Developing a youth-centred methodology for the co-creation of Climate Change Education through collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches

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This project will develop a methodology for the co-creation of Climate Change Education (CCE) through collaboration between young climate activists (YCAs) and in-service teachers. The methodology developed will be a valuable contribution to the field of CCE, which lacks substantial evidence of interdisciplinary and youth-centred approaches. This study will be informed by a theoretical framework of critical pedagogy study. Teachers and young people will be positioned as co-creators of pedagogy, with the young people bringing the specialist knowledge of climate justice, as well as their own experience and understanding of pedagogy. The research will examine both the experiences of the participants in this collaborative, youth-led process of curriculum making in relation to CCE, as well as the outcomes of that process in the form of novel pedagogical approaches. It is crucial to the integrity of this project that the YCAs are meaningfully involved in every stage of the project, hence elements of Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) will influence the methodology.Rationale and Research AimsThere is a consensus across the education community on the need for effective CCE (DfE, 2021; UNFCCC, 2018; Reid, 2019). The Department for Education recognises the responsibility of the education sector in preparing young people for the future challenges they will face as a result of climate change (DfE, 2021). The main aim of this study is to develop a methodology for the co-creation of CCE with young people as collaborators, following the recent surge in youth climate activism which has seen the mobilisation of young people on an unprecedented scale informing themselves about the climate crisis and taking action (Han & Ahn, 2020). This form of community learning through youth-led movements is often inspired or informed by critical pedagogies (Morales-Doyle and Fraustro, 2021). This study will draw on existing participatory studies to tap into pre-existing wells of knowledge by collaborating with youth-led organisations. For example, Tanner (2010) shows how participatory methodologies can provide a counter-narrative to dominant narratives of children's vulnerability in climate discourse, thereby giving young people power and agency. Approaches to CCE tend to be science-dominated (Rousell and Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, 2019), with the result that environmental education tends to be discussed from the perspective of teachers' knowledge of the science of climate change, rather than their preparedness to confront the ethical and political questions around how we transition to a just, sustainable future (Boon, 2016). Wise (2010) suggests that professional development in CCE should use interdisciplinary approaches and Hawkey et al. (2019) showed the value of examining problems such as climate change through an interdisciplinary lens. This study seeks to address both the scientific and social issues within CCE by working with secondary teachers across subject specialisms. Furthermore, working with YCAs will help to frame the climate and ecological emergency as a social justice issue which intersects with other issues faced by youth today, in line with the call from Henderson et al. (2017) to make climate justice a keystone in the educational research community's justice ethos.