How can teachers model ecoresponsibility? 1. Make sustainable transportation choices. Walk, bike, take transit or carpool to work when possible and highlight active transportation benefits in class dis - cussions. Organize a walk- or bike-to-school challenge to model sustainable commuting. 2. Teach and practice energy conservation. Involve students in classroom energy audits and identify ways to reduce energy waste, like turning off lights, projectors and electronics when not in use and opening blinds for natural light instead of using overhead lights. 3. Incorporate outdoor and experiential learning. Take lessons outside when possible to foster a connec- tion with nature by using nearby green spaces, school gardens or local parks to enhance learning.
Guiding framework In April 2024, Alberta Education published a guiding framework for the design and development of K–12 curriculum. The 31-page document touched on Alberta’s oil and gas industry and climate change and received criticism, including from the Alberta Teachers’ Association, for being developed without teacher involvement and for being overly prescriptive.
Read exerpts from the guiding framework: https://abteach.cc_GuidingFramework
Is it real?
Preservice success Climate education professor Ellen Field is involved in a project called Accelerating Climate Change Edu- cation in Teacher Education, which disperses grants to faculties of education to create courses to teach preservice teachers about climate change education so they feel more confident and able to teach about climate change. Since its inception in 2023, the pro- ject has dispersed 17 grants worth a total of $85,000, resulting in 10 new courses being developed in faculties of education across Canada. Field was also part of a group of researchers who presented their findings to the Ontario College of Teachers. The result was that environmental sustainability and cli- mate action are now required topics in all teacher preservice programs in Ontario, the first Canadian jurisdiction to adopt such measures. “I think that’s a really powerful policy lever that, if other provinces adopted, we could actually move the needle pretty quickly,” Field says. “It came about through some com- mitted deans and getting the right people in the room, presenting some research,” she said. “So you know, sometimes policy work takes forever, and then sometimes you get the right people in the room and things can happen.”
“ I am certain that climate change is really happening.”
SK 71%
MB 84%
BC 85%
AB 73%
AB Teachers 93%
QC 88%
Ȥ ATA Global, Environmental and Outdoor Education Council.
Canada 84%
ON 85%
Maritimes 86%
AB Teachers
General Public
Expert calls for board action supported by government funding
A matter of policy The ATA has three policies acknowledging that climate change is a critical challenge that is caused by human activ- ity and that call for curriculum that explicitly addresses this subject.
Curricular references An ATA analysis of Alberta curriculum identified climate change and climate-science connections in • 25 science grades/courses, • 13 social studies grades/courses and • at least 9 CTS courses. These connections range from indirect to direct references to climate, climate change and cli- mate-science related concepts. Scan the QR code to review the most direct references to climate change in Alberta’s K–12 curriculum
Climate education professor Ellen Field believes that school boards can play an active role in climate leadership through climate action plans, climate emergency declarations, and mentions of climate change or green- house gas emissions in their strategic plans. “We often look at the ministries at the provincial level for policy change, but we can actually think a lot around driving change at that school or district level,” Field says. A national research study she led found that only four school districts in Canada have explicit climate action plans, and between eight and eleven have a commitment to
climate change or greenhouse gas reduc- tions in their strategic plans. The study provided two key recommendations: School boards need to develop policy that supports a whole-institution approach to climate action. Ministries of education need to pro- vide funding to school boards to develop and implement whole-institution climate change policies.
Read more at: https://abteach.cc_CurricularReferences
The full review can be viewed here: https://abteach.cc_ClimateLeadership
ATA Magazine Fall 2025
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THE ALBERTA TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION
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