The field of climate change education is growing, with most research efforts focused on what represents effective teaching while having little to say about the structural obstacles to enacting the curriculum. This essay examines what we know about climate change education implementation from a meso-level structural perspective, accounting for the levels of school organization and permission structures that must be in place to effectively enact climate change education at scale. Using cautionary lessons from the history of creationism and evolution education, we examine what is known and not known about (a) the teaching of climate change science in K-12 schools, (b) the levels of administrative support among principals and superintendents, and (c) the community and cultural factors such as school boards that affect decisions to teach about the changing climate. We conclude by developing productive lines of research to better understand the blank spots of climate change education in the American educational structure.
BerkmanMPlutzerE (2005) Ten Thousand Democracies: Politics and Public Opinion in America's School Districts. Georgetown University Press.
6.
BhowmikAKMcCaffreyMSRuskeyAMFrischmannCGaffneyO (2020) Powers of 10: seeking ‘sweet spots’ for rapid climate and sustainability actions between individual and global scales. Environmental Research Letters15(9): 094011.
7.
BinderAJ (2002) Contentious Curricula: Afrocentrism and Creationism in American Public Schools. Princeton University Press.
8.
BoydKJBuschKCGoldAUWardEGNiepoldFPoppletonKMorrisonDL (2024) Using social network analysis to assess connections within climate and energy education organizations: A case study conducted by the Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN). Environmental Education Research, 1–24. Online first.
9.
BranchGAndrewsL (2020) Making the Grade? How State Public School Science Standards Address Climate Change. Available at: https://climategrades.org/
10.
BurnsHDiamond-VaughtHBaumanC (2015) Leadership for sustainability: theoretical foundations and pedagogical practices that foster change. International Journal of Leadership Studies9: 88–100.
CohenDKBallDL (1990) Policy and Practice: An Overview. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis12(3): 233–239. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/1164349
14.
ColstonNIveyT (2015) (un)Doing the Next Generation Science Standards: climate change education actor-networks in Oklahoma. Journal of Education Policy30: 773–795.
15.
DeWatersJEAndersenCCalderwoodA, et al. (2014) Improving climate literacy with project-based modules rich in educational rigor and relevance. Journal of Geoscience Education62(3): 469–484.
16.
DrewesA (2018) Personal, Professional, Political: An Exploration of Science Teacher Identity Development for Teaching Climate Change. University of Delaware.
17.
DrewesARogersMJPetroneC (2020) Climate change professional development approaches ‘MADE CLEAR’: looking back on one project and looking forward to the future. In Teaching Climate Change in the United States. Routledge, 77–95.
FieldEStapletonSLowan-TrudeauG, et al. (2024) Climate activism in K-12 education across north America. In The Routledge Handbook of Grassroots Climate Activism. Routledge, 574–585.
FordDBlenkinsopS (2021) Letters from a dying college: how the climate crisis demands a wilder pedagogy and wilder policies. Policy Futures in Education19(3): 387–399.
25.
GalmanSC (2012) Wise and Foolish Virgins : White Women at Work in the Feminized World of Primary School Teaching. Lexington Books.
26.
GanD (2021) Environmental education leadership - the perceptions of elementary school principals as expressed in their drawings and explanations. Environmental Education Research27(1): 1440–1466.
27.
HargisKMcKenzieMLeVert-ChiassonI (2021) A whole institution approach to climate change education: preparing school systems to be climate proactive. In Curriculum and Learning for Climate Action. Brill, 43–66.
HendersonJDrewesA (2020) Teaching Climate Change in the United States. Routledge.
30.
HendersonJLongDBergerP, et al. (2017) Expanding the foundation: climate change and opportunities for educational research. Educational Studies53(4): 412–425.
31.
HendersonJADrewesATrauthAE, et al. (2024) How geography and politics shape teachers’ engagement with climate change science standards. Environmental Education Research1–24.
32.
HessFMMeeksO (2010) Governance in the accountability era. In: The National School Boards Association, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Iowa School Boards Foundation.
33.
HetheringtonMJWeilerJ (2009) Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics. Cambridge University Press.
34.
HurshDHendersonJGreenwoodD (2015) Environmental education in a neoliberal climate. Environmental Education Research21(3): 299–318.
35.
IPCC (2023) Climate change 2023: synthesis report. In LeeHRomeroJ (eds) Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Core Writing Team. Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC, 35–115.
36.
JandrićPJaldemarkJHurleyZ, et al. (2021) Philosophy of education in a new key: who remembers Greta Thunberg? Education and environment after the coronavirus. Educational Philosophy and Theory53(14): 1421–1441.
37.
JasanoffSKimSH (2019) Dreamscapes of modernity: Sociotechnical imaginaries and the fabrication of power. University of Chicago Press.
