From classrooms to communities: creating inclusive and expansive pathways to climate justice

Climate justice (CJ) is central to youth-led environmental activism, yet this is generally not reflected in climate change education (CCE). Existing literature critiques the absence of justice in CCE, envisions its potential theoretically, or offers research-informed CJ interventions. Complementing this scholarship, our central concern is how educators and students are already enacting CJ in classrooms, in ways that exceed and challenge curricular and institutional expectations. We reprise theories of distributive, recognitional, and procedural justice to envision climate justice education (CJE) as two inter-linked pathways that are inclusive and expansive: pedagogic approaches and concepts, and capacities for responsive action. To ground this conceptual framework, we present data from qualitative research with primary and post-primary educators in England and Ireland. Our findings document how educators are enacting CJ through everyday classroom practices. Participants’ accounts demonstrate a strong and consistent duty of care for students as educators work to recalibrate notions of responsibility and build students’ capacities and agency. This research demonstrates that inclusive CJE pathways can emerge from existing classroom practice. Nonetheless, we argue for greater institutional support for educators’ CJ work, revised curricula to explicitly incorporate justice dimensions, and recognition of classrooms as sites where CJ is debated, envisioned and enacted.