In a primary school on Melbourne’s outer suburban fringe, a group of grade six students is teaching children from a local kinder about marine pollution.
“What is this?” asks one of the older students, holding up a plastic bottle.
“A bottle?” replies one kinder-aged kid.
“Yes and what is it now?” the older student asks, throwing it on the ground.
“Rubbish!” the younger children chorus back.
Harkaway students also help to teach kinder kids about local native wildlife. (ABC News: Sacha Payne)
Harkaway Primary School has a strong sustainability focus.
The school is in a leafy, fire-prone area and students work on their own bushfire preparation plans.
They learn about native wildlife and monitor the health of nearby creeks, and play board games with climate change themes.
Principal Leigh Johnson is passionate about environmental education, which he says can help students develop strategies to manage and respond to climate threats.
“We want our kids to have amazing ideas about things they can do to help their environment to help the future of the planet,” Mr Johnson explains.
“To gain that understanding, but then to do stuff with that, that actually makes them excited and hopeful.”
Leigh Johnson, principal of Harkaway Primary School, says students need to be hopeful about the future of the planet. (ABC News: Sacha Payne)
Deakin University associate professor Peta White is exploring how climate change education can be taught in Australian science classrooms, as part of a global research project for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
She says climate change can not only be incorporated within “traditional” subjects like biology, chemistry, physics and earth and space science — but across subjects.
“I think climate change education fits into all disciplines,” Dr White says.
“How could [teachers] infuse learning about our climate crises in the context of mathematics, numeracy or literacy, or as an art piece?”
Students at Harkaway Primary School in Melbourne are learning about how to prepare emergency bushfire kits. (ABC News: Sacha Payne)
Updates to the national curriculum in 2022 put a greater emphasis on teaching climate change in schools, but Dr White says it’s limited.
“We’re seeing a little bit of an increase for the opportunity to explore climate change education through this curriculum, mostly in the areas of science and geography in Year 10,” she says.
“Unfortunately, a lot of our students across Australia don’t take science or geography in year 10. So there’s a bit of a challenge there.”
Teachers met with backlash for teaching climate change
Climate change also features in some state and territory curriculums, but Dr White says many teachers aren’t resourced, or are reluctant, to include it.
“They’re managing all sorts of family attitudes. And that plays out in a classroom in really strong ways,” she says.
Education researcher Mellita Jones is an associate professor at the Australian Catholic University and has spoken to principals and teachers across the country for her research on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) in schools.
She found very little on climate change was being taught, with some teachers actively avoiding the topic as “too controversial” or “too hard”.
“There can be a lot of backlash from parents and the wider community,” Dr Jones said.
“Particularly in communities that have a strong mining or logging workforce, because that’s really threatening the livelihoods of those people.”
Dr Jones says it can be difficult for already-stretched teachers to incorporate something new into the classroom.
“The curriculum is very fragmented,” Dr Jones explains.
“And because teachers are just so busy with very stressful workloads, it’s very difficult for them to be able to pick out those fragments and put them together in a coherent program.”
She says teachers without a strong science background might lack the confidence to go into those areas.
“Principals in our study reported being quite concerned about teacher capacity and confidence in teaching any sort of science, let alone something that has all of these issues and other elements that contribute towards the difficulty,” she says.
Working to combat ‘eco-anxiety’
Last year students were criticised by political leaders for walking out of school to join climate rallies.
But Deakin University’s Dr White takes issue with the idea that young people should be protected from political conversations about climate impacts.
“Of course young people are going to be thinking about their future,” Dr White says.
Students of all ages took to the streets of Melbourne for a climate rally in late 2023. (ABC News: Billy Draper )
“It’s the question adults always ask them: ‘What are you going to be when you grow up?’
“Well, I’m not too sure, because the way of work is changing due to the ecological challenges that we’re facing due to human-induced climate change … there’s lots of thinking through that kind of question.”
Dr Jones says educating young people about climate change can also combat “eco-anxiety.”
“They know it’s going to be in their future. They’re not empowered and they don’t know how to deal with it and to face it,” she says.
“I think [it’s] meeting that responsibility and helping mental health by giving students really positive and practical ways of addressing climate-change issues.
“It’s just a way of making education relevant to them.”
Researcher Peta White says climate change education can be incorporated across all subjects. (ABC News: Darryl Torpy)
Harkaway student, 11-year-old Ario, says he worries about climate change “a lot”.
“Learning about this teaches us what to do and we can teach others to do the right thing,” Ario says.
“I just think that kids have a right to learn about this stuff.”
Harkaway principal Leigh Johnson says while it’s important for children to be empowered, they should also be allowed to enjoy being kids.
“Part of being a kid is being joyful, being hopeful, and having fun,” he says.
“There’s a lot of competing ideas about what schools are for. But if we can consolidate that into the idea that schools give children agency, then I think the future is in good hands.”