Global threats posed by climate change, armed conflict, and pandemics, are exacerbating a sense of uncertainty in how young people live their lives and prepare for the future. This paper argues that good education should foster students’ ability to flourish during rapidly changing times. It should prepare students to be adaptive to rapid social, economic, and environmental changes generated from unprecedented global crises, such as climate change. In other words, an important mission of education today is to support students’ acquisition of knowledge, skills, and values in preparation for uncertain futures. However, many schools still rely heavily on fact-based teaching and learning that implies and conveys a sense of certainty. These traditional approaches of knowledge transmission have been heavily criticized and a focus on skill and capability development is seen as an essential element of modern education.
This paper aims to give voice to teachers facing the daunting task of educating students about (and for) an uncertain future. It illustrates current practices and struggles in climate change education. The study is based on qualitative fieldwork conducted in three secondary schools in Kyoto, Japan, and organized into three sections. First, an analysis of teaching guidelines and materials illustrates broader concepts and approaches used in climate change education. Second, it will be shown how teachers are struggling with these official materials, and what strategies they have developed to overcome these challenges. Third, the study reports on the implications these findings could have for initial teacher training and professional development.