Social-Emotional Learning Towards Climate Justice

Barriers and Potentials in Using Social-Emotional Learning Towards Climate Justice: A View from South Asia 


This academic and practitioner collective emerged from a roundtable discussion at the Comparative and International Education Society. The group and its discussions advocate for a paradigm shift in Climate Justice Education (CJE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by integrating Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) rooted in empathy and "positive peace." Critiquing the current over-reliance on scientific epistemology and Global North-centric discourses, the group argues that education must move beyond abstract facts to foster a deep sense of care and local relevance. It proposes a foundation of both cognitive and emotional empathy that addresses lived climate injustices and structural inequities, moving students from passive understanding to active engagement. By utilizing creative, experience-based pedagogies that prioritize immediate environmental contexts—such as local water scarcity or urban heat—over distant global narratives, the collective aims to create a more equitable educational model that empowers students to build a more climate-just future. 

The discussions in this collective highlights ideas emanating from a series of discussions amongst a group of academics, researchers, practitioners and activists in the fields of education and climate from South Asia. 

The discussions reflected on how climate justice education (CJE) and education for sustainable development (ESD)can be conceptualised to incorporate deeper engagement with social emotional learning (SEL). Two overarching concerns of climate and sustainability education informed the discussions of the group: the first was the over-reliance on scientific epistemology informing ESD and CJE. It was argued that while science explains the facts as they are, it does not impart a notion of care and call to action to students who will determine the future of these disciplines, and indeed the state of the environment. The second concern was that discourses in both disciplines are dominated by issues and concerns facing lived experiences in the Global North, many of which are far removed from those affecting the global majority. Furthermore, there is diversity of experiences across social contexts in the Global North and South that climate justice education needs to incorporate.

These issues debated extensively and informally over the course of several months and through more formal engagement through a public webinar. The group will now gather to take the discussion forward on two ideas, firstly, framing SEL in the fields of CJE and ESD.  While dominant conceptualisations of SEL engage with lived environments, there was a consensus that this was inadequate to address the multifarious concerns emanating from lived climate injustices in global south contexts, and indeed broader issues impeaching students’ ability to live in positive peace i.e. one that not only includes an absence of violence but embodies structures for the removal of all inequities. Thus, embedding SEL into ESD, grounded in respect for land and habitat, must include learning for positive peace, all of which is grounded in the notion of fundamental empathy for the natural and living world. Empathy conceptually requires viewing another through their eyes to understand their lived realities. For the purposes of ESD this can take different approaches across the spectrum of passive (that processes emotional responses) to active empathy (that takes action to create a change), grounded in a typology of cognitive (learned) and emotional empathy. Building on these thoughts, the first output was that education for sustainable development must integrate empathy as a foundation for SEL in CJE and ESD. 

Second, how to integrate empathy-driven SEL into CJE and ESD. The next question that the group debated was the practicality of embedding such thinking into learning processes given contextual diversity and time and resource constraints faced by educators globally. Solutions to achieve this were viewed both through formal teaching pathways and more holistically.

The fundamental question that the group grappled with concerning embedding SEL into CJE and ESD was how to create content that was relevant across contexts. Two related avenues were highlighted both grounded in imaginings of creative pedagogies: the first was to make the content experience-based so that learning projects for ESD would include interactions with the natural environment, animals, and promoting peace, incorporating ideas of SEL (underwritten by empathy). Such learning design imagined the creative use of surrounding natural habitats and socio-human contexts rather than overarching global issues that may not hold contextual relevance to students. Thus for example for those living in arid regions, water conservation topics may take precedence while for those living in urban centres, learning about mitigating pollution, excessive heat and flooding would be topics of learning. Such pedagogical design is informed by global citizenship education that highlights contextual learning and action as fundamental precepts of learning.

This South Asian collective would like to have a space at CIES to continue its discussions to reflect on these issues characterised by the varied perspectives shared by the group members, for which a pilot is planned for testing in the near future. This variety brings shared experiences and values, theoretical framing tempered by practical feasibility of solutions. What remains fixed is the commitment on imagining more equitable education for climate and environmental sustainability in the hope of more climate just futures for all.

