Educating for Climate Action and Justice: Guidelines for Excellence now available >

Written by Bora Simmons, National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education

The global disruption caused by climate change is occurring at an unprecedented rate. We know that climate change can result in fundamental transformations of ecosystems. Longer, more intense droughts threaten wildlife and freshwater supplies and feed more intense wildfires. Climate change impacts human health and well-being.

Research shows that climate education can play a crucial role in raising awareness and understanding of climate change, its causes, impacts, and potential solutions. However, we need to go beyond learning about climate change and build individual and collective capacity for climate action and justice. We need climate education that develops the ability to identify and critique alternative solutions and courses of action, select and plan appropriate action-taking, and participate in individual and collective climate action.

How can we best design and implement effective climate education programs that truly empower just action?

Educating for Climate Action and Justice: Guidelines for Excellence (2024)—the newest member of the NAAEE’s Guidelines for Excellence Series—was developed specifically to address this question. This set of guidelines assists educators as they prepare effective programs that focus on climate change, address injustice, and ignite action. With this set of guidelines, we offer suggestions for creating more inclusive and equitable learning environments that support learners as they make informed decisions and take collective actions to address our changing global climate. We aim to support the development of programs that instill hope, build skills, increase social-emotional capacities, and energize learners of all ages to work on reducing risk and strengthening their communities.

How were these guidelines developed?

These guidelines draw on educational practices honed by scholars and practitioners in diverse fields including education, climate justice, environmental justice, social change, community development, science, policy, and communication. To ensure that these Guidelines for Excellence reflect a widely shared understanding of climate education and climate justice, we conducted background research and interviewed thought leaders in these fields.

The writing team also comprised a team of climate education and climate justice professionals from various backgrounds and organizational affiliations. This team took on the challenge of turning ideas about quality into tangible recommendations and examples. Multiple drafts of these guidelines were circulated widely to practitioners and scholars from across North America and around the world for critical feedback. We incorporated their comments into successive revisions of the document. In all, over 800 scholars and practitioners participated in the writing of these guidelines. This document reflects our collective wisdom.

How are the guidelines organized?

The guidelines are organized around five Key Characteristics that provide a high-level framework for excellent, meaningful climate education focused on climate action and climate justice:

Key Characteristic #1: Collaborative, Welcoming, and Responsive Learning Environments

Key Characteristic #2: Knowledge and Skills to Foster Climate Action

Key Characteristic #3: Attention on Climate Emotions

Key Characteristic #4: Locally Focused and Community Driven

Key Characteristic #5: Civic Engagement for Climate Action

Under each Key Characteristic, we included Guidelines that describe how that Key Characteristic could be implemented. Each Guideline is accompanied by several Indicators that illustrate actions that can address the guideline. In addition, we included case studies and supporting resources that provide examples, definitions, explanation, references, links to websites, and more.

Who should use this set of guidelines?

We have written this set of guidelines to serve a broad range of educators, organizations, and agencies interested in using education as a tool for addressing climate change. By educator, we mean those who have traditionally served in this role, such as early childhood educators, elementary and secondary school teachers, museum and zoo educators, community educators, university faculty, and career and technical education teachers, as well as those who work with learners in other roles, such as volunteers and docents, youth leaders, weather broadcasters, leaders of civic clubs, community organizers, faith leaders, and government agency staff, and policymakers. People in all these roles facilitate learning opportunities and provide formal and nonformal opportunities that foster the development of the capacities needed for effective climate justice and action.

How to use the guidelines?

Educating for Climate Action and Justice: Guidelines for Excellence provides direction while allowing flexibility in shaping content, techniques, and other aspects of program design and delivery. These guidelines offer a decision-making tool for addressing the needs of your learners, working with partners, and engaging community members. They offer a set of ideas about what an effective climate education program centered on climate action and justice could be.

Of course, no set of guidelines could contain every possible detail of what constitutes a quality climate education program. Nor is it reasonable to expect that every climate education program will follow all the guidelines; contexts vary, and educators design opportunities that meet the needs of their learners. Educating for Climate Action and Justice: Guidelines for Excellence provides a foundation on which to build programs and a tool to inform decision-making.  

With this set of guidelines in hand, we hope you find practical recommendations for improving your practice. We encourage you to engage with other educators and use these guidelines as an opportunity to discuss the theory and practice of environmental education, to reflect on what it means to be an environmental educator, and to think deeply about what we are trying to accomplish and how we are trying to accomplish it. These are essential steps in building a strong professional identity and profession.

This eePRO blog series, Ripple Effect, highlights stories of collaboration and impact among partners in the ee360+ Leadership and Training Collaborative. ee360+ is an ambitious multi-year initiative that connects, trains, and promotes innovative leaders dedicated to using the power of education to create a more just and sustainable future for everyone, everywhere. Led by NAAEE, ee360+ is made possible through funding and support from U.S. EPA and twenty-seven partner organizations representing universities and nonprofits across the country, as well as five federal agencies. Through this partnership, ee360+ brings together more than five decades of expertise to grow, strengthen, and diversify the environmental education field.