“Lauren McClanahan asserts that it's our moral obligation to set the environment as a character in our classroom, just as we have historically set so many other social issues. Just as the study of place is a critical component of the literature classroom, so is the study of the environmental impacts of climate change on our local communities.” —Tiphani Davis, educator and writer
This call to action—which appears towards the end of Empowering Youth to Confront the Climate Crisis in English Language Arts, a recent edited collection for teacher educators and secondary ELA teachers—constitutes an invitation to these educators to reframe how they engage with environmental issues in the classroom. The book is one of several recently published by Teachers College Press that speak to the urgency of environmental literacy, the power of place-based education, and the role educators can play in preparing students to think and act critically in the face of climate change.
Together, these works challenge teachers and educational leaders to expand teaching about climate change across a range of educational contexts, from integrating cli-fi in secondary ELA classrooms, to exploring how ecopedagogy can transform and enrich art education; from introducing climate relevant literacy pedagogy to young children, to building media literacy skills to recognize climate denial in the upper grades. For teachers, researchers, leaders, curriculum developers, and scholars, the books in this collection offer insight, inspiration, and practical guidance for bringing climate issues to the heart of practice.
Art Education for a Sustainable Planet: Embracing Ecopedagogy in K–12 Classrooms
Joy G. Bertling, 2023, $38.96 | Learn more
2024 National Art Education Association (NAEA) Ecology and Environment Interest Group (EEIG) Outstanding Publication Award
Explore how art education can contribute to a more just and sustainable planet. Making the case that ecopedagogy and eco-art can transform and enrich art education, Bertling introduces these two burgeoning movements and then outlines how they can be infused into K–12 art education. Seven innovative curricular strands are presented to help art teachers embrace natural cycles and processes, envision alternative states and ways of being, restore ecosystems, and empower communities. These strands weave together specific contemporary eco-artworks, cultural and environmental philosophies, and art education methods. Reflective questions, innovative curriculum frameworks, and other resources are provided to support teachers in enacting these inspiring curricular ideas for better social and ecological futures. Curricular themes include attentiveness, relationality, co-creation, consumption, progress, cultural desire, identity stories, restoration, and coalitions. This accessible, full-color text is the first of its kind to provide practical guidance and concrete strategies for educators interested in enacting ecological art instruction.
Blog | The Ecopedagogical Potential of Eco-Visualizations: Rising Sea Level Projections
Teaching Climate Change to Children: Literacy Pedagogy That Cultivates Sustainable Futures
Rebecca Woodard and Kristine M. Schutz, 2024, $42.95 | Learn more
Teaching Climate Change to Children describes the journey of two literacy researchers to learn about climate change and support relevant literacy pedagogy for young children (pre-K–6). The authors argue that climate change and social justice are inextricable from each other; that children in the younger grades are capable of learning about climate change; and that reading, writing, and language study is well-suited to this work. Three anchoring themes are offered to support literacy-based climate pedagogy—interconnectivity, relationality, and action—with rich classroom examples and different entry points to engage with these themes, either by “starting small” or “going big.” The text includes chapters on the importance of taking an emotionally affirming stance and on the potential of incorporating arts-based methods. With love for the Earth and one another at its core, this accessible book takes a broad view of what it means to cultivate sustainable futures for our planet, for teachers, and for children in today’s schools.
How to Confront Climate Denial: Literacy, Social Studies, and Climate Change
James S. Damico and Mark C. Baildon, 2022, $36.95 | Learn more
“This packed paperback will bring you up to date and refortify the civic stamina that is required to save the planet for your posterity.” —Ralph Nader
Climate change and climate denial have remained largely off the radar in literacy and social studies education. This book addresses that gap with the design of the Climate Denial Inquiry Model (CDIM) and clear examples of how educators and students can confront two forms of climate denial: science denial and action denial. The CDIM highlights how critical literacies specifically designed for climate denial texts can be used alongside eco-civic practices of deliberation, reflexivity, and counter-narration to help students discern corporate, financial, and politically motivated roots of climate denial and to better understand efforts to misinform the American public, sow doubt and distrust of basic scientific knowledge, and erode support for evidence-based policymaking and collective civic action. With an emphasis on inquiry-based teaching and learning, the book also charts a path from destructive stories-we-live-by that are steeped in climate denial (humans are separate from nature, the primary goal of society is economic growth without limits, nature is a resource to be used and exploited) to ecojustice stories-To-live by that invite teachers and students to consider more just and sustainable futures.
Blog | Teaching About Climate Change Denial in the Media
Empowering Youth to Confront the Climate Crisis in English Language Arts
Allen Webb, Richard Beach, and Jeff Share, eds., 2024, $38.95 | Learn more
Discover how English teachers and their students confront the climate crisis using critical inquiry, focusing on justice, and taking action.
Working in today’s politically polarized environment, these teachers know first-hand about teaching and learning in communities that support and resist climate education. This much-needed book describes outstanding English instruction that includes creative and analytical writing; critical place-based learning; contemporary “cli-fi”; young adult, Indigenous, and youth-authored literature; Afrofuturism; critical media analysis; digital media production; and many other ways in which students can explore the crisis and have their voices heard and respected. While the focus is on high school and middle school English Language Arts, there are also relevant and inspiring elementary and college examples.
This resource provides everything teachers need to help young people understand and address the climate emergency through supportive and empowering transformational learning.
Webinar | Addressing Climate Change in English Language Arts Classrooms
Quoted material from Allen Webb et al., eds., Empowering Youth to Confront the Climate Crisis in English Language Arts, New York: Teachers College Press. Copyright © 2025 by Teachers College, Columbia University. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.