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educational experiences noted that their climate change education is optional and limited. We have a climate change oriented option class, but, there's probably only 30 spots available per grade, so its pretty limited, in terms of how many people can access it, so there's no direct climate change curriculum. ( C A L G A R Y 2 , I N T E R V I E W ) Many team members expressed frustration with the limited scope and accessibility of climate change education, including both a reliance on teacher-driven initiatives and a failure to educate students on action and solutions connected to real-world outcomes. I haven't learned anything [in school], but from what I heard, it's just mentioned in AP and it might be mentioned in ecology in IB program but just a fraction, not in lower grades. ( B E I J I N G , I N T E R V I E W ) Obviously there are some subjects that are environmentally focused like environmental management and geography, that touch on topics of climate change, but they don't take it up in math or economics. ( D E L H I , I N T E R V I E W ) The sentiments of a team member from Ptuj captures the frustration shared by cohorts in Jakarta and São Paulo when she explains that education is too passive and does not equip students to become active climate citizens. (Brown, 2016; Ojala 2016; Norgaard 2011; and Dimick 2016). From a structural perspective, an absence of government policies that promote active citizenship has been correlated with a lack of youth participation in climate change (Narksompong and Limjirakan 2015; Hoang 2013), suggesting that the lack of encouragement from adult society—one manifestation of ageism—may be a key reason why many youth do not engage. 2 .1. 3 E duca tional E x per iences o f Clima te Change and the Role o f Teacher s This variation in the social landscapes of climate change raises the question: what are youth being taught about climate change in school? Is climate change interwoven with basic curriculum, or only addressed as a special topic? Is it a topic of engaged debate and discussion, or an exercise in passive learning? Team members expressed varied educational experiences, ranging from engagement in project-based learning facilitated in environment-focused classes (Edmonton, Calgary, Ptuj, Bogotá), to lectures in science and social studies classes where climate change is briefly mentioned (Lima, Delhi, Bogotá 2, São Paulo, Jakarta, Beijing), to the initiation of extracurricular environmental clubs organized by students where lack of course content existed (Nairobi, Accra). In Calgary and Ptuj, student- led extracurricular clubs complemented formal climate change education. Despite this variation in experience, team members from all backgrounds considered their climate change education to be inadequate. Even team members with the most engaged | 33 Y O U T H A N D C L I M A T E C H A N G E 2 0 1 8 E D I T I O N

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