Education International Research
steps to address climate change through education by greening their own schools and other education institutions. Teachers and education support personnel continue to empower children and young people to adopt sustainable lifestyles and to take the lead in defence of the planet and environment. In 2017, education unions in the Sahel region of Africa established an online network to share strategies for combating and coping with the effects of climate change, including drought and desertification. However, many governments still fail to appreciate the urgency of mainstreaming education for sustainable development, including climate change education. In 2018, member states adopted Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) at the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24), or the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference. The plan urges investment in climate change education, integration of education and training into all mitigation activities carried out by countries, and the appointment of national coordinators for climate change education. However, it includes no clear strategy or accountability mechanisms to ensure that climate change education is included in national school curricula, teaching and learning materials, and teacher training.
Teaching sex education poses the biggest challenge for educators When asked whether there were challenges to teaching about various ESD topics, only 7.7% of unions responded that they faced no challenges in teaching sex education, and only 8% said there were no challenges for teaching global citizenship. Peace and non-violence was considered by unions to be the easiest ESD subject to teach, with the least amount of challenges (29% of respondents said that there were no challenges to teaching this topic). Inadequate teaching and learning materials was identified as the greatest challenge to teaching about gender equality (as reported by 46% of respondents), global citizenship (54%), and peace and non-violence (45%). Lack of inclusion as a topic in teacher training was deemed the greatest challenge to teaching about human rights (38%) and climate change (42%). Both of these challenges were rated as equally significant for teaching about cultural diversity and tolerance. Both lack of inclusion as a topic in teacher training (46%) and restrictions on teachers’ professional autonomy (46%) emerged as the greatest challenges to teaching about democracy.
Human rights Democracy Global citizenship Sexuality GRO.EI-IE
Gender equality Climate change Cultural diversity and tolerance Peace and non-violence 0%
0302 NOITA CUDE
Not included in the curriculum
10%
No time
20%
Not included in teacher training
30%
40%
Inadequate teaching materials
50%
60%
Restrictions on teacher professional autonomy
Figure 8: The challenges to teaching students about various ESD topics
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