What are the opportunities for Climate Change Education?

We began by asking and sharing, what are the opportunities for climate change in Victoria?

What are the opportunities for climate change education in Victoria?

• Barriers – time, dedicated leader/teachers, logistics

• Build community involvement

• Sustainability being driven by students (action teams etc.)

• Many teachers are not experts, but have passion

• Timetabled student participation in hands on activities

• ResourceSmart program (in a heart!)

• Climate change adaptation – what does this look like? How? Action

• Educating industry on the positives of change

• Linking Education to parents and families

• In place education -

• Outdoor classrooms

• Climate watch trials

• Student agency

• Climate Resilience

• National curriculum – pre service learning – finding ways to integrate it

• The farmers Place (e.g. 100km Pizza)

• School strikes – power of voice – September 30th is next one

• ResourceSmart Schools framework – good solid scaffold

• GTAV conference (Sept -10th 2019) ‘Sustainable Futures’

• Geography Curriculum is idea platform

• How we move forward

• Weave it into everyone’s life – their identity, their health

• Students participating in the strike but not knowing why

• Curriculum

• Best choice not the most expensive

• People who want to buy humane food, how do we shift the intention into action?

• Seeing the shift from not caring

• It’s going to destroy the world

• 80% of people think other people don’t care

• Having an understanding

• What actions can we take?

• Curriculum – climate science – formal and informal

• External organisations

• Teaching in schools – uni/tertiary e/not just teaching degrees – focus on undergraduate

• Cross curriculum opportunities

• Not just environment focus – broaden out

• Beyond school learning – and beyond the notion of environment

• Solutions based focus – futures thinking

• Non-fiction promotion of climate change text

• Explicit in curriculum and frameworks – collaboration with Australian Psychological Association

• Melbourne Declaration – Educators to feed into new curriculum – LOUDLY

• Accountability requirements – part of study design

• School E.C. – Tertiary

• Embedded further in curriculum

• Less sensational education from media and more formalised education for credible sources

• Community of practice

• More positive education

• Spread more awareness through various campaigns

• Opportunities to integrate citizenship education with literacy through study of climate change

• School should teach it more

• Education – knowledge

• It is important to spread awareness

• There are many opportunities to climate change

• Opportunity to get across the crucial significance of climate:

- we breathe it

- it sustains all plant life, and animal life and us

- it co-evolved with our planet and helped drive evolution

• Building resilient communities

• Politics

• More exposure needed in schools – not many opportunities

• Social media – students feel this is the main way they have learnt what they know

• ResourceSmart – develop tools to teach Climate Change to Schools

• Parks Vic could do more:

- consistency of approaches with educator creativity/autonomy

- a broader curriculum – delivery in more diverse locations – place specific relevant - climate awareness of local towns

• STEMSisters

- planning what a low carbon future will look like

- alliance between schools (students and teachers) and ResourceSmart

• Teacher PD education and training

• Shopping

• Influencing policy/marketing makers – e.g. cheaper, small plastic bags price versus bulk?!

• Packaging

• Community Programs

• Inspiration from activist individuals or groups (e.g. Greta Thunberg, Council Sustainable

• Animal agriculture education – vegan

• Integrated into curriculum

• Schools and kinder’ s policy – waste management, ResourceSmart Schools Program, Sustainable procurement, green purchasing

• Family reuse, Refuse, Recycle

• Culture – indigenous, ATSI, and other cultures

• Pressure teacher’s education

• Climate change strike – Media, social media, non-endorsement school, pursuit of conversation, increased awareness

• Community forums

• Initial teacher education programs – universities

• Limited Climate Change Curriculum in Schools

- Subjects determine delivery – physics/religion/pastoral care as possibility (self-care)

- Schools seeking more info

• RCE’s Registered Centres of expertise in education for sustainable development