Educating for a Climate Changed Future: From First Order Impacts to System Level Transformation

Overview & Synopsis

This open access book offers a comprehensive, systems-level examination of how schooling and climate change shape one another. Drawing on insights from climate science, comparative education, education policy and implementation research, it distinguishes between first‑order effects--how climate hazards and slow-onset changes disrupt learning--and second‑order effects--how education systems respond through curriculum, teacher preparation, infrastructure, operations and community engagement. It maps five major narratives of climate change education--climate literacy, climate action, green economy skills, education for sustainable development and critical/decolonial approaches--and shows how they coexist and interact in global frameworks and national policies. Moving from policy to practice, it analyzes national case studies of policy reform, case studies of transformation at the school level and examines the role of educator networks and of eco-systems supporting climate change education efforts. Using a complexity science perspective, it explains why many systems remain in "low climate learning traps" and outlines realistic strategies to escape them and achieve systemic policy coherence, offering guidance for researchers, policymakers, practitioners and graduate students working toward climate‑ready education systems.