Addressing Climate Change in Education

Jon McAlice

From In Context #50 (Fall, 2023)

It is an ongoing question how climate change, and all the phenomena related to it, can be better addressed in schools. Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, emphasized how essential it is for students to come to an understanding of what is happening in the world around them. With this aim in mind, a small group of Waldorf school teachers joined Nature Institute faculty in July to deliberate on three climate change questions: What are core phenomena we need to grasp in order to understand the complexities of climate and its change? Do the curricular indications given in the early years of Waldorf education provide a guide to helping students come to understand Earth as a living whole? What key experiments or series of experiments can support a growing understanding of the processes at play in global warming?

We focused specifically on grades 7-12, the years during which a desire to form individual judgments based on understanding awakens in students. This awakening is accompanied by an upwelling of youthful idealism. One of the challenges we face in teaching adolescents is to find the right balance between these two, often contradictory, gestures. How do we help students come to an understanding of the factors at play in climate change and how it affects life on Earth that doesn’t leave them feeling hopeless and disempowered, that can help lead to a feeling of responsibility for her wellbeing? We were guided by the assumption that climate change is not something that can be “fixed,” but rather challenges us to learn to know Earth differently.

The way children and adolescents engage with Earth changes in the course of their development. Young children who are given the opportunity to experience the natural world directly through meaningful activities can grow to both trust nature and to keep a sense of wonder alive for the beauty and mystery that we find in nature. Being with adults who care for Earth is essential. A second phase in the development of the child’s relationship with Earth begins when we look more closely at the phenomena of the natural world. In the Waldorf curriculum, this intensified focus on natural science spans the period from the 6th to the 10th grade and culminates in learning to know Earth as a living whole. Once students have gained insight into the natural processes and interrelationships that bring about climate change, they have a foundation from which to work towards a better understanding of the socio/ cultural aspects of the problem, addressing topics of economics, climate justice, and exploring possibilities of constructive change.

By the end of our time together, it was apparent that we had only begun to develop a picture of an educational approach to climate change that could help students strengthen their resolve to bring about transformation. A second colloquium at the institute is planned for February 2024 during which we plan to continue the work with an emphasis on experimental sequences that help us understand the basic phenomena underlying the changes taking place on a global scale.