38.
JorgensonSNStephensJCWhiteB (2019) Environmental education in transition: a critical review of recent research on climate change and energy education. The Journal of Environmental Education50(3): 160–171.
39.
Kadji-BeltranCZhacariousAStevensonRB (2013) Leading sustainable schools: exploring the role of primary school principals. Environmental Education Research19(3): 303–323.
LaatsA (2015) The Other School Reformers: Conservative Activism in American Education. Harvard University Press.
45.
LaatsA (2021) Creationism USA: Bridging the Impasse on Teaching Evolution. Oxford University Press.
46.
LeiserowitzAMaibachERosenthalS, et al. (2023) Climate Change in the American Mind: Politics & Policy, Fall 2023 Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
47.
LiTM (2007) The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics. Duke University Press.
48.
LongD (2011) Evolution and religion in American education: an ethnography. Cultural Studies of Science Education4.
49.
LongDHendersonJ (2023) Climate change as superordinate curriculum?Research in Education117(1): 73–87.
50.
LortieDC (2002) Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. University of Chicago Press.
51.
MartinaCAHurshDMarkowitzD (2009) Contradictions in educational policy: implementing integrated problem‐based environmental health curriculum in a high stakes environment. Environmental Education Research15(3): 279–297.
52.
McCrightAMDunlapRE (2011) Cool dudes: the denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States. Global Environmental Change21(4): 1163–1172.
53.
McKenzieM (2012) Education for y'all: global neoliberalism and the case for a politics of scale in sustainability education policy. Policy Futures in Education10(2): 165–177.
54.
McKenzieMStahelinN (2022) The global inter-network governance of UN policy programs on climate change education. International Journal of Educational Research116: 102093.
National Center for Education Statistics (2023) Characteristics of Public and Private School Principals. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cls
60.
National Conference of State Legislatures [NCSL] (2010) Women in state legislatures: 2010 legislative session.
PatelLVincentJMVeidisE, et al. (2023) A Call to Action: Climate Resilient California Schools. Safeguarding Children’s Health and Opportunity to Learn in TK-12. Stanford University.
63.
PetridouEMintromM (2021) A research agenda for the study of policy entrepreneurs. Policy Studies Journal49(4): 943–967.
64.
PlutzerEHannahLRosenauJ, et al. (2016a) Mixed Messages:How Climate Is Taught in America’s Schools. Oakland, CA: National Center for Science Education. https://ncse.com/files/MixedMessages.pdf
65.
PlutzerEMcCaffreyMHannahAL, et al. (2016b) Climate confusion among US teachers. Science351(6274): 664–665.
66.
PrenticeCMVergunstFMinorKBerryHL (2024) Education outcomes in the era of global climate change. Nature Climate Change14(3): 214–224.
RománDBuschKC (2016) Textbooks of doubt: using systemic functional analysis to explore the framing of climate change in middle-school science textbooks. Environmental Education Research22(8): 1158–1180.
71.
SchellyCCrossJEFranzenWSHallPReeveS (2011) Reducing energy consumption and creating a conservation culture in organizations: A case study of one public school district. Environment and Behavior43(3): 316–343.
72.
SchneiderJBerkshireJ (2020) A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School. The New Press.
73.
SheaNAMouzaCDrewesA (2016) Climate change professional development: design, implementation, and initial outcomes on teacher learning, practice, and student beliefs. Journal of Science Teacher Education27: 235–258.
74.
SpillaneJ P (2000) Cognition and policy implementation: District policymakers and the reform of mathematics education. Cognition and Instruction18(2): 141–179.
75.
SpringJ (2013) Superintendent Leadership and Environmental Sustainability in New York State Public Schools (Publication Number 3610162). Doctoral dissertation, The Sages Colleges. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
76.
StevensonRBWhitehouseHFieldE (2024) Teaching climate justice education holistically in schools. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press.
77.
StokesLC (2020) Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States. Oxford University Press.
78.
SultanaF (2022) The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality. Political Geography99: 102638.
79.
TainterJ (1988) The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge University Press.
80.
TienkenC (ed) (2020) The American Superintendent: 2020 Decennial Study. American Association of School Administrators.
81.
TyackDCubanL (1995) Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
VerschuerenC (2022) Multi-layered predictors of ESE policy adoption in large school districts in the United States. Environmental Education Research28(8): 1251–1270.
WhiteRSMalinJREvansM (2023) Experiences with and responses to contentious issues in school communities: perspectives of the chief executives of America's public schools. In Paper presented at 2023 BELMAS Annual Conference,Belfast, Northern Ireland.
87.
WorthK (2021) Miseducation: How Climate Change Is Taught in America. Columbia University.
