Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. It is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events – such as droughts, wildfires, and heatwaves – and raising average day and nighttime temperatures in many regions across the world (Pereira et al., 2022). Children are more vulnerable to climate change related stressors, both because they are physiologically and neurocognitively immature and because they have a greater number of life years before them to be exposed (Clark et al., 2020). Climate stressors’ detrimental effects on physical health have been well-documented, and a nascent literature addresses effects on children’s mental health (Vergunst & Berry, 2021). The education literature has, however, so far examined climate change and education mainly through a curricular lens – that is, how children are taught about climate change. Much less attention has been paid to how the results of climate change may affect children’s educational access, participation, and outcomes.

Heat is one of the most wide-spread emerging climate related stressors, with higher average temperatures and heatwaves already being observed both in Europe and worldwide. A growing body of literature indicates that heat exposure can negatively affect school access, learning, and education outcomes. For example, higher day-of-test temperatures have been associated with lower exam scores (Graff Zivin et al., 2020; Park et al., 2021) and lower graduation rates (Park, 2020), while higher classroom temperatures are linked with reduced performance on cognitive tests and curricular tasks (Wargocki et al., 2019). Furthermore, heat can undermine children’s education outcomes indirectly – for example, when reduced or lost agricultural yields lead to poverty and malnutrition and disrupt school attendance and learning (Teevrat, 2017). In other words, gains in education could be eroded worldwide as hotter temperatures become more common with advancing climate change.

The existing literature on heat and education outcomes is located across a breadth of disciplines, ranging from economics to psychology to international development. It consequently employs diverse methodologies, assumptions, and definitions that can make overall findings difficult to appraise (Ring et al., 2011). The aim of the present review is to synthesise the extant literature using scoping review methods. Since increasing global temperatures are now certain under all future climate change scenarios (IPCC, 2021), establishing a link between heat exposure and education outcomes could have immediate policy implications – adding further urgency to the case for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and bolstering support for adaptive strategies to protect vulnerable populations.

The choice of scoping review methods was based on the current breadth and heterogeneity of published literature which precluded conducting a systematic review. The Arksey & O’Malley (2005) framework for scoping reviews was applied by following five distinct stages (1) identifying the question, (2) conducting the search (3) selecting the studies, (4) charting/evaluating the data, and (5) reporting the results. The research question for the review was: What are the key considerations of studies on heat exposure and education outcomes in youth populations? The review included empirical studies, reviews, and gray literature that addressed outcomes for school-aged children (primary, middle, or secondary school) younger than 19 years. Education outcomes included exam scores, school grades, school attendance and completion rates, and measures of cognitive task performance. Heat exposure was conceptualized as ambient outdoor and indoor temperatures, higher average temperatures (e.g. monthly, annual), and heatwave events. Only studies published in English were included. The databases searched were PsychINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The search terms were (“heat*” OR “hot*” OR “temperature”) and (“education” OR “test” OR “exam” OR “graduat*” OR “attend*”). Titles and abstracts were reviewed for relevance by both authors and duplicates were removed. Both authors reviewed the full-texts for the final included articles. Using the methods proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005), information was extracted in the following domains: (a) descriptors (e.g., year, title, study type, region), (b) the main study findings, and (c) a thematic synthesis. The final review protocol will be registered in OSF (https://osf.io/7undg/).

Preliminary search results indicate that increased heat exposure is already affecting education outcomes for children in many regions across the globe. This occurs via both direct and indirect mechanisms. Direct effects of heat include negative impacts on human physiology, including reduced concentration levels, fatigue, and lowered frustration thresholds. Increased heat, especially severe heatwaves, can disrupt access to school, shorten school days, and interrupt lessons. Indirect effects of heat on education include disruption of caregiver economic activity and food production, potentially leading to malnutrition and reduced ability to afford school-related fees in low-income contexts. The effects of heat exposure on global education equity also emerged as in important theme. For example, the regions in which children still receive the fewest number of years of education – primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East – are disproportionately vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Additionally, girls living in these regions still receive fewer years of education than boys do, on average, and will be disproportionately affected by heat-related disruptions to education. Our findings have implications for children’s school experiences, education outcomes, and later economic and democratic participation. They also bear on the key issue of mitigating climate change and its effects, since educational attainment is the single strongest predictor of climate change awareness worldwide (Lee et al., 2015). Furthermore, education specifically related to climate change can meaningfully reduce individual greenhouse gas emissions (Cordero et al., 2020). Taken together, the results of this review suggest that increasing global temperatures, driven by climate change, could undermine education outcomes worldwide, and thus harm our collective capacity both adapt to its effects and to mitigate the root causes of climate change.

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