Climate Week NYC | Climate change is important, but not in my classroom: Israeli youth and teachers talk about existential threats

The Center for Sustainable Futures is hosting a public talk entitled "Climate change is important, but not in my classroom: Israeli youth and teachers talk about existential threats" on Thursday, Sep 22nd from 3:00pm to 4:00pm in ZB 406. The speaker, Dafna Gan, is an international expert on environmental and sustainability education. This is an in person event. 

 Environmental education policy and the way in which it is implemented by teachers is a consequence of their attitude towards the climate crisis. Youth today, who are the future generation, will have no choice but to cope with climate change in their adulthood. The objective of the presentation is to give an overview of climate change education in Israel, focusing on the perspectives of teachers and youth, using a mix-methods research. Findings suggest that Israeli teachers and students are concerned about the climate crisis and most assert that the subject must be part of the curriculum in schools. However, in practice, less than one fifth of the teachers teach the subject. Most teachers reported a lack of tools with which to implement the subject. 68% of the teachers stated that climate change education was not relevant to their subject of instruction. Most climate youth activists claimed that they did not learn about climate change in schools, they are very concerned and have no hope regarding the future. The main conclusions are the necessity in establishing knowledge and creating a basis for the subject of climate change in the young generation’s discourse. Furthermore, the need arose for emotional support for the youth. This study presents the disparity between the ideal and the reality, and places an emphasis on how to aid teachers in teaching about the climate crisis and raise a generation with active environmental citizenship.