This mixed-methods study examined how ten- to twelve-year-old children experienced and made sense of their growing climate change awareness through an after-school program that used participatory methods to facilitate children’s informed climate change action. The fifteen-week program combined hands-on educational activities with digital photography and culminated in youth-led action projects focused on individual (i.e. daily habits) and collaborative change (i.e. community projects). After the program, children knew significantly more about the scientific and social dimensions of climate change than before, and more than the average U.S. teen or adult. Survey and focus group analyses showed that, in addition to learning, children were inspired and motivated by their growing climate change awareness. Children felt empowered by their knowledge and eager to learn more and take action to minimize harms. Towards theorizing children’s constructive climate change engagement, the importance of informal learning environments for children’s intergenerational and political influence is discussed.

Growing recognition of the multi-faceted injustices of climate change has resulted in shifting public and policy discourse around how to understand and address climate change, yet justice considerations are rarely present in climate change education (CCE). With aims of bringing visibility to existing efforts and building a foundation for more widespread justice-driven CCE, this systematic review examined how justice frameworks are being employed in a range of CCE contexts, within and beyond the classroom. Analyses of 55 peer-reviewed articles with data from 57 countries published between 2007 and 2020 demonstrate that the empirical literature on justice in CCE has grown significantly in recent years. Notably, justice-driven CCE in this review took place within and beyond STEM education settings, was fueled more by people-focused aims (e.g. advancing equity) compared to planet-focused aims (e.g. protecting the environment), and encompassed a remarkable diversity of educational processes, goals, and outcomes—with learners of all ages—across formal, community-based, and activist learning contexts. Findings have implications for scholars, educators, and practitioners across disciplines committed to educating for justice in the face of climate change.

This paper documents a collaborative, multi-site participatory action research project in collaboration with children to act on climate change within local community settings. The project was an after-school program that combined hands-on climate change educational activities with photovoice, a participatory action research method that uses digital photography as the basis for problem identification, group dialogue, and social change action. Grounded in transformative sustainability learning theory and integrated with an arts-based participatory action research methodology, the program was designed to strengthen children’s climate change awareness and sense of agency through youth-led action projects. After describing the program, this article details the collaborative action projects designed and carried out by 10- to 12-year-olds in each community (e.g., policy advocacy, tree-planting, community garden) as well as how the program facilitated children’s constructive climate change engagement through children’s enjoyment and agentic action. The critical importance of participatory process and collaborative action in strengthening children’s sense of agency is discussed.

This manuscript explores the possibilities and challenges of art–science integration in facilitating collaborative sustainability action in local settings. To date, much sustainability education is prescriptive, rather than participatory, and most integrated art–science programming aims for content learning, rather than societal change. What this means is that learners are more often taught “what is” than invited to imagine “what if?” In order to envision and enact sustainable alternatives, there is a need for methods that allow community members, especially young people, to critically engage with the present, imagine a better future, and collaboratively act for sustainability today. This manuscript introduces a methodological framework that integrates the arts and sciences to facilitate: (1) transdisciplinary learning, focusing on local sustainability challenges; (2) participatory process, bringing experience-based knowledge into conversation with research-based knowledge; and (3) collaborative sustainability action, inviting community members to envision and enact sustainable alternatives where they live. The transformative potential of this framework is examined through international case studies from countries representing the richest and poorest in the Western hemisphere: a multi-site research study and after-school program for climate change education and action in collaboration with children in the Western US; and a multi-cycle research study and community arts center course for environmental photography and youth-led water advocacy in Southern Haiti. Despite many shared characteristics, case studies diverge in important ways relative to the sustainability challenges they sought to address, the specific context in which activities took place, and the manner in which art–science integration was practiced. Across cases, however, art–science integration facilitated participants’ learning, connection, and action for sustainability. Framed by the shared aims of transdisciplinary approaches, this manuscript discusses methodological hurdles and practical lessons learned in art–science integration across settings as well as the transformative capacity of alternative pedagogical and research practices in building a sustainable future.

Given the enormity of the climate crisis, the transformative potential of ‘everyday’ activism is often questioned. In this theoretical discussion, I explore the real-world significance of everyday activism by children and youth. First, I emphasize the need for top-down policy change as well as bottom-up cultural shifts. Next, I describe the significance of young people’s everyday activism through the lens of countercultures, while highlighting agency-limiting practices common in present-day formal educational settings. Lastly, I call for participatory and arts-based approaches in facilitating youths’ everyday climate crisis activism, noting its potential micro-level benefits and its relationship to macro-level social change.

In response to growing recognition for the mental health impacts of climate change, understanding the full range of children’s psychological experiences in climate change education (CCE) contexts is critical to developing approaches that support children’s constructive engagement and overall well-being. Through surveys and focus groups conducted with fifty-five children (ages 10–12), this mixed-methods study examined the affective and attitudinal impacts of a multi-site CCE program that encouraged children’s learning, reflection, and action. Findings suggest that, through the program, children acquired stronger pro-environmental attitudes, a deeper respect for nature, and a greater sense of urgency towards the need for climate action. Importantly, children’s negative emotions (e.g. fear, worry, anger, sadness) were mitigated by positive emotions grounded in youth-led climate action in family and community contexts. Findings are interpreted through theories of cognitive and affective transformation, which shed light on the beneficial micro- and macrolevel outcomes of children’s perspective shifts.