ABSTRACT
Climate change education (CCE) involves developing a wide array of relevant knowledge, skills and dispositions. As the causes, consequences and solutions to climate change transverse disciplines and sectors, educational responses need to support students in drawing together social and scientific considerations. Critical thinking is variously interpreted in educational contexts to include both argumentation skills, which enable students for example to assess data and draw logical conclusions, and social justice critique, where relationships and power structures are deconstructed. Critical thinking, as both knowledge skills and as critique, is the cornerstone skill in CCE because of its role in enabling learners to analyse existing and emerging evidence; to explore the complex relationships across time and place generated by climate change and the related justice issues; to evaluate, holistically, solutions for climate change mitigation and adaptation; and to empower children to envision their capacities for action. Building upon the concepts of “praxis” and critical consciousness developed by Paulo Freire, this chapter proposes an approach to CCE rooted in critical pedagogy. The chapter considers climate change as an issue at the core of both ESD and ESJ and suggests how CCE can be implemented, building on these frameworks, in schools and classrooms.
