PK-12 Climate Justice Education

In this program you will:

• Build a strong understanding of the science behind climate change and its impact on PK-12 education
• Explore how climate change affects ecological, social and economic systems in the communities you serve
• Learn culturally responsive and developmentally appropriate ways to teach climate justice to PK-12 students

Audience Examples

This program brings together educators from across PK-12 education and supports the development of climate justice teaching in all subject areas. Below are examples of how you might engage with the program.

High School English Teacher

As a high school English teacher, you might choose to focus on effective communication and its role in promoting climate justice. This might involve integrating media literacy more explicitly into your curriculum, as well as developing climate stories into fiction or nonfiction writing tasks for students. Learning more about climate justice in this program will provide you with resources to guide students in envisioning possible futures, sending a message of hopeful action, effectively communicating science, and promoting climate justice in their writing.

Elementary School Teacher

As an elementary school teacher, given the demands of teaching multiple subjects, you might feel that you are not up to date on the climate change impacts or solutions, nor how to communicate these ideas to elementary age children. This certificate program will provide resources for you to learn more about the causes, impacts and solutions of climate change, along with examples of local impacts and solutions, activities that can be adapted for various grade levels and discussions for how to communicate a message of hope-filled action appropriate to students’ developmental needs.

Middle School Art Teacher

As a middle school art teacher, you might choose to investigate the role of the arts in broadening the reach of climate action. You might design strategies to incorporate both the study of artists who work in the climate justice space and opportunities for students to produce and share climate-inspired art. The resources in this program will connect you to resources that may inspire ideas and collaboration, and will provide ways that projects can communicate a message of hope and a call to action.

Garden Educator

As a garden educator, you may want to include more climate change education into your curriculum but may not know how to communicate climate change impacts without frightening or overwhelming the students. You might develop a series of garden-based investigations for children at different ages that draws upon students’ experiences and community contexts. This program will provide strategies for how to communicate hope and action to students, at levels that are appropriate for different ages, as well as provide a collaborative community for designing and testing new ideas.

High School Physics Teacher

As a high school physics teacher, you may want to incorporate climate change into your classes but have no idea where to start. By providing an overview of the science and many different impacts and solutions across the Bay Area, you will gain inspiration for connections to class material and ideas for how to enact these ideas.

This program is offered in collaboration with the Graduate College of Education's Department of Elementary Education. The program is also receiving support from the campus-wide Climate Justice Leadership Initiative.

This program follows a low-residency model. You will meet in person for one week in the summer and for one weekend during the fall and spring semesters. All other coursework takes place online, making it possible to join from a wide area while still engaging in place-based learning.

Participants will engage in professional writing that is in line with the kinds of writing needed in educational leadership positions. These include: 

• Curricular analysis and policy white papers based on the analysis (EED 765)
• PK-12 curriculum writing (RRS 499 + EED 765)
• Training documents for teacher colleagues (EED 781 + RRS 499)
• Written and oral presentations of findings from participatory action research (EED 781)
• Writing/communicating clear, accurate and meaningful scientific explanations for a range of developmental levels on the PK-12 continuum (SCI 403)

At least one core writing project in each of the four classes will be assessed using a rubric and revised based on peer review and instructor feedback.