 

Chair:  Iveta Silova, Professor and Associate Dean of Global Engagement at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University

Discussant: Adil Najam, Dean Emeritus and Professor, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University

Roundtable Organizer: Dr. Radhika Iyengar, Director Education, Center for Sustainable Development, Climate School, Columbia University  

Contributors:

Ambreena Ahmed, Director Teachers Resource Centre, Pakistan 

Faryal Khan, Ed.D., lead programme specialist, UNESCO Regional Office, Bangkok, Thailand 

Dr Camilla Hadi Chaudhary, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Baela Jamil, Member, Advisory Committee; CEO, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), Pakistan

Rajib Timalsina, Assistant Professor of Conflict, Peace & Development Studies, Tribhuvan University, and Co-founder/director of ASER Nepal

Arshi Naaz, State Head ,Delhi ,Pratham Education Foundation, India  

Viplow Shivhare, Lead-Operations, Upper Primary Programs, Pratham Education Foundation, India  

Afia Salam, Communications Consultant, 

Arya Karumanthra, Indiana University Bloomington 

 

 

Title: Reimagining Science Classrooms as a Space for Climate Justice and Care 

Speakers: Arya Karumanthra 

In this presentation, we as teacher educators offer a pedagogical perspective to learning design that can help reimagine science classrooms as spaces for climate justice and care. We discuss how science classrooms that have long been perceived as spaces for empirical inquiry can be transformed into sites for climate justice education (CJE) that are emotionally relevant and socially structured. Content-focused science education is essential for understanding climate systems, but it is insufficient for nurturing the values, care, and ethical reasoning that climate justice demands. Science, by its nature, prioritizes teaching students to gather evidence, collect and analyze data, and construct models. However, climate justice is not merely about knowing the facts about rising CO2 levels, greenhouse gas emissions, or surface temperatures. It is more about understanding whose voices are heard (Long & Henderson, 2023). We discuss pedagogical approaches that could lead to instilling a more holistic approach to learning about climate while considering emotions and socio-cultural systems within and outside the classrooms.  

One of the pedagogical approaches we explored is the purposeful comparison pedagogy, where students examine a single phenomenon in multiple contexts, driven by a purposeful question (Boix-Mansilla & Chua, 2017). For example, students were engaged in cross-national comparisons of energy mix and place-based energy resource allocation across three countries (India, Germany, and the United States). By engaging in cross-contextual comparisons, students were able to move beyond a technocratic understanding to one that foregrounds local values, historical responsibilities, and lived consequences. These global comparisons improve their critical understanding of their own context. This pedagogical approach opens a way towards integrating socio-emotional learning into climate education. When students engage with contrasting realities presented as cases from different geographical regions, they begin to associate with the affective dimensions that lead to decisions in the particular cases. While carrying out global comparisons, students are exposed to different practices, systems, and approaches used in other parts of the world that will help them see how their locality is positioned within the broader global dynamics. When they see the realities of other parts of the world, students become more informed and even motivated to take meaningful educational action in their own communities. Here, there is a shift towards a more grounded and place-based experience that encourages students to recognize injustices and imagine alternatives. If we are to prepare youth to navigate the uncertain futures of climate change, we must reimagine the science classroom as a space for imparting knowledge as well as inculcating the practice of justice and care.  

Arya Karumanthra, Indiana University Bloomington 

Asli Sezen-Barrie, Stacey Nicholas Endowed Chair of Climate and Environmental Education, University of California Irvine 

 

Propagating ‘Care’ and ‘Action’ through Empathy-based Social Emotional Learning in  Education for Sustainable Development and Climate Justice.

Speaker: Dr Camilla Hadi Chaudhary, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

 

The global climate crisis is real and now, as evidenced by worldwide climate disasters  - e.g., floods in South Asia (Fruman & Haq, 2022), tropical storms and droughts in South America (WWF, n.d.), extreme temperature changes in Europe (European Environment Agency, 2023), and wildfires in North America (Center for Disaster Philanthropy, 2023). A cursory Google search reveals multiple concurrent climate crises resulting in human displacement, hunger, disease and death in the immediate aftermath, and more sustained economic and social-personal hardships (Andrabi et al., 2020). Climate change also causes psychological harm, both through lived hardship and the anxiety of witnessing environmental decline (Doherty & Clayton, 2011).

 

Such widespread ontologies suggest that climate change is experienced equally across social, economic, cultural, and gendered contexts. In contrast, the intersectional nature of inequality means that everyday climate effects and climate induced crises are experienced highly unequally across geographical and economic contexts (O’Brien & Leichenko, 2000). Factors like poverty, location (across and within countries), access to resources and state support, and disability all intersect to worsen lived experiences. Furthermore, increasing evidence indicates that women often face different and more severe climate burdens due to financial, social and physical vulnerability (Goh, 2012; Sorensen et al., 2018).

