Our learning and work in this course aligns with Article 12 of the Paris Climate Change Agreement: “Parties shall cooperate in taking measures, as appropriate, to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information, recognizing the importance of these steps with respect to enhancing actions under this Agreement.

Students in groups of 3-5 will work with your company to identify your needs and provide actionable recommendations, based on their in-depth research and analysis.

This course is meant to develop our capacities as engaging and effective climate change educators and human citizens. The course is framed with a critical realist perspective, which accounts for the ontological realism of climate change established through scientific-consensus, while simultaneously recognizing the social processes of knowledge production and learning. As such, this course is an opportunity to engage in inquiry on questions such as:

• What types of instructional strategies align with climate change education?
• What barriers do learners have when navigating climate change topics?
• What can we learn from environmental psychology and how do these findings influence how we assess students’ developmental readiness?
• What effective climate change communication strategies are emerging?
• What responsibility do educators have to engage with climate change?
• Do we hope our students will change private-sphere behaviours or become active politically as a response to climate change?
• How do we balance teaching about the negative impacts of climate change with the opportunities responding to climate change presents?
• How important is hope?
• How can teachers teach about issues of politics, science, and ethics in our classrooms? Which is most important? What role can educators play in shaping a liveable future?