Climate ACTIOn

In 2021 a new Junior Cycle short course on Climate Action was published. The course has been developed in line with NCCA guidelines and template for Junior Cycle short courses by a team of educators including two teachers, from CETSS and NWETSS. Building on four years of experience of delivering a JC short course in Sustainability, in 2020 teachers in both schools formed a team of educators to lead a yearlong project to develop a new Junior Cycle short course in Climate Action. The course specification was developed through a consultation process with youth, teacher and expert advisory groups as well as inputs from youth organisations, and successive rounds of feedback from the NCCA. First years at CETSS are among the 520+ Junior Cycle students across 15 schools nationwide who began first delivery of course in September 2021.

CETSS together with the other schools delivering the course is part of a three-year programme of teacher training and peer learning for empowering youth climate education, supported by the Irish Second Level Students' Union and funded by World Wise Global Schools and the Community Foundation Ireland.

Climate Action is a short course in Junior Cycle that aims to develop creative, caring global citizens who are engaged in their local communities, have the ability to critically analyze root causes of local and global sustainability issues and are confident in their capacity to take collective action for a just and sustainable future for all. Climate action offers significant opportunities for outdoor learning, opportunities to develop a sense of connection with nature and greater opportunities for youth-led collective action or opportunities to engage with real world challenges in a local community. During the course students also help to co-design units of learning around themes of particular interest to the class. For full details of the course, see the course specification, assessment guidelines, and introductory slides to the course.

Aim

This course aims to support learners to develop the knowledge, skills, values and motivation for climate action, and to empower themselves to become life-longparticipants in social change towards a sustainable and just world for all. The course aims to achieve this by creating space and experiences that support learners to;

• develop personal motivations for climate action,

• explore root causes of climate change and linked global injustices,

• develop a critical consciousness (both emotional and cognitive) of how environmental and social inequalities relate to their lives,

• develop visions of positive futures, and

• become skilled and confident organizers of collective action for social change towards a just and sustainable society.