 

This has led to increasing awareness that education for sustainable development and climate justice must include the notion of care and need for action alongwith scientific learning. This is particularly relevant in contexts where pervasive poverty foregrounds education for economic growth over education for sustainability. This panel represents a consortium of education academics, practitioners, and activists who are exploring this need by embedding social emotional learning pathways into curricula for education for sustainable development (ESD) and climate justice education (CJE)(Jones et al., 2021). The bases for this effort rests on parallel findings highlighting how engagement with nature enhances student happiness (Nanda et al., 2025) and the contagion effect of empathetic school engagement i.e. empathetic engagement begets more empathetic engagement (Bosacki et al., 2019). Such findings create the space to embed ESD and CJE with social emotional learning pathways that are conceptually grounded on empathy for the natural world. This thinking is further grounded on the assumption that empathy for the natural world will propagate action to protect the natural world. Finally, such learning would also contribute to cultivating positivity and happiness for students.  

 

Empathy as a theoretical basis can acquire ‘different meanings in different disciplines’ shaped by sociological markers in sociology, neurons in neuroscience, and dissolving individualistic boundaries in philosophy (Kurian, 2019, p. 121). Here we are adopting Stephan & Finlay's, (1999) identification of emotional and parallel empathy that personalises another’s distress to create indignation towards the same. By embedding lessons on empathy into SEL pathways in ESD and CJE, we aim to create empathetic awareness and care for the natural world both as a means of human self-preservation and towards recognising the rights of the anthropocene  (de Waal, 2009; Sutoris, 2022).

 

 

References

Andrabi, T., Daniels, B., & Das, J. (2020). Human Capital Accumulation and Disasters: Evidence from the Pakistan Earthquake of 2005. Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE). https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-RISE-WP_2020/039

Bosacki, S., Moreira, F., Sitnik, V., Andrews, K., & Talwar, V. (2019). Theory of Mind, Emotion Knowledge, and School Engagement in Emerging Adolescents. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 11(5), 529–538. eric. https://ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1222174&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Center for Disaster Philanthropy. (2023, September 21). 2023 North American Wildfires. Center for Disaster Philanthropy. https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disasters/2023-north-american-wildfires/

de Waal, F. B. M. (2009). The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for Kinder Society. Souvenir Press Ltd.

Doherty, T. J., & Clayton, S. (2011). The psychological impacts of global climate change. American Psychologist, 66(4), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023141

European Environment Agency. (2023, September 18). Climate change impacts, risks and adaptation. European Environment Agency. https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/topics/in-depth/climate-change-impacts-risks-and-adaptation

Fruman, C., & Haq, S.- ul-. (2022, November 21). Cross-border action on climate disasters is urgent in South Asia[Blogs]. World Bank Blogs. https://blogs.worldbank.org/endpovertyinsouthasia/cross-border-action-climate-disasters-urgent-south-asia

Goh, A. H. X. (2012). A Literature Review of the Gender-Differentiated Impacts of Climate Change on Women’s and Men’s Assets and Well-Being in Developing Countries (No. 18; 0 edn, Capri Working Paper). International Food Policy Research Institute. https://doi.org/10.2499/CAPRiWP106

Jones, S. M., Brush, K. E., Ramirez, T., Mao, Z. X., Marenus, M., Wettje, S., Finney, K., Raisch, N., Podoloff, N., Kahn, J., Barnes, S., Stickle, L., Brion-Meisels, G., McIntyre, J., Cuartas, J., & Bailey, R. (2021). Navigating Social and Emotional Learning From the Inside Out. Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://doi.org/10.59656/YD-OS5671.001

Kurian, N. C. (2019). Empathy: Simple and Inevitable? Development Education and Narratives of African Poverty. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 11(1), 120–137. eric. https://ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1220159&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Nanda, M., Patel, J., Nath, S., & Ravindranath, S. (2025). Happiness in education from the lens of children: Photovoice of students in government run schools in India. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy, 5, 100103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sel.2025.100103

O’Brien, K. L., & Leichenko, R. M. (2000). Double exposure: Assessing the impacts of climate change within the context of economic globalization. Global Environmental Change, 10(3), 221–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0959-3780(00)00021-2

Sorensen, C., Saunik, S., Sehgal, M., Tewary, A., Govindan, M., Lemery, J., & Balbus, J. (2018). Climate Change and Women’s Health: Impacts and Opportunities in India. GeoHealth, 2(10), 283–297. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GH000163

Stephan, W. G., & Finlay, K. (1999). The role of empathy in improving inter-group relations. Journal of Social Issues, 55(4), 729–743.

Sutoris, P. (2022). Educating for the Anthropocene: Schooling and Activism in the Face of Slow Violence. MIT Press. https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5474/Educating-for-the-AnthropoceneSchooling-and

WWF. (n.d.). Climate Change Impacts in Latin America. World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved 29 September 2023, from https://www.wwfca.org/en/our_work/climate_change_and_energy/climate_change_impacts_la

 

Title: Reimagining Climate Justice Education in Pakistan through Social-Emotional Learning and Empathy

Speaker: Baela Raza Jamil, CEO, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), Pakistan

Abstract: Baela Raza Jamil & Arooj  Khalid ITA 

This presentation explores the intersections of climate justice education (CJE), education for sustainable development (ESD), and social-emotional learning (SEL), grounded in the experience of Pakistan. The discussion draws on the work of Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), a leading education organization, and its efforts to embed empathy-driven SEL in climate education through contextually relevant, equity-focused, and youth-centered programming.

