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3.1.2 Know your rights: environmental rights and climate change

One of the key challenges that a Life Orientation teachers and teacher educators face is the planning of curriculum activated ESD together with other educators and their learners. The diagram below shows the four-quadrant framework that consist of the stages of knowledge, inquiry, applying and being able to take action, as a four action learning steps towards teaching sustainability topics such as climate change. The learning task sequence depicted in a quadrant outlined in this diagram is more detailed and includes:

Quadrant 1: Tune-in: Start-up stories and experience sharing.
Quadrant 2: Find-out: Inquiring and deepening knowledge.
Quadrant 3: Work-out: Review, analysis and critical thinking.
Quadrant 4: Take action and assess.

Study the steps in the four quadrant model. Find a start-up story to activate the curriculum topic “Your rights and climate change”. Your start-up story must also be solution-orientated. Share your start-up story with the group on the forum.

This is a game that helps learners to explore their feelings about climate change.

Instructions:

  1. Ask your class to sit in a circle. Add three additional chairs in the circle.
  2. You will be asking questions about environmental rights and climate change. Everytime the learner / student agrees with the statement they need to move to another chair.
  3. Once you have asked your last questions,  ask them to reflect on the movement they observed. How do they feel about the movement they saw? What do they think about this movement? What did they learn from this exercise?
  4. Reflect as a group what you learnt form the game and start to discuss the topic in-depth.

Here is some examples of questions you can ask in the game:

  • This is the first time I hear about climate change.
  • I believe in climate change.
  • I have seen the symptoms of climate change in my community.
  • I feel that my community should have better opportunities and live healthy and happy lives. For that we need economic development, social justice and a healthy, sustainable environment.
  • I understand my environmental rights.
  • I feel that climate change is a threat to Human Rights.
  • I feel that climate change is not my problem to solve.