Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change
Location: Central America and the Caribbean, Guatemala, Nicaragua | Priorities: Climate Change, Education, Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous rural communities in Central America are facing the increasing impacts of the climate crisis. The regions with the highest vulnerability to climate change are also the areas with the highest levels of poverty and greatest dependence on subsistence agriculture.
Girls are particularly impacted by these challenges. Often girls are responsible for domestic chores, such as water and firewood collection, washing, and food preparation, all of which are negatively affected by climate change. In addition, girls are more likely than boys to drop out or be taken out of school if the family cannot afford schooling. At the same time, the evidence indicates that with the right education and support, girls are powerful leaders for climate change response in their families and communities.
To address the negative impacts of climate change through education by equipping teachers with the skills required to integrate Climate Change Education into their classes. An off-line digital course training module (MOOC) is developed for upload to the offline server technology (RACHEL) previously deployed in remote classrooms. The offline MOOC is available to teachers even without the internet and provides training on how to integrate climate change education and related national curriculum into their classes in innovative, contextually-relevant, and engaging ways, with an Indigenous cultural perspective. Thirty schools (about 90 teachers) pilot the new training in Guatemala and Nicaragua, and provide evaluation feedback.
To create a tool for teachers to improve student learning on climate change and to support leadership development for students, particularly girls, on this issue. While the national curriculum includes some learning outcomes and content on this topic, this is relatively new material for teachers. While, in North America, climate change lessons may emphasize turning off lights and buying electric cars, the goal of this project includes providing content contextually relevant to local realities in remote Indigenous communities in Central America. Climate change education in 30 schools will be immediately enhanced, and in the medium term, high quality climate change instruction that includes both Indigenous and Western scientific approaches will be extended to schools with RACHELS.
Partner organization, Mundo Posible, has developed the MOOC which integrates both Indigenous knowledge and Western science in climate lessons. The course includes a complete curriculum, 10 videos, and a 12-hour certificate program for teachers working in remote Indigenous communities. Each module contains dozens of lesson plans, locally developed videos, as well as background and follow-up information. The MOOC has been uploaded to RACHEL servers and is being piloted with teachers in 30 schools in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Teachers can sign in and track their progress as they move through the training modules. Upon completion, teachers receive a professional certificate. (Click below for sample video content)
The MOOC is highly visual, including graphics and video content in the lesson plans. The training also encourages the creation of local content by teachers and students, specific to the local context. In this way, culturally relevant climate change adaptations and mitigations can be shared and preserved on the RACHEL. The creation and preservation of local content has been shown to be a valuable initiative in our education projects in the Bosawas, Nicaragua, where local content detailing traditions and practices has been produced and preserved on the RACHEL.
Change for Children partner organizations on this project are: 60 million girls, Mundo Posible, and the Indigenous Territorial Government (GTI).