The presentation highlights ITA’s innovative educational interventions including the Pakistan Youth Leadership Initiative (PYLI), Mahol Sahelyan, and Kitab-Mahol Gari a mobile outreach program in three cities of Pakistan, which leverage storytelling, experiential learning, and environmental literacy to foster climate awareness, empathy, and agency among children, adolescents and youth. Over the years, these initiatives have demonstrated how SEL can be localized and integrated into formal and informal education settings to promote intergenerational sustainable behaviors and cultivate emotional resilience in the face of climate-related disruptions. By anchoring learning in children’s immediate environments, these models ensure relevance, accessibility, and long-term engagement.

The discussion further draws on the 2022 Floods’ Impact on Young Children research, conducted by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) in collaboration with ARNEC. This study presents a sobering case study on how climate-induced disasters disrupt early childhood development (ECD) in Pakistan. Focusing on Sindhabad (Karachi-East) a peri urban locality of displaced groups and rural -coastal Thatta (Sindh), the study highlights the compounding effects of food insecurity, disrupted health services, emotional trauma, lack of protection and learning loss among young children and caregivers. Through caregiver surveys, focus groups, and key interviews, the report exposes gaps in language-imagination constructs on climate change and resilience, emergency preparedness, child protection, and ECD services in disaster-prone contexts that have no/low engagement with the multi-sectoral nurturing care framework (NCF). Crucially, it calls for integrating local narratives, responsive caregiving, nutrition, play-based learning, access to birth registration and identity services into disaster response systems, alongside climate-aware education and resilience planning. This study is both a local advocacy tool and a global call for more equitable, child-centered localized climate adaptation strategies.

The approach advocated builds on the understanding that empathy is foundational to transformative learning and climate action. Emphasizing the importance of localized, lived experiences, the presentation argues for the prioritization of creative pedagogies and community-based models that reflect the realities of learners in the Global South. This includes developing learning content that addresses region-specific challenges such as water scarcity, urban pollution, and displacement due to environmental shocks, while promoting peaceful coexistence with the natural world. Moreover, empathy is framed not only as an emotional response but also as a cognitive and ethical tool for mobilizing individual and collective action.

Positioned within a broader South Asian dialogue, the presentation contributes to an ongoing effort to reconceptualize education for climate justice through a more inclusive and holistic lens, - one that values emotional well-being, cultural context, and the active participation of youth as changemakers. It advocates for a paradigm shift in how global education systems understand and operationalize sustainability, empathy, and equity, particularly in climate-vulnerable regions. The call is clear: advancing climate justice requires education systems that are not only informed, but also compassionate, grounded, and action-oriented. 

 

Title: Different Strokes for Different Folks: Reaching the Impacted

 

Speaker: Afia Salam

 

 

Climate Change is said to be an equalizer. Its impacts are likely to be felt across the globe. However, that is where that common thread stops! The impacts unpack layers and layers of vulnerabilities and sub vulnerabilities, criss-crossing geographies, demographics, socio-economic status and exposure to knowledge and awareness about their particular segment.

 

Belonging to a country that currently, and unenviably, captures the pole position on the Global Vulnerability Index, the layers taken on many shades and hues, depending upon access to learning resources and tools of advocacy. Being a vast, and a populous and multi threat country, Pakistan battles Climate induced disasters which are cataclysmic, as well as slow onset. The frequency and ferocity of storms and hydro disasters capture the optics, but it is only recently that academics, researchers and practitioners are looking at the wide scale of impacts of rising heat, which triggers a domino effect on different ecosystems.

 

Accessibility has always posed a challenge; accessibility of knowledge, and of tools to build coping mechanisms to deal with the new normal of the climate crisis. While strides have been made in the formal sectors in developing and delivering the tools and learning, those who lie outside the pale of formal structures of learning are the ones who remain unaware, hence unprepared.

 

Pakistan has a large population of out of school children, and unlettered adults. For them, the tools that can reduce their vulnerability are inaccessible. They remain oblivious to formal school curriculum, wherever in place, disaster preparedness literature prepared by government agencies and NGOs, documentaries, films and promotional material prepared for and run on mainstream and social media and other such aids. 

 

We also have to bear in mind that this is largely the segment of population that is at the lower end of the socio economic strata, so they are served with a double whammy! It is they who need to be approached through a creative approach of using a mix of traditional and modern communication tools.

