Climate Justice Education and Action from Kindergarten to College

There is increasing urgency for meaningful education about climate change. It is a space where questions of power (whose knowledge counts, whose futures are centered), inequity (who is most affected, who is responsible), and emotion (fear, grief, anger, care, hope) are actively negotiated. This project explores how dimensions of power, emotion, and action interact in the design and enactment of climate justice education across K–16 settings.

Grounded in an undergraduate and masters-level course at Marsal and in K-12 classrooms, this project involves a mix of instructional design work, classroom exploration, literature review, and empirical research. The project will culminate in action projects led by U-M students and the development of a repository of ideas addressing local and global environmental justice issues that teachers can incorporate into K-12 science instruction. By investigating climate justice education as a political, affective, and action-oriented practice, we explore how teaching and learning can move beyond awareness toward forms of participation that are both just and consequential.