This Climate Justice in BC resource package was designed to provide teachers with classroom-ready materials to engage their students with how climate action intersects with social justice. The curriculum features eight modules designed for students in Grades 8 to 12 that explore climate justice within the context of BC’s communities, history, economy and ecology. These lessons tie into subject matter and prescribed learning outcomes (PLOs) already in BC’s curriculum, while providing a framework with which to unpack modern social and environmental issues, such as our industrial food system, consumerism and waste, transportation, and the development of a green economy.
The resource presents opportunities for students to practice and strengthen those skills associated with
This is a well constructed resource. It
The resource has a broad application for those units of study that explore issues of sustainable development, particularly with respect to climate change and social justice.
Teachers may choose specific modules such as food systems, transportation, fracking, green revolution, and shaping the future depending on their curriculum obligations within the grades 8-12 continuum.
The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.
Principle | Rating | Explanation |
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Consideration of Alternative Perspectives | Very Good | The resource starts with the assumption that the burdens associated with climate change are not equally shared and that our response must be informed by considerations of social justice but within this framework students are asked to consider questions that encourage them to explore the range of perspectives and options that acknowledge the complexity of the challenges. |
Consideration of Alternative Perspectives:
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Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions | Very Good | The resource consists of eight modules, each of which encourages students to recognize how current behaviors and practices are linked to considerations of convenience, efficiency, wealth, and well being. In re-imaging an alternative social order, students must explain how the pieces of that order will intersect to achieve the desired ends.The resource has student move beyond the "personal choice" model of social change to re-imagine the systems that surround them. This is particularly true in the waste module where students explore the concepts of open and closed loops and the idea that we all live downstream and in the module Imagining Our Future wherein students outline a sustainable future that appreciates the links among the economy, the environment, and society. |
Multiple Dimensions of Problems & Solutions: Effectively addresses the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the issue(s) being explored.
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Respects Complexity | Very Good | Each of the modules includes a segment in which the teacher asks the students to consider and respond to open-ended, probing questions that help students acknowledge the complexity of the issue being discussed and to recognize simple or simplistic solutions. The Fracking Town Hall simulation, for example, has students realize the variety of stakeholders and perspectives that must be considered in any effort to determine whether fracking should be allowed in a give community. |
Respects Complexity: The complexity of the problems/issues being discussed is respected. | ||
Acting on Learning | Very Good | Each module concludes with suggestions for student action and includes relevant links to on-line resources that help to inform related actions. |
Acting on Learning: Learning moves from understanding issues to working towards positive change — in personal lifestyle, in school, in the community, or for the planet
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Values Education | Very Good | The resource poses a question - what are the ethical considerations in any response to the challenges of climate change? Is the current situation fair and if not what can we do in the name of social justice to right a perceived wrong? |
Values Education: Students are explicitly provided with opportunities to identify, clarify and express their own beliefs/values. | ||
Empathy & Respect for Humans | Very Good | The focus of the resource is social justice. Students examine the inequities that exist with respect to the causes and consequences of climate change, recognizing that those elements of society that are least responsible for climate change are often the ones most likely to bear the burden created by that change. |
Empathy & Respect for Humans: Empathy and respect are fostered for diverse groups of humans (including different genders, ethnic groups, sexual preferences, etc.). | ||
Personal Affinity with Earth | Poor/Not considered | |
Personal Affinity with Earth: Encourages a personal affinity with -the natural world.
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Locally-Focused Learning | Very Good | The school and the community are used as a lab where students go to analyse and reflect on current realities and preferred futures with respect to climate change. |
Locally-Focused Learning: Includes learning experiences that take advantage of issues/elements within the local community.
