The challenge of tackling climate change calls for transformative educational approaches which prepare young people to navigate ongoing and future crises, loading heavy expectations on the shoulders of education (Reid 2019). Climate change education (CCE) refers to such teaching and learning that is connected to climate change. Yet, CCE is more than just learning about the content and facts of climate change: it is interdisciplinary, holistic, and aims to support transformation, active citizenship, and hope (Cantell et al. 2019; Kagawa & Selby 2010). Its learning process is flexible and social (Stevenson, Nicholls & Whitehouse 2017). It is not separate from other environment or sustainability related “educations” but can rather be described as environmental education or education for sustainable development that is executed through the lens of climate change.  

For an educator, climate change is a complex topic to teach. Not only does it demand a lot from the teacher regarding mastery of subject matter, but it may also be an emotionally challenging topic and requires successful communication between teachers and learners. According to previous research, didactic approaches to CCE have been inefficient in affecting students’ attitudes and behaviour (Rousell & Cutter-MacKenzie-Knowles 2020). Recognising this, researchers call for participatory, interdisciplinary, creative, and affect-driven approaches to CCE, and awareness of values, worldview, and identity formation. In practice, however, teachers tend to concentrate on teaching natural scientific information about climate issues instead of embracing this kind of holistic approach (Monroe et al. 2019). A teacher may consider that having an emphasis on values and worldviews in education is difficult to implement or even to be unethical indoctrination (Aarnio-Linnanvuori 2018). European schools tend to uphold liberal educational values such as critical thinking and respect of diversity, and therefore strive for neutrality in many moral issues (van der Kooij et al. 2015). In both CCE and worldview education literature this aim has been challenged: neutral ground in worldview and moral discussions does not exist, and the seriousness of the ecological crisis requires deconstructing unsustainable cultural beliefs and developing worldviews that rely on empathy towards the more-than-human nature (Zilliacus & Wolff 2021; Värri 2019; Rissanen & Poulter, forthcoming). This should be executed in an educational environment that grows more diverse what comes to cultural, religious, and other worldview backgrounds of learners.

How, then, can climate change education be developed to a more worldview considerate direction? In this presentation, we present perceptions of 19 secondary school teachers and 17 nonformal educators from four European countries (Finland, Ireland, Italy, and UK). The study is part of European Consortium CCC-CATAPULT (Challenging the Climate Crisis: Children’s Agency to Tackle Policy Underpinned by Learning for Transformation). The purpose of the study is to find out, to what extend do supporters of climate learning consider worldview formation to be a central aim in their work. How do they advance it? What are the challenges of climate change education that the interviewees recognize?  

Based on a content analysis of qualitative interviews, we argue that teachers and nonformal educators need tools and support to embrace a worldview considerate approach to climate change education. Some of our interviewees had been able to develop educational methods to help young people to reflect their beliefs and attitudes concerning climate change, but others felt that they were struggling. Based on our data, we also suggest ideas of how to develop climate change education towards a worldview considerate direction.

This is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach. The aim of this study is to understand formal and nonformal educators’ perceptions to the nexus of worldview education and climate change education. The dataset of this study consists of semi-structured interviews collected during spring and autumn 2022 in four European cities or city regions: Bristol (United Kingdom), Galway (Ireland), Genoa (Italy), and Tampere (Finland), as a part of the European Consortium CCC-CATAPULT (Challenging the Climate Crisis: Children’s Agency to Tackle Policy Underpinned by Learning for Transformation). In each location, a minimum of four teachers in formal education and four educators in nonformal organizations were interviewed. The interviewees were selected based on mutual criteria: Each location invited a minimum of four supporters of learning from within formal educational settings (e.g., four teachers representing different disciplines/subject areas). In addition, all locations invited a minimum of four supporters of learning/worldview formation from non-formal educational settings or non-educational settings (e.g., youth workers, representatives of local NGO’s, religious/worldview leaders). Two sets of questions were prepared: on for teachers and one for non-formal supporters of learning. Main themes asked related to experiences of teaching climate education (teacher track) or engaging young people with climate issues (alternative track), role of education in tackling climate change (both tracks), interviewees personal knowledge about climate change and confidence related to the content (both tracks), and youth climate attitudes and emotions (both tracks). Interviews were carried out either face-to-face or online, depending of COVID-19-situation in the location and what suited best for the interviewees. All interviewers prepared for interviews with mutual guidelines and used the same structures of questions. Interviewees were interviewed in the language of their location: English, Finnish, or Italian. The interviewees were treated as experts of their own work and the interviewers aimed to create an air of mutual respect and equality in the situation. Next, the interviews were transcribed, and the primary data was captured in mutual analysis sheets. Finnish and Italian interviews were not translated completely but Finnish and Italian speaking researchers conducting analysis have translated relevant quotes. A thematization and preliminary content analysis of the data has been conducted. A more profound and sophisticated analysis will be conducted during spring 2023.

According to the preliminary findings, interviewees from all four countries felt as though CCE was an essential area of learning for young people and that it should be incorporated into school curriculums. Yet, the educators interviewed felt as though the topic of climate change was either missing from official curriculums or that the issue was being taught in an inappropriate way. They highlighted, for example, the importance of allowing for dialogue between young people and adults, importance of incorporating CCE into all subjects and years of study, the value of using education to enable agency, and the need to promote hope rather than worsening eco-anxieties. Interviewees believed that they had a central role in providing CCE, that this role involved teaching young people the critical skills and knowledge to succeed in life, that it involved providing young people with solutions, necessitated helping young people to tackle climate-anxiety, and included encouraging both young people and their colleagues to take action. However, many struggled with the political and value-ladenness of climate discussions: Irish educators described having challenging encounters with students from farming backgrounds or who had been given misinformation by their parents, Finnish interviewees described the difficulty of addressing increasingly polarised classrooms, while UK educators spoke of their difficulties in discussing political issues with students due to the sensitivity of the topic and their government’s directives. A difference appeared in the Italian responses, where it was mainly the other supporters of learning who report having experienced situations where certain climate change and climate policy issues were divisive among young people. Interviewees explained that they had received either no training on the topic, or that their limited training was insufficient. Therefore, many interviewees felt neither confident nor equipped to teach this topic.

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