Abstract:

The education system has been viewed as a platform that can contribute immensely to addressing climate change among UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Global climate change has been considered a climate alteration due to man-made actions that destroy the universe. Global climate change has contributed to catastrophes that have never been seen before to impact the natural environment. Climatologists have reported on the drastic changes in temperature on Earth that affect the biosphere, which continue to alter the state of biodiversity on Earth. This study advocates for the integration of multifaceted disciplines to educate teachers as change agents of this situation through designing a climate-responsive curriculum that will empower preservice teachers on how they can use the knowledge they acquire to sensitize school learners and communities as they embark on change projects for both schools and communities. Education is seen as a weapon for change in this instance. This Qualitative desktop literature review interrogates the factors that impact the environment to provide a context for arguing how the curriculum for preservice teachers can be designed to contribute to the action plan to abate climate change. The literature reviewed through content analysis of secondary data in academic articles from Google Scholar revealed that science teachers prepared to integrate disciplinary knowledge through training and development could educate learners on meeting UNESCO’s SDGs through the current school curriculum. Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge integration could be used in teacher education to integrate the SDGs to equip them with knowledge and skills for teaching school curricula, thereby educating learners to deal with the effects of human actions on the environment. This study advocates for enacting change projects at the university, enlightening science education preservice teachers on possible ways of changing human actions towards realizing the SDG on climate change. Models of knowledge integration play a crucial role in the acquisition of competencies to address the effects of climate change through curriculum delivery that is responsive to add value in addressing the challenge, show possibilities for educating teachers on how to be the change agents when teaching different disciplines with a knowledge and understanding of other fields that could contribute to providing solutions to climate change. This qualitative study focuses on the discussions and programs taught to science education honors classes from 2019 to 2022 and how it was integrated into their program at a purposively sampled institution. This study used a method of Participative Action Research because the researcher was involved in the research process. Students were given an assignment to design academic posters on how they integrate change projects at their schools. Students were allowed to present their work in class, and peer assessments were done together with the assessments done by science teacher educators. Such engagements gained many insights, and honors students were recommended to continue implementing Education for Sustainable Development at their respective schools.

Keywords:

Climate change, knowledge integration models, SDGs, teacher training and development, pre-service teachers, science education, change projects.