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Past, Present & Future | Very Good | Each of the modules revolves around two considerations - what is the current reality and what can we do to change it for the better? |
Past, Present & Future: Promotes an understanding of the past, a sense of the present, and a positive vision for the future. |
Principle | Rating | Explanation |
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Open-Ended Instruction | Good | The resource introduces students to the concept of climate justice in B.C. which assumes there is an issue here. Students explore the topic by collecting or examining data, discussing the implications of that data and move to a consideration context. There is considerable opportunity for students to share their understandings of what is happening and what might be done. |
Open-Ended Instruction
: Lessons are structured so that multiple/complex answers are possible; students are not steered toward one 'right' answer. | ||
Integrated Learning | Very Good | The eight modules in the resource cover a diversity of topics - food system, transportation, waste management, fracking, greening the economy, and the future. Each of these has relevance for a variety of subject areas and present significant opportunities for cross-curricular initiates.The Food module, for example, has links to home economics, local and global economics, health issues, environmental concerns, health and income. |
Integrated Learning: Learning brings together content and skills from more than one subject area
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Inquiry Learning | Good | Guided inquiry is a central component of the pedagogy employed by the resource. Teachers direct and encourage student thinking and discussion with well constructed and open-ended questions designed to initiate student exploration of the issues being examined. Once the big questions have been identified it largely becomes the responsibility of the students to gather the information needed to arrive at an informed opinion. |
Inquiry Learning: Learning is directed by questions, problems, or challenges that students work to address.
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Differentiated Instruction | Very Good | The resource takes advantage of a variety of instructional strategies - videos, power point presentations, simulations, brainstorming, opinion - meters, small and large group discussion and presentations. Teachers are encouraged to adapt these lessons to their particular classroom needs, or pull out specific activities as appropriate. |
Differentiated Instruction: Activities address a range of student learning styles, abilities and readiness.
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Experiential Learning | Good | The school and the community are used as a laboratory where students go to make observations, gather data, and find resource persons. In imagining a more sustainable future students consider what it would look like at the community level. |
Experiential Learning: Authentic learning experiences are provided
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Cooperative Learning | Good | Students are given multiple opportunities for pair-share learning and small and large group activities. Warnings and hints are also included to better ensure that in such activities students are sensitive to the cultural and economic background of their fellow students. |
Cooperative Learning: Group and cooperative learning strategies are a priority.
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Assessment & Evaluation | Good | The resource includes a number of opportunities for formative assessment. These include opinion-o-meters, mapping the school's food system, brainstorming, personal diaries, group reports, and role playing as part of a simulation. |
Assessment & Evaluation: Tools are provided that help students and teachers to capture formative and summative information about students' learning and performance. These tools may include reflection questions, checklists, rubrics, etc. | ||
Peer Teaching | Good | Peer teaching is an integral component of the pedagogical underpinnings of the resource. Pair-share arrangements are used to have students discuss how they might reduce their carbon footprint or to identify changes they are committed to adopt. In small groups, students map the school's food system, discuss alternate transportation systems, and products so as to reduce waste, and redesign products so as to reduce waste. A double-circle activity allows students to share their thoughts about the present and imagine a preferred future. A simulation on fracking has students explain the perspective of the various stakeholders in that debate. |
Peer Teaching: Provides opportunities for students to actively present their knowledge and skills to peers and/or act as teachers and mentors.
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Case Studies | Very Good | The resource has students undertake a number of case studies. They collect and analyze data to better understand the food system, the transportation system, and the waste disposal system as they operates in their school and community. |
Case Studies: Relevant case studies are included. Case studies are thorough descriptions of real events from real situations that students use to explore concepts in an authentic context. | ||
Locus of Control | Good | The guided inquiry teaching strategy imposes a certain structure on the resource but it does encourage students to investigate those issues that interest them in greater depth and provides the additional resources necessary to pursue that interest. The resource also references a number of organizations that students might consider supporting or joining if they are persuaded that they wish to move beyond understanding to action. |
Locus of Control: Meaningful opportunities are provided for students to choose elements of program content, the medium in which they wish to work, and/or to go deeper into a chosen issue. |