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Climate change – everyone is working on it. But is it really part of secondary school education? Sociologist Tim Immerzeel of Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ worked as a social studies and science teacher in secondary education for several years after his PhD. "Climate change seemed to me to be the most relevant social issue. But it did not appear to feature in the curriculum." He felt that had to change. Immerzeel developed , a platform on which every social studies and science teacher can download ready-made teaching materials on climate change.

Immerzeel was a postdoc for a while after his PhD, but he quickly realised he wanted to engage more with practice. So the researcher became a qualified social studies teacher. Immerzeel was able to start teaching at a secondary school in Rotterdam. There, he noticed how little attention climate change received within the subject. "It was treated somewhat in geography, but not as a social issue," he says.

Setting up national minor

After several years in secondary education, Immerzeel got back in touch with Professor of Sociology Tanja van der Lippe, his former supervisor. "She had just received the Stevin grant. Tanja was looking for someone who wanted to make the connection between sociology and climate change. That was something for me."

Immerzeel traded secondary education for a job at the university where, for the past two-and-a-half years, his work as educational developer and lecturer has included setting up a national minor. "That is now established and can be taken by all students interested in the sociological perspectives on climate change." Within the minor, students study, among other things, the complex paradox of how it is possible that the impact of climate change is imminent, while limited action is still being taken to combat climate change.

"Then climate change must go in!"

Time for a shake-up

A year or two ago, the Utrecht sociologist heard that the social studies curriculum in secondary schools was being shaken up. As a former teacher and current educational developer, Immerzeel immediately exclaimed, "Then climate change has to be included!" Despite Immerzeel's efforts in this area, there is still little focus on this social issue within the school subject. "That is why, to make it easier for social studies teachers, we have developed Klimaatwijzer. We offer ready-made teaching materials for social studies teachers on our website."

Back to high school

The lessons now available for download on Klimaatwijzer were mostly conceived and developed by Immerzeel, his colleague Laura van Diermen and student assistants. They see that the lessons regularly find their way into school classrooms. "Especially the basic lesson has been downloaded a lot. The lesson on has also been downloaded frequently." Naturally, the developers wonder how the lessons are liked. Immerzeel explains that he regularly speaks to teachers about this, for instance during workshops and lectures such as at the in The Hague. He has noticed that teachers are often too busy to reflect extensively on the climate change lessons offered. In order to nevertheless assess how his teaching is perceived in the classroom, an excellent opportunity presented itself at the beginning of last school year: In addition to his work at university, Immerzeel was able to fill his former job as a social studies teacher in Rotterdam for six months.

"They felt that nature is allowed to be there as much as they are."

Ruler, steward, partner or participant

One of the lessons he taught his high school students was . "This is a fairly philosophical lesson about different views on the relationship between humans and nature," Immerzeel explained. In the classroom, he designated four corners. Each corner represented a vision of the relationship between humans and nature. "Among other things, I asked what the current dominant view of the human-nature relationship is. Of those four possibilities, most students went by 'ruler'. We then discussed whether this is the relationship we should aspire to. This led to some great conversations. When I asked the class where they thought we should move to in the future, most of them moved to the corner of 'partner'. They felt that nature should have as much right to exist as they do, that they should listen to nature more."
And no less important: the education developer at Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ experienced that the rigged lesson on climate change was working.