 

Taking the lessons contained within the formal courses prepared for children of school going ages, this unserved segment of  the population can be made aware of, and equipped with the requisite knowledge tools like the traditional storytelling sessions, through street theatre, songs, street art, role play, especially in time of disasters leading to displacement to camps. These also work as coping tools for emotional distress accompanied with displacement and uncertainty about the future that follow in the wake of climate disasters.

 

We need a trained cadre who can reach out to this very large and vulnerable segment to bring the indigenous communication tools and adapt them to the new learnings that need to be imparted. They should also be equipped with the eye that can identify ‘collaborators’ within these vulnerable communities who can then bridge the gap by taking on this role in a continuum, and develop organic skills of climate change communication in local languages.

 

Technology too has a great role to play as it can democratize the knowledge that is available through innovation like games and visual tools that have practical applications through drills. However, this access required financial injection and a will to reach this very marginalized segment of the population that needs support from government bodies and international organizations, who can pool the expertise of local language content developers, to be transmitted through audio visual tools.

 

The needs of this demographic is very different to that which can be addressed by formal instructional techniques as well as tools. But to give universal coverage through climate change ‘education’, we have to recognise that there is more than what we have right now that needs to be brought under the same umbrella.

 

Because, we need Different Strokes, for different folks.

 

Title: Environmental Stewardship through Empathy, Equity and Empowerment – Pakistan’s First Curriculum on Climate Change Education (grades 1-10)

Speaker: Ambreena Ahmed, Director, Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC). Pakistan

Abstract: Ambreena Ahmed, TRC

In 2025, Pakistan became the world’s most climate-vulnerable country, rising from fifth to first in the Climate Risk Index (Germanwatch Climate Risk Index 2025). Ongoing climate impacts deepen existing social inequities, highlighting Pakistan’s urgent need for cross-sectoral, inclusive, and transformative roadmaps to elevate collective climate consciousness leading to sustainable action.

 

At the CIES 2026 roundtable, I will introduce Pakistan’s first Climate Change Education Curriculum. Created by the Teachers’ Resource Centre (TRC), a pioneer in education support since 1986, this Curriculum institutionalizes a locally designed model to cultivate environmental stewardship starting from early education through grade 10.

 

Designed through an immersive stakeholder consultation process and built around five core themes—including Climate Justice and Equity, a topic often missing from mainstream curricula—this model offers contextually relevant, progressive sub-themes that resonate with diverse Pakistani settings: urban, rural, coastal, mountainous, glacial (disparate, poverty stricken, high-risk, underserved, unlettered). Recognizing that meaningful climate education requires more than knowledge transmission, TRC’s Curriculum integrates Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) as a continuous thread. SEL competencies like empathy, collaboration, and responsible action empower students to connect emotionally with climate issues and develop a sense of agency.

 

TRC’s teacher-centric approach includes a toolkit of 150 ready-to-use lesson plans aligned with the Curriculum,especially designed for educators in marginalized communities and resource-limited schools. The materials emphasize experiential learning and reflect students’ lived realities, encouraging them to become critical thinkers, innovators, and climate justice advocates enabling them in their roles as influencers/advocates for families and communities.

 

This session will showcase practical and powerful examples of how TRC’s Curriculum nurtures critical thinking, resilience, and stewardship among young learners. We will also discuss challenges and opportunities in embedding empathy-centered SEL into climate curricula through formal and informal education pathways, particularly within Pakistan’s public, low-resource and highly climate vulnerable education contexts.

 

Central to this conversation is the principle of “positive peace”—pedagogies grounded in empathy for people, place, and the natural world. By rooting climate science in emotional intelligence and locally grounded inquiry, this model offers a transformative education paradigm where environmental literacy, cultural relevance, and social justice converge to prepare youth for meaningful climate action. 

 

As educators, leaders and ALL OF US confront the inequities deepened by climate disruption, placing SEL at the heart of climate literacy provides a pathway to social cohesion, justice, and sustainable resilience—an aspiring approach for cultivating a generation both resilient and compassionate, ready to champion transformative change.

 

Title: Life-Enriching Education for Climate Justice: Localizing SEL through Empathy, Arts, and Dialogue in Nepal

Speaker: Rajib Timalsina

Assistant Professor of Conflict, Peace and Development Studies at Tribhuvan University

 

 

This presentation at roundtable discussion draws on my experience leading teacher training programs on Life Enriching Education in Nepal, which centers empathy and compassion as foundational to classroom transformation. In a country marked by linguistic, ethnic, and geographic diversity having over 124 multilingual communities, Nepal’s classrooms often reflect systemic inequities. Corporal punishment remains common, and many children struggle to engage with a curriculum that is linguistically inaccessible (lack of multilingual medium of instructions) and culturally disconnected from their lived realities.

