Critical Pedagogy and Children’s Engagement with Climate Change: The Importance of the School and the Teacher

Abstract

Raising children and young people’s climate awareness through actions outside of school could be integrated into pedagogy; instead of the individual-oriented approaches in school, educators should develop a critical pedagogy where community change and political activism are at the core. In this article, we examine how a reformulation based on critical pedagogy literature can mobilize pupils so they can implement responsible and realistic climate actions. To support this process and especially the efforts of teachers in school, we developed a model demonstrating how this can be done. The model is theoretical and normative, and the design was inspired by the experiences from national and international research and development projects. This article draws on Paulo Freire’s concept of critical pedagogy