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Teach for Climate Justice:
A Vision for Transforming Education
“An invaluable new book on the most important issue of our time—climate justice.”
— Pedro Noguera, author and dean of the Rossier School of Education, USC
Global warming, species extinction, rampant inequality, and their impacts on human life and civilization will be the primary factors shaping the lives of the children and young people in school now and in the future. Our students will, in turn, be called to shape the world they are growing into: It has fallen to their generation to shoulder a major share of the responsibility to turn things around before it’s too late. Yet, schools are generally paying little attention to this reality. Even when climate education is offered, it is generally about climate change rather than for a habitable planet, for the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable sources of energy, and for climate justice.
Teach for Climate Justice is a call to action—an urgent plea for Pre-K to 12 educators to rise up and provide transformative education attuned to the needs of their students and humanity at this critical inflection point in human history. Educators are well-positioned to make an immensely important strategic contribution to the great adventure of our time: the global movement to save the environment, usher in a new era of climate justice, and heal our broken relationship with nature. We must seize this opportunity.
The book is not a curriculum. Most needed now is an inspiring perspective to guide developmentally appropriate teaching and learning across the grades. Drawing on the author’s fifty years of educating for social responsibility, social and emotional learning (SEL), and racial equity, the book is the first to offer a comprehensive vision of what Pre-K to 12 education needs to be in this time of climate crisis. Vivid stories featuring the outstanding work of twenty-three educators and four student activists ground the perspective in real-life classrooms and schools.
The book has eight dimensions, each described in a chapter of the book, as follows:
Build the Beloved Community: Strong Hearts United for Climate Justice
Cultivate Love and Understanding for Nature
Educate for Deep Understanding of the Climate Crisis
Envision a Just and Sustainable Future and Practice Active Hope
Teach for Civil Resistance: The Power of Grassroots Movements to Effect Transformational Change
Support Students to Make a Difference
Engage the Entire School—and Beyond
Go Forth with Heart, Joy, and a Fighting Spirit!
As educators we are called to stand in solidarity with our students as they face an uncertain and challenging future. Funding cuts, the obsession with standardized tests, divisive political issues, and the pandemic are making it difficult to express the depth of caring we have for our students. We must mourn—and organize, joining with colleagues, students, parents, and community members, to demand the freedom and resources to give our students a great education—for climate justice!
You can order the book here: Teach for Climate Justice
Tom Roderick
I’m an educator, activist, and writer based in New York City. I came to education through the civil rights movement in the sixties and taught in Harlem and East Harlem for ten years, including seven years as teacher-director of a storefront school led by parents. For thirty-six years I served as founding executive director of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility, started in 1982 by educators concerned about the danger of nuclear war. Over the years I led Morningside Center to become a national leader in partnering with schools to implement high-quality, research-based programs in social and emotional learning (SEL), restorative practices, and racial equity. In May 2018, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) awarded me its Mary Utne O’Brien Award for Excellence in Expanding Evidence-Based Practice of Social and Emotional Learning.
I have a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and a master’s and honorary doctorate from Bank Street College of Education. I am the author of A School of Our Own: Parents, Power, and Community at the East Harlem Block Schools (Teachers College Press, 2001). I retired from Morningside Center at the end of 2018, and spent four years researching and writing Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education (Harvard Education Press, 2023).