Climate Change Education; Investing in Tomorrow's Sustainability Leaders in Developing Countries

Abstract:

The Sustainability Development movement has evolved over the last two decades into a comprehensive framework with 17 universally-accepted goals known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Education is a focal goal and a pre-requisite to the implementation of all other SDGs. Studies have indicated that a lack of integrated approaches for climate change education among the educational systems’ stakeholders and policy makers leads to inefficient uptake of climate science and strategies to tackle climate change. Developing countries struggle most to integrate climate change education since economic problems overshadow social, political, and environmental management plans. In this study, we examined the inclusion of environmental studies in the curriculum of primary and secondary schools of Iran, employing an environmental scan. We also compared the results of this study with the curriculum of advanced educational systems in developed countries like Sweden and Germany. The environmental scanning method included examination of curriculum content, specific subjects taught, and number of training hours related to sustainability and climate change. The results indicated that only about 1.7 % of the 82 books in primary and high schools of Iran are designated to environmental studies and raising awareness about environment and climate change. The syllabi for the courses of geography and natural sciences at all school levels have the highest share among all other courses, with about 67 and 422 textbooks’ contents, respectively. Comparing the results of this study with Sweden and Germany with the value of more than 25% of their syllabi designated to environmental studies, sheds light on how educational systems with greater sustainability content produce more engaged sustainability activists like Greta Thunberg. Integration of environmental studies into K-12 education also develops policies that support environmental sustainability to entrust on our valuable natural heritage to the next generations.