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Recent years have seen mounting arguments from researchers, campaigners and educators for greater focus on climate justice in climate and sustainability education (Howard-Jones et al., 2021; McGregor & Christie, 2021; Rushton et al., 2025). This is also the focus of our research with primary and secondary educators in Newcastle and Dublin.

Arguments for greater attention to climate justice are grounded in students’ concerns: a key source of ‘climate anxiety’ reported in the largest survey with young people on the topic to date is a sense of being let down by adults (Hickman et al., 2022). In a separate global survey on students’ wishes for climate education, respondents ‘expressed interest in knowing more about historical responsibilities for climate change [and] climate justice’ (UNESCO, 2022, p. 8).

‘Excluding questions of justice from teaching on climate change does a disservice to students.’

These surveys show that excluding questions of justice from teaching on climate change does a disservice to students. However, little has been published on how educators are pursuing opportunities to explore such questions. With the ongoing implementation of the Department for Education in England, and a new and in Climate Action and Sustainable Development in Ireland, our Classrooms for Climate Justice project presents an opportunity to reflect critically on the value of climate justice as a pedagogic intervention in both countries, and the political and practical possibilities for this.

Interviews with educators for the project suggest that bringing a climate justice focus into classrooms is by no means straightforward. There are practical, emotional, ideological and institutional challenges, and educators who are keen to develop such a focus feel unsupported by government and often by school management. Notwithstanding these challenges, our research highlights some of the creative ways that educators are prioritising climate justice in classrooms. Here, we focus on three of the affordances of this approach.

1. The language of climate justice acknowledges and gives a framing to students’ own questions

Evidence of critically engaged student questioning was apparent in the reflections of several participants. For example, one primary teacher educator explained that: ‘When there was serious flooding in Bangladesh a few years ago, they [students] talked about the impact of that flooding, and why [it] was much worse in terms of climate change.’ Moreover, a secondary colleague described a lesson where: ‘We do a mapping exercise, then we then go “Well actually, look how many people live here! What’s the impact on these people here?”’

2. A focus on climate justice can inspire collective action

As one primary teacher commented: ‘An awful lot of our work in climate justice isn’t necessarily under the title of “Climate Justice”’ but instead is focused on enacting justice practically through recognition of diverse perspectives, or, in the words of the teacher ‘showing how we can compromise and how we work together’.

3. A climate justice focus can alleviate feelings of overwhelm among students by situating responsibility rightly

Educators shared examples of how teaching children to engage in democratic processes allows for building students’ sense of agency with regards to practically enabling climate justice. As one educator shared when explaining a letter-writing project they had done with students: ‘They feel that they can do something [but understand that] nobody’s going to solve anything on their own.’ The educator concluded that the sense of shared responsibility is important because it ‘takes away from the doom [and] the individual responsibility’.

At this critical time, we urge policymakers and educators to reflect on how a climate justice focus – comprising acknowledgement of inequality, collective action and shared responsibility – can respond to students’ concerns and interests. As a research team, we are collating resources for teaching on climate justice, based on educators’ suggestions and interventions. These potential solutions to teaching climate justice in the classroom will be listed on our .

References

Hickman, C., Marks, E., Pihkala, P., Clayton, C., Lewandowski, R. E., Mayall, E. E., Wray, B., Mellor, C., & van Susteren, L. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: A global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), e863–73.

Howard-Jones, P., Sands, D., Dillon, J., & Fenton-Jones, F. (2021). The views of teachers in England on an action-oriented climate change curriculum. Environmental Education Research, 27(11), 1660–1680.

McGregor, C., & Christie, B. (2021). Towards climate justice education: Views from activists and educators in Scotland. Environmental Education Research, 27(5), 652–668.

Rushton, E. A. C., Walshe, N., & Johnston, B. J. (2025). ‘Towards justice-oriented climate change and sustainability education: Perspectives from school teachers in England’, The Curriculum Journal (online first).

United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation [UNESCO]. (2022). Youth demands for quality climate education.