 

Mainstream textbooks, often developed in centralized urban contexts of Kathmandu, fail to resonate with rural learners whose daily lives and environments differ starkly from the examples presented in those textbooks. This disconnect not only alienates students but also undermines their emotional well-being and sense of belonging. In this context, social-emotional learning (SEL) becomes not just a pedagogical tool but a justice-oriented imperative.

 

Leveraging the constitutional provision that empowers local governments to develop localized curricula for primary education, we are working closely with five municipalities in 2024-25 to co-create contextually relevant learning experiences. Our approach integrates SEL into climate justice education (CJE) by grounding it in local realities, indigenous knowledge, and participatory processes.

 

A key component of this work involves activating and strengthening child clubs within schools. These student-led groups identify pressing local social and environmental issues, prioritize them, and engage in structured analysis using tools like problem-tree mapping. They then develop arts-based responses where they develop some modalities based on local theatrical traditions, storytelling, and visual arts to communicate their findings and proposed solutions to local stakeholders (local policy makers, school management stakeholders and teachers).

 

These creative expressions become the foundation for local policy dialogues that bring together students, teachers, school management committees, parents, and local government leaders. In these forums, young people present their concerns and ideas, prompting direct responses from decision-makers. Young people also showcase their ideas. This process not only builds students’ emotional and civic capacities but also fosters empathy across generations and sectors.

 

By embedding SEL into localized, arts-based, and action-oriented learning, we aim to cultivate what we call positive by the presence of justice, equity, and ecological harmony. This approach aligns with the roundtable’s broader call to reimagine climate and sustainability education through the lens of empathy and lived experience, particularly in the Global South. In the roundtable discussion, I will share insights, challenges, and early outcomes from our work, highlighting how SEL can be a transformative force in classrooms and communities. It will also reflect on the potential of such localized, participatory models to inform broader educational reforms aimed at climate justice and sustainable development.

Teaching Climate by Touching Soil: 

Reframing Environmental Learning through Local Contexts

Speaker: Viplow Shivhare

Abstract:

As climate change education becomes more prominent globally, there remains a significant disconnect between the way it is framed in curricula and how children, particularly those in low-resource settings, experience it. Climate education is often influenced heavily by abstract global concepts such as rising temperatures, sea level rise, carbon footprints that may be scientifically sound but remain emotionally and experientially distant from the learners’ lives. This practice-based presentation argues that for children to truly understand and respond to environmental crises, education must begin not with the global, but with the ground beneath their feet.

Drawing from field experiences in Hamari Duniya, a hands-on environmental education program for children in grades 6 to 8 run by Pratham Education Foundation, this presentation explores how a place-based, observation-driven approach can reframe climate education to be more relevant, empowering, and rooted in socio-emotional development.

Hamari Duniya enables children in rural and urban India to engage with environmental themes like water, land, and sky, through real-world inquiry, data collection, storytelling, and community-based projects. Instead of beginning with the ozone layer or global temperature graphs, children start by asking: Why is our hand pump dry this week? What’s in the air I breathe on my way to school? What happens to the trash we throw out every day? By interacting with their immediate environment, conducting water quality surveys, mapping local trees, or tracking daily weather; children begin to see environmental change before they are taught to name it.

This local-first approach is not just pedagogically effective; it also catalyzes socio-emotional learning (SEL). When children are encouraged to observe, reflect, and act on issues affecting their own communities, they develop empathy, agency, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving—all foundational SEL skills and essential for engaging meaningfully with climate justice. Research has increasingly shown the value of combining SEL with climate education to build lifelong resilience and collective responsibility (UNESCO, 2021; CASEL, 2022).

The presentation will examine stories and data from Hamari Duniya’s implementation across 13 states in India, involving over 60,000 children through school- and community-based models. It will highlight how locally grounded environmental activities not only strengthened textbook learning in science and social studies (as per NCERT standards) but also led to visible shifts in children’s attitudes toward sustainability and community engagement.

Key questions include:

  • What happens when children “see” climate change before they “hear” about it?
  • How do local observations help children connect emotionally to global challenges?
  • Can climate education serve as a bridge between knowledge and citizenship?

This presentation challenges the dominant top-down model of climate education by centering the child’s immediate environment as the starting point for learning. It reframes environmental education not as a transfer of global facts, but as a process of nurturing local awareness, emotional connection, and community-rooted action. In doing so, it positions place-based learning as a powerful lever for climate justice; grounded in relevance, driven by agency, and shaped by those most impacted.

