Designing a science curriculum for climate-challenged futures
INDsigt ved Peta White & Russell Tytler, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia
We now inhabit the climate challenged world of the Anthropocene. It is time to rethink the science needed by citizens and future STEM professionals to deal with multiple socio ecological challenges. Peta White and Russell Tytler are members of the OECD PISA environmental science and science expert groups that developed the 2025 Science Framework adapted to address future challenges. They will describe how the PISA Science Framework advocates for ‘agency in the anthropocene’. They will draw on their research experience to lead idea exchange on how we can effectively develop student agency and action orientated science education.
They will discuss the nature of Climate Change Education that is different to Education for Sustainability and provide examples of how science learning sequences can be developed to focus on student agency. Participants’ experience will be drawn upon in group discussion of what we mean by agency, and how it can be effectively developed in science classrooms and in future decision making and acting for a sustainable planet.
Some reading:
- Eames, C., Monroe, M.C., White, P.J., & Ardoin, N.M., (2024). Engaging Environmental Education Through PISA: Leveraging curriculum as a political process. Australian Journal of Environmental Education. 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2024.40
- White, P.J., Ardoin, N.M., Eames, C., Monroe, M.C. (2024). Agency in the Anthropocene: education for planetary health, The Lancet Planetary Health, 8(2), e117-e123, https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00271-1.
- White, P. J., Ferguson, J. P., O’Connor Smith, N., & O’Shea Carre, H. (2022). School strikers enacting politics for climate justice: Daring to think differently about education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 38(1), 26–39. https://doi:10.1017/aee.2021.24
- Kirk, M., Tytler, R., White, P.J., Ferguson, J., & Raphael, J. (2024). Fostering epistemic space for collaborative solutions in primary science through a Socratic seminar inquiry approach. Research in Science Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-024-10209-x
Bios
Peta is an Associate Professor in science and environmental education at Deakin University. She led the OECD PISA Environmental Science contribution to the 2025 Science Framework 'Agency in the Anthropocene' and Co-directs the Centre for Regenerating Futures and is the Editor-In-Chief of the Australian Journal of Environmental Education. Her current research follows three narratives: science and biology education; sustainability, environmental, and climate change education; and collaborative/activist methodology and research.
Russell is Deakin Distinguished Professor of Science Education at Deakin University. He researches student reasoning and learning through the multimodal languages of science, socio scientific issues and reasoning, school-community partnerships, and STEM curriculum policy and practice. He has led a range of research projects, including investigating a guided inquiry pedagogy for interdisciplinary mathematics and science, and currently representing contemporary science R&D in schools to support an informed Climate Change Education. He is a member of the Science Expert Group for PISA, and of the Deakin Centre for Regenerating Futures.