We are excited to share the release of a new publication, Don’t Look Up: Teachers Navigating Educational Movements in Times of Climate Crisis, Insights from Israel, co-authored by Dafna Gan and Oren Pizmony-Levy and published in the Comparative Education Review. Dr. Gan was a visiting scholar at the Center for Sustainable Futures (2021/2022 and 2022/2023) and co-hosted the Center’s International Workshop on Environment, Sustainability, & Education. 

The article examines a central contradiction in climate change education (CCE). Despite widespread scientific consensus and growing public concern, climate change remains largely absent from everyday classroom teaching. Focusing on teachers in Israel, the study asks why so many educators support CCE in principle yet so few teach it in practice.

Drawing on social movement theory, the authors frame CCE as a global educational movement and position teachers as key actors whose participation is shaped by both personal beliefs and institutional constraints. The study investigates a national survey of nearly 500 teachers with an embedded survey experiment. The survey captures teachers’ beliefs, concerns, and self reported teaching practices, while the experiment examines how different school environments, particularly test based accountability versus holistic, student centered models, shape teachers’ willingness to engage with climate change in the classroom.

The findings reveal a clear gap. While most teachers accept the reality of climate change and believe schools should address it, fewer than one in five report actually teaching the topic. Teachers who do engage tend to be more experienced, more concerned about climate change, and more likely to teach science. At the same time, accountability pressures such as standardized testing make climate education feel more difficult and less feasible, even when teachers are otherwise supportive. Many teachers also indicate they would be more likely to teach climate change if student interest were more visible or institutionally supported.

“This was a genuinely fun paper to write. I always enjoy working with my colleague and close friend of more than 25 years, Dafna Gan—our collaborations consistently push my thinking, and I learn and grow as a scholar through our exchanges. One key insight from this study, and from my broader work, is that we cannot examine Climate Change Education—or any global educational movement—in isolation. These movements are interconnected and often pull in different directions. While decentralization can open space for environmental and sustainability education, test-based accountability and standardization frequently constrain it. Adopting a global educational movements perspective helps us see how these overlapping dynamics shape teachers’ agency and classroom practice.” - Oren Pizmony-Levy

“Drawing on my previous work, I identify a gap between teachers’ perceptions of their students’ lack of interest in climate change and students’ reported interest in the topic. The findings of the study indicate that teachers are willing to teach climate change on perceived student interest, which may function as a barrier to curricular engagement. This gap is embedded in the broader Israeli public discourse, where climate change receives limited attention in the media and public debate, underscoring the need to advance climate change not only within education but also as a shared societal concern.” - Dafna Gan

Overall, the study shows that expanding CCE requires more than adding content to curricula. It requires attention to teachers’ working conditions, disciplinary boundaries, and the broader policy environments that shape what is possible in schools during times of crisis, while also pointing to the power of student voice in encouraging teachers to engage more directly with climate change education.