CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS: OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Abstract

Climate change demonstrates one of the most crucial global predicaments of the 21st century, necessitating imperative educational responses to capacitate learners with the information, aptitudes, and principles essential for sustainable action. Its infusion into the school curriculum is disjointed and inadequately coordinated. This study examined the integration of climate change education across the school curriculum, placing focus on its importance and methods. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was employed with academic articles extracted from several academic databases such as WOS, Scopus, DOAJ, and IBSS. Data were analysed thematically pinpointing recurring patterns and research gaps. The findings show that climate change education plays a transformative role in preparing learners with ecological knowledge, critical thinking, and socio-ecological accountability. Additionally, methods that can be used to integrate climate change education across school curriculum include participatory, experiential, and place-based learning, inquiry-based learning teacher training and curriculum leadership models, cross-disciplinary, curriculum integration, localized content and multidisciplinary approaches and community-based learning, and extracurricular activities. It was recommended that a holistic continuing professional development workshop for teachers be encouraged to improve their climate education knowledge to be effective. Furthermore, experiential, inquiry-based approaches was recommended to bridge theory and practice.