Young People at a Crossroads Educators Guide

• About this resource

  This booklet was produced as part of Young People at a Crossroads, a research project in which researchers worked with  migrant-background young people to explore migrant family perspectives on climate change education, action and adaptation.

  These perspectives were published in a creative book that was co-authored by young participants in the project. The Educators Guide uses the stories and perspectives featured in the creative book to present ‘spark ideas’ for secondary educators who are interested in diversifying the perspectives they use to teach on climate change.

  One of the sets of ‘spark ideas’ is themed around Climate Justice, and presents teaching ideas that connect material in the creative book to the following subject areas: Drama, English, Geography, Maths, Economics, Philosophy, Religious Studies and History. There are also spark ideas around the topics of responsibility, and plastics.

• Testimonies from educators

  This resource, which presents real life stories of climate adaptation from young people whose families have migrated from a range of contexts, was sourced by the research team, rather than recommended by an educator taking part in the research. However, educators in this research shared how they were sensitive to the diverse family backgrounds of students in their classrooms, and how they try to teach on climate change in a way that acknowledges and draws upon this diversity. For example: 

  “So the normal for people from the northeast of England is very different to people from the Middle East. I have 7 or 8 children in the class who are from the Middle East, and they had a much different sort of perspective on, sort of, how they would use water. Then, knowing that I've got family in America, where there's certain times of the year where they're restricting how much water they can use, and stuff like that. So I think sort of climate justice and linking that to global inequality is, yeah, something that's very important to me.” Dublin-based secondary educator

  “Where I worked previously, actually, it did come up a tiny bit, because there was a really high intake of children whose families were originally from Bangladesh, and so we did talk a little bit. This was a couple of years ago now, but about the impact, and like the increased risk of flooding as a result. And then it's getting worse, more severe weather and things as a result of climate change, and it came up then in terms of, like, climate justice that often it’s like the countries and the people who have least to do with climate change that are being the most severely impacted by it.” Newcastle-based trainee educator