about ocean temperatures and ocean flows. What about business and responsible business? We can consider supply chains. Greenwashing is a fascinating topic for young people. Responsible consumption, economics, economic models, the circular economy, psychology, social norms and behavior.
Music, I think music and art are fascinating because if we consider how nature has inspired great artists, and great musicians, and the works that we study, media and art, I think are fantastic in terms of representation and communication. And also if we think about context, we have so many opportunities, to consider context through case studies and texts, potentially.
But Paul, you talked about skills earlier. Again, skills work gives us an opportunity to really be creative, look at collaboration, communication and that problem solving. And maybe one other thing that I’d mention here is cocurricular activity as well. The opportunities that we have through, clubs, project based activity, whole school activity to consider climate change as well.
Paul: That all sounds very good. The multidisciplinary approach allows everybody to have a stake in the game, as it were, to want to be part of this and to use that knowledge they have in their individual areas and the skills that they try to encourage their individuals as well. So you imagine science, there might be experiments going on.
In languages, which is our own subject, there’ll be other ways of thinking how do you communicate about these things? I’m just thinking as well, there might be ways you can get different perspectives from different people in certain subject areas too.
Christine: Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think this really is a whole school endeavor right across the curriculum and right across all stages of the school as well as you’ve really illustrated there.
Is climate change education yet another thing to add to a busy curriculum?
Paul: I was wondering, there’s a danger for teachers to think, oh, this is just yet another thing that we’ve got to cover in our busy curriculum. So what would you say in response to that?
Christine: Yeah, I think it is a risk. I think there’s a risk that it is bolted on. It’s an additional thing for teachers to do. Teachers are incredibly busy already. And if we’re asking teachers just to add this in, well, what do you leave out? And there’s a risk that then is this a fad? Is this something, is this this year’s thing?
And I think that’s why at Cambridge we are very committed to building on our existing work to make sure that we integrate this throughout our curriculum and our activities, so that we’re supporting teachers as much as possible with the implementation of climate change education in their particular settings.
Paul: Absolutely.
Local vs global approach
So climate change affects us all, but. Is there a dangerous way of taking a global approach and ignoring local issues? I suppose here also, I’m taking you back to that word ‘action’ again, that students want to take action. They want to have what we might call agency in this area. So what can we do to make sure that people feel they can do something, that they can look locally and not just globally?
Christine: Well, personally, I think that local action is the key. I mean, of course this is a global issue and it does need global consensus, in terms of driving that action. But every locality will experience the impacts and the consequences of climate change differently.
Every locality will potentially have different or slightly different solutions and whatever we do in terms of action, we need to consider our locality. And that might be within our school or within our wider school community or our town or city, and then ultimately country. So I think that local issues and action are the real drivers of change and the measure of success on a global level.
Paul: It’s much easier then for students to think, oh, I did that, I made that change locally.
Christine: Absolutely. And I think also you asked about high quality education a little bit earlier. And again, I think that focus on the local action and solution and situation. Again, I think that’s all very much part of what high quality education means in this context and making this as relevant as possible to learners.
Who do we want to join with on climate change education?
Paul: Okay, now, we talk in the paper about trying to get a community to take an interest in this and to try to help with the action that we’d like people to take as well. So what type of community does Cambridge have access to already? And who else would we want to join the climate change education?
Christine: So I think we can think about the Cambridge community, from different angles. I mean, certainly, at Cambridge we have access to the university community, and have access to the research and the expertise there.
In terms of Cambridge schools around the world, we’ve got access, to tens of thousands of schools right around the world, and also governments, and national agencies that we work together with in terms of education policy and practice.
But I think there’s something really important about the community here in terms of learning from each other, and it not being sort of a one way broadcast of ideas and experience and expertise. We really can learn from each other and we really need to recognise the work that’s going on right across our communities.
Paul: So we’ve talked there about the communities that Cambridge already has access to. I’m wondering who else we would want to join the climate change education community?
Christine: Well, who wouldn’t we want to join? I mean, this is really about building an inclusive and an accessible community and we want all schools to feel that they have something to give and something to gain from being part of the Cambridge climate community.
And if listeners and their school want to join our community and let us know what they’re doing around climate change education, you can find a link at the end of that introductory paper which takes you through to a survey and access to the community.
Paul: Wonderful. Well, thank you, Christine. That’s all we have time for today in this climate change education episode. Thank you for being our guest and for sharing your thoughts. In our show notes, you can find the links that we’ve discussed in this episode, and you can discover more about Cambridge’s approach to climate change education on our website.
Paul: Don’t forget to tell your friends and colleagues about us and rate our show wherever you are listening. And as a reminder, you can follow us on X and Instagram at CambridgeINT. So thank you for listening and we. Hope you join us again soon.
Paul Ellis – host
Paul is Head of Thought Leadership at Cambridge. He is a teacher, trainer, published author and broadcaster.
Christine Özden
Christine is the Global Director for Climate Education at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, and is focused on the climate-related contexts, challenges and opportunities for all of us within the world of education.
