Educational Leadership

COP28 is a reminder that higher education needs a mandate to combat the climate crisis and support the planet, say University of Melbourne experts

Preparing young people for their future requires teachers to be climate change educators, but the federal government has resisted its inclusion in the curriculum. It’s up to states to take the lead.

Universities can only credibly claim to be preparing young people for their futures if they take into account the kind of world they are helping to bring about.

Changes to the curriculum will put the country at the forefront of climate crisis education worldwide

Our education leaders need to prepare children for a future of global heating, climate migration, ecosystem erosion and resource depletion.

Damn these Year Elevens. They come into my office asking me to support the climate strike. They tell me that it is their planet too and that they should be able to protest about what is the most important issue of their lives. They ask whether the school will stand up for them.

I don’t want to catch the political nuclear-grade hot potato that is the climate ‘debate’. I have a strategic plan on education to write and a Council retreat to prepare for. As well, I have always prided myself on being able to teach current affairs without my classes being able to work out which way I would vote in an election. I stay neutral and allow all points of view – sometimes to a fault. And, anyway, I am not a scientist.

But these kids say that they are probably going to live into the 22nd century and they are terrified about tipping points and a runaway greenhouse effect. They say that the climate science is overwhelming. They say that leaders in my generation are not doing anywhere near enough about it.

One nation recently published a climate action plan.  Its climate minister stated that some of the country’s homes will have to be relocated as sea and river levels rise. I’d like to sh…

Universities and the professions are changing in response to climate change. When will the advances in knowledge and practice we are already seeing prompt governments to act with the required urgency?

Australian university promises ‘carbon negative’ footprint as v-c reflects on a summer of fire, ice and virus

A recent international conference was an opportunity to network, but I feel guilty about the waste and emissions

From next year, Italian school students in every grade will be required to study climate change and sustainability, in an attempt to position the country as a world leader in environmental education.