References:

 

 

 

 

 

Building the Capacity of Community Educators  to bring Climate Education and SEL to children especially in Urban Context 

Arshi Naaz| Pratham Education Foundation| State Head| Delhi

 

Abstract:
 In cities like Delhi, childhood today comes with far more than just school bags and homework. For many children, it now includes inhalers for asthma, fear during heavy rains, and a growing anxiety about the world around them. Climate change is not a distant headline—it is their lived reality, felt in blistering summers, polluted air, water scarcity, and vanishing green spaces. And yet, most children lack the language, emotional tools, or safe spaces to make sense of this rapidly changing world.

It is estimated that children born in 2020 will face two to seven times more extreme climate events than their grandparents (Thiery et al., 2021). According to UNICEF’s The State of the World’s Children 2024, by the 2050s, child populations in low-income and lower-middle-income countries are expected to surge—while those in wealthier regions will decline. India, in particular, is projected to see the highest increase in its child population (UNICEF, 2024). This demographic reality underscores the urgent need to prepare not only children, but also those who guide them—teachers and community educators—through the climate crisis.

While climate education is beginning to enter formal curriculums, it often remains technical, distant, and emotionally disconnected. What is missing is the integration of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)—which enables children to process their feelings, develop empathy, build resilience, and take meaningful action. 

Community educators—those working in NGO ; libraries, learning centres, and after-school programs—are often the closest adults in a child’s learning ecosystem, especially in low-income urban neighbourhoods. Alongside teachers, they are best placed to recognise when a child is not just curious, but also confused or anxious. Yet, they often lack the tools, training, and emotional scaffolding to address climate issues in a child-centred, age-appropriate, and hopeful way.Drawing from field experiences in Delhi’s informal settlements and low-income neighbourhoods, this paper highlights how capacity building programs for community educators can integrate simple, age-appropriate tools to connect environmental learning with children's everyday lives. Examples include storytelling around weather changes, mapping local waste patterns, emotional journaling during extreme heat waves, and creating community-based green actions. 

There is an urgent need for capacity building of the  community educators to deliver climate education that is emotionally grounded, contextually rooted, and creatively engaging. Such training must go beyond climate facts and data to include strategies that honour children’s lived experiences and emotional worlds.

Key strategies include: grounding climate education in the child’s local reality—connecting it to everyday challenges like heatwaves, garbage burning, or seasonal water shortages; embedding SEL practices through reflective questions, stories, and peer sharing; using familiar creative tools like art, music, street theatre, and games to make learning joyful; and integrating hybrid models that blend arts, documentaries, and experiential workshops into the formal curriculum. Just as importantly, educators themselves need emotional and peer support—safe spaces where they can reflect, learn, and co-create climate responses that work in their settings.

If we want our children to grow up not just informed about the climate crisis but emotionally equipped to face it, then we must start with those who stand beside them every day—their teachers, mentors, and community educators. These adults are not merely educators; they are nurturers of courage and caretakers of hope. Investing in their capacity is not just about policy or pedagogy—it is a deeply human commitment to the future. Because when we strengthen the adults who guide children, we’re not just building climate literacy. We are shaping a generation that can breathe easier, act braver, and dream beyond despair.

 

 

References

Thiery, W., Lange, S., Rogelj, J., Schleussner, C.-F., Gudmundsson, L., Seneviratne, S. I., ... & CarbonBrief (2021). Intergenerational inequities in exposure to climate extremes. Science, 374(6564), 158-160. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abi7339

UNICEF. (2024). The State of the World’s Children 2024: For every child, every right. United Nations Children’s Fund. https://www.unicef.org/reports/state-worlds-children-2024

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (2023). SEL and climate education: A synergistic approach. https://casel.org/

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (2023). Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/

 

Title: Feeling for Climate: The Case of New Jersey’s Climate Education Curriculum

Author: Radhika Iyengar 

The study discusses the importance of Social Emotional Learning in integrating climate education into formal school curricula. More specifically, it uses well-being and happiness as a framework to discuss the importance of Social Emotional Learning in climate education in a comparative perspective. This study found that when integrated with the formal curricula, pluralistic education, education for sustainable development, and positive education contribute to effective climate education. It presents an analysis of core climate ideas that are integrated into New Jersey’s student learning standards. The results show that cognitive skills heavily dominate the climate core ideas. It shows the gap in Social Emotional Learning focus and its linkages to environmental understanding and community action. This case study's results suggest how other systems can introduce such curriculum changes to develop positive emotions about the environment, which is key for learners to have a deeper bond with nature. Such curricula and standards, in systems that emphasize using Social Emotional Learning as a tool to make the emotional connection with the environment, is possible and a must where climate degradation is fastest. The study proposes a rubric that combines literature-driven dimensions of positive education, sustainability, and pluralistic education, which could be used as tools for curriculum design in other systems in other countries, adapted to local cultures.

