Learning for a Green Future: A Programme Guide to Climate-responsive Education for UNICEF Country Offices
Just made available, this Programme Guide, authored by Fumiyo Kagawa and David Selby, aims to provide UNICEF country offices with practical guidance on how to support education stakeholders in the pressing task of responding to climate change through education systems. The focus is on addressing two intersecting challenges: first, the urgent need to embed climate change themes and topics in the learning experiences of all students so they are better prepared to meet the mounting threat from climate and environmental breakdown; second, the need to embed resilience in the face of climate and environmental impacts into education systems and learning institutions so as to make them disaster-proof and able to play their part in mitigating climate and environmental risk.
The Guide thus has two emphases. It first looks look at curriculum, learning and teaching about climate change – Climate Change Education – before turning to building resilience into educational systems and institutions – Climate Change and Education.
Under the former, there are sections on: the nature of climate change education and its overlaps with other ‘educations’ such as environmental and sustainability education; climate change learning content, skills, attitudes and values; interactive and experiential learning; learner engagement in and with the local community; student assessment and teacher capacity development.
Under the latter, there are sections on policy and planning; finance; the physical infrastructure of schools; national and local partnerships and coordination; data and evidence gathering, monitoring and evaluation, including the embedding of findings into future policy and practice.
The text includes a wide range of case study examples and ends with a progress checklist for UNICEF country offices to periodically employ.
The main text is accompanied by a Supplementary Guidance document containing sample learning activities and details of further resources to which to UNICEF offices can refer.
For the main text of the Guide, click here.
For the Supplementary Guidance document, click here.
This Programme Guide is the first substantive outcome to emerge from Fumiyo Kagawa’s 2024-2025 consultancy in support of UNICEF’s efforts to provide technical assistance and guidance to country offices in the ECARO region as they work alongside governments in integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation into educational programming. For details of the consultancy, click here.