Team Success Stories: A Positive Approach to Climate Change Education

At our kick-off meeting, we committed to addressing climate change education (CCE) from a positive perspective. Instead of concentrating merely on obstacles and barriers, we seek out high-quality, inspiring examples of CCE. Working closely with stakeholders, we identify exemplary teachers and plan to conduct in-depth inquiries with both them and their students.

Through interviews with these educators, we aim to uncover how they navigate—or overcome—institutional challenges. Additionally, we will distribute questionnaires among their students to assess the impact of different teaching strategies. These findings will be further enriched with qualitative insights gathered from student focus groups.

A key component of our research is understanding the emotional and cognitive factors that shape how teachers approach CCE. To achieve this, we are conducting a comprehensive teacher survey, seeking answers to crucial questions such as:

• Teachers' Climate Emotions & Beliefs: What are teachers’ personal views on climate change education? How do these influence their willingness to teach CCE?
• Coping Strategies: How do in-service teachers cope with climate change (based on Ojala, 2012), and how do these strategies impact their teaching practices?
• Essential Skills & Competencies: What skills and competencies do teachers believe are necessary for effective CCE?
• Motivators & Barriers: What external factors encourage or hinder the implementation of CCE?

Team Universities: Exploring Climate Change Education in Higher Education

This team focuses on the university environment. We want to examine how CCE is conceptualized and implemented in strategic documents and university curricula, as well as how educators address climate-related emotions such as anxiety and hope.

On the level of institutional strategies, we aim to determine the extent to which CCE is integrated into institutional policies to identify potential gaps between institutional commitments and actual implementation. This also allows us to learn from best practices across different institutions.

We also take a closer look at how CCE is embedded in university courses—both compulsory and elective—to assess if students can complete their degrees without ever engaging with CCE. Additionally, we investigate how university teachers perceive and implement CCE, with a focus on their pedagogical approaches, teaching methods, and how they address climate-related emotions.

Team Emotions: Building Emotional Resilience in Climate Change Education

Schools traditionally focus on knowledge, rarely on emotions—so where should we learn to deal with them? For the past three years, Bohuslav Binka, leader of this sub-team and principal investigator of the HARP consortium, has been running a course titled Resilience in Times of Environmental Crisis: A Self-Development Group. Now, our research team is analyzing in-depth interviews with course graduates to explore how different approaches support university students' emotional resilience in the face of climate change.

The goal of this research team is to provide insights into how educators can safely engage with students' emotions and what therapeutic approaches or techniques are applicable in educational settings.

By answering these questions, we hope to provide valuable insights that can support educators in enhancing climate change education in high schools and universities alike. Stay tuned for updates on our findings and the inspiring success stories we uncover!

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Summer school: Working with Emotions in Climate Change Education

From September 3. - 7. 9. 2025, at Kaldcův mlýn, Brno, we will explore the emotional dimensions of climate change education. Featuring expert Maria Ojala, this free program offers valuable insights for educators.