Title: Integrating SEL into Climate Change Education: Insights from UNESCO’s 2023 Recommendation on Peace, Human Rights, and Sustainability from the Asia region

Speaker: Faryal Khan

Abstract:
This presentation examines how UNESCO’s 2023 Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights, and Sustainable Development provides a timely and actionable policy framework for embedding Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) into Climate Change Education (CCE). Anchored in SDG Target 4.7, the Recommendation emphasizes the holistic development of learners—cognitive, social, emotional, ethical—equipping them with the capacities to address planetary and societal crises with agency, empathy, and resilience.

SEL enables learners to navigate the psychological and emotional complexity of the climate crisis, fostering capacities such as compassion, collaboration, critical thinking, and ethical judgment. When combined with robust environmental and scientific knowledge, SEL strengthens learners’ ability to connect emotionally to local or global challenges and participate meaningfully in exploring solutions to address them. SEL-infused pedagogy supports learners in transforming concern into constructive, collective action.

Yet integrating SEL and CCE in teaching and learning remains uneven, in part due to data limitations that inhibit effective monitoring and policy advocacy. While the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) provides data for Indicator 4.7.1—which measures how global citizenship and sustainable development are integrated into national policies, curricula, teacher education, and assessments—coverage remains limited, with around 55 countries reporting as of 2020. In the Asia-Pacific region, UNESCO Bangkok, UIS, APCEIU, and MGIEP are collaborating to strengthen regionally relevant monitoring frameworks and competency models for GCED and ESD. However, significant gaps persist—particularly for thematic indicators which focus on learners’ understanding of sustainability and environmental science, including emotional and socio-affective dimensions. These gaps challenge education systems' ability to measure and mainstream SEL within climate and sustainability education and underscore the urgency of developing tools that capture transformative learning outcomes.

In this context, the presentation will examine three interlinked dimensions of SEL integration, as guided by the 2023 Recommendation, drawing on examples from the Asia region:

  1. Curriculum and Standards: Highlighting how SEL competencies are being embedded in curricula to support climate-conscious citizenship. This includes examples where environmental education frameworks explicitly address empathy, responsibility, and care for the natural world.
  2. Pedagogical Approaches: Exploring learner-centered and participatory practices—such as collaborative projects and narrative pedagogies—that foster SEL while building environmental literacy. These approaches promote student agency and socio-emotional engagement with local climate challenges.
  3. Whole-School Approaches and Educator Empowerment: Reflecting on the critical role of teacher training and school culture in embedding SEL. The Recommendation calls for investment in continuous professional learning that equips teachers with the emotional, ethical, and reflective capacities to create safe and empowering learning environments. Especially in climate-affected or marginalized communities, emotionally grounded pedagogy offers protective and transformative functions.

Equity and contextual grounding are emphasized throughout. SEL must be culturally and locally relevant, particularly in climate-vulnerable contexts. Local ecologies and indigenous knowledge systems must shape how SEL and climate education are designed and delivered. This calls for decolonized, inclusive curricula that speak to learners’ lived experiences and help them imagine just and regenerative futures.

Ultimately, this presentation situates SEL as both a means and an outcome of transformative education in the Anthropocene—a proposed geological epoch defined by the significant impact of human activity on the Earth’s systems. In the context of education, including the Anthropocene in discussions about SEL and CCE signals the need to prepare learners not just with knowledge, but with the emotional resilience and ethical clarity to navigate and respond to this complex, human-shaped era. UNESCO’s 2023 Recommendation and the Asia Pacific Road Map to implement it in the region offer a shared framework—but its realization depends on political will, cross-sectoral collaboration, data-informed monitoring, and pedagogical imagination. SEL is not merely a soft skill—it is foundational to building ethical, resilient, and climate-conscious generations.

Key References

Key References

UNESCO. (2023). Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386142

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). (2020). SDG 4 Data Digest: How to Produce and Use the Global and Thematic Education Indicators. UNESCO. https://uis.unesco.org/en/news/uis-data-release-features-new-sdg-4-indicators-and-disaggregated-dimensions

UNESCO. (2021). Berlin Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development and Framework for Action. UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000377893

UNESCO. (2016). Getting Climate-Ready: A Guide for Schools on Climate Action. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000246740

UNESCO MGIEP. (2022). Rethinking Learning: A Review of Social and Emotional Learning for Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education. Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. https://mgiep.unesco.org/publications

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta‐Analysis of School‐Based Universal Interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405–432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x

UNESCO. (2021). Education for Sustainable Development: A Roadmap. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374802

Steffen, W., Crutzen, P. J., & McNeill, J. R. (2007). The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature? AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 36(8), 614–621. https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[614:TAAHNO]2.0.CO;2

 

Keywords: climate education; environmental education, positive education, social emotional learning, sustainable development