As an Undergraduate teacher in the Social Sciences, you can use this lesson plan to teach your students about the gender dimensions in the field of climate change.
Climate change is a defining factor of human development in recent times. It is not only a topic for scientific or technical discourse but important for its influence on social, economic, and political conditions with wide reaching effects on social justice and gender equality. Power structures, cultural and social constructs have been responsible for the gender norm- rights, roles, capacities, preferences-across the world and, often climate change impacts women more than it does men. A range of different factors such as age, ethnicity, and class define the nature of these differences. The discrepancy also exists in the participation of women in climate policy and action.This lesson plan provides teaching resources to introduce gender, sex, and sexuality studies to your students. It focuses on understanding the gender dimensions of climate change in terms of its impacts, representation, and participation. The lesson plan includes resources for your students to better understand climate change and gender in agriculture, biodiversity, consumption, disasters, heath, waste, water, and migration amongst others.
Thus, the use of this lesson plan allows you to teach aspects of Gender Studies in your Social Sciences classroom. This lesson plan can be used as a module in a Gender Studies course or it can be used in the Gender section of an Introduction to Sociology course.
The tools in this lesson plan will enable students to:
| Grade Level | High school |
| Discipline | Social Sciences, Humanities |
| Topic(s) in Discipline | Gender, Women’s Studies, Justice, Sociology, Environmental Justice, Human Rights, Women’s Rights |
| Climate Topic | Climate and Society |
| Location | Global |
| Language(s) | English |
| Access | Online |
| Approximate Time Required | 60 – 120 min |
| Share | |
| Resource Download |
Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.
Reading
Introduce your students to the lesson plan by providing an overview of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality studies. You may proceed with your own lecture material or can provide your students with an introductory reading from OpenStax books. This open-access textbook titled ‘Introduction to Sociology 2e’ provides an excellent introduction to different topics in Sociology including Gender Studies. The book has been authored by several university faculty and includes instructor and student resources.
It can be accessed here.
The section on Gender, Sex, and Sexuality can be accessed here.
Different aspects of the field are covered in this resource and include difference between sex and gender, gender identity, homophobia and heterosexism in society, transgender, transsexual, and homosexual identities, socialization on gender roles, stratification of gender in institutions, gender from the view of each sociological perspective, different attitudes associated with sex and sexuality, sexual inequality in various societies, theoretical perspectives on sex and sexuality, amongst others.
Video lecture (~18 min)
Next, introduce the topic of gender and climate change by using a video by Prof Petra Tschakert, Pennsylvania State University.
This video can be accessed here.
In this video Prof Tschakert discusses the importance of gender and other dimensions of identity and inequality in the context of climate change. Emphasize to your students, her remarks on how women are differentially or more severely impacted by climate change but also how it is problematic that women are often portrayed as helpless, as victims of climate change with little knowledge and often no voice or agency.
Reading
Next, discuss with your students the gender dimensions of climate change in different sectors using the GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice website. This resource can be found here.
It includes the following sections, each of which contains an overview of climate change and gender dimensions of the sector and links to case studies, guidebooks, and reports.
01. Agriculture, gender and climate change
02. Biodiversity, gender and climate change
03. Consumption, gender and climate change
04. Disaster, gender and climate change
05. Energy, gender and climate change
06. Forests, gender and climate change
07. Health, gender and climate change
08. Migration, gender and climate change
09. Population, gender and climate change
10. Tourism, gender and climate change
11. Transport, gender and climate change
12. Waste, gender and climate change
13. Water, gender and climate change
You may choose to discuss the gender dimensions of climate change through a group discussion activity and by assigning sectors to different groups of students. Finally, you may ask students to summarize the gender dimensions of climate change in terms of its impacts, representation, and participation.
Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:
| 1 | Reading “Gender into climate policy: toolkit for climate experts and decision-makers” | A climate policy toolkit by GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice is a global network of organisations, experts and activists working for gender equality, women’s rights, and climate justice |
| 2 | Teaching Module “Overview of linkages between gender and climate change” | A teaching module to explain the link between gender and climate change by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) |
| 3 | Reading “Climate Change from a Gender Perspective” | An article by Sandra González for the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) |
| 4 | Reading “Gender, Climate Change and Health” | A discussion paper by the World Health Organization (WHO) |
| 5 | Video “Gender and Climate Change” | A video lecture by Dr Vibhuti Patel, SNDT University on Women’s Studies, for a MHRD project, Government of India. Hosted on the Vidya-mitra portal |
| 1 | Teaching Module “Gender, Sex and Sexuality” | By OpenStax, Rice University |
| 2 | Video “Gender and Climate Change” | By Prof Petra Tschakert, Pennsylvania State University. Hosted on the Villanova University YouTube Channel |
| 3 | Readings “Gender and climate change” | By GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice website |
| 4 | Additional Resources | GenderCC;
UNDP; CCCB; WHO; Vidya-mitra |
| Grade Level | High school |
| Discipline | Social Sciences |
| Topic(s) in Discipline | Gender, Women’s Studies, Justice Human Rights, Women’s Rights |
| Climate Topic | Climate and Society Policies, Politics, and Environmental Governance |
| Location | Global |
| Language(s) | English |
| Access | Online |
| Approximate Time Required | 60 – 120 min |
| Share | |
| Resource Download |
Here is a step-by-step guide to using this lesson plan in the classroom/laboratory. We have suggested these steps as a possible plan of action. You may customize the lesson plan according to your preferences and requirements.
Video (~33 min)
Introduce your students to the lesson plan by providing an overview of behavioural psychology and the science of behavioural change. You may proceed with your own lecture material or can provide your students with the video titled ‘The Science of Behaviour Change’. This resource contains three short talks hosted at the Royal Institution. Speakers include:
Prof Susan Michie – Professor of Health Psychology and Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at UCL.
Nick Chater – researcher, author and editor for the journals Cognitive Science, Psychological Review, and Psychological Science.
Toby Park – Behavioural Insights Team
You can use this resource to explain to your students how human beings often do not act in rational ways or do what is best for them. Solution to critical problems such as climate change may require a behavioural change. This resource can be used to encourage your students to think about how people make decisions. Further, they can understand what interventions may encourage behavioural change that benefit individuals and society
Video lecture (~22 min)
Next, introduce your students to the topic of climate psychology. Use the video titled ‘Cognition of Climate Change Denial’ by Prof Stephan Lewandowsky from the University of Western Australia, hosted by the University of Sydney
In this video Prof Lewandowsky discusses “some of the cognitive and psychological variables that determine people’s responses to climate science.” Emphasize to your students, his findings on people’s level of comprehension of climate data and climate science. Further discuss with your students, Prof Lewandowsky’s results on how ideology plays a significant role in whether an individual accepts or rejects climate science.
Video lecture (~55 min)
Next, discuss with your students what is climate psychology. Use the video titled ‘Why Our Brains are Wired to Ignore Climate Change’ by George Marshall at Talks at Google.
In this video, George Marshall discusses how the human brain is wired to ignore the climate crisis even though it is such a critical problem.According to Marshall, the human brain responds most strongly to threats that are direct, visible, immediate, and caused by a defined “enemy”.As the impacts of climate change often tend to be less direct and immediate, we tend to have psychological barriers that prevent meaningful sustained climate action for the long term. Emphasize to your students, how Marshall addresses critical questions such as “What is the psychological mechanism that allows us to know something is true but act as if it is not? And how is it possible that when presented with overwhelming evidence, even the evidence of our own eyes, we can deliberately ignore something while being entirely aware that this is what we are doing?” Summarize this lecture during your classroom discussion and emphasize the point that behavioural change can provide potential climate change solutions once we better understand human motivational drivers.
Suggested questions/assignments for learning evaluation
Use this lesson plan to help your students find answers to:
| 1 | Reading; ‘Psychology & Global Climate Change: Addressing a multifaceted phenomenon and set of challenges’ | A Report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change. Janet Swim, Susan Clayton, Thomas Doherty, Robert Gifford, George Howard, Joseph Reser, Paul Stern, Elke Weber Section 2: What Are the Human Behavioral Contributions to Climate Change and the Psychological and Contextual Drivers of These Contributions? Pages 29-40Section 5: Which Psychological Barriers Limit Climate Change Action? Pages 64-69 This can be accessed here |
| 2 | Video lecture; “Climate psychology: Why our brains ignore climate change -and what to do about it” | By Per Espen Stoknes and hosted by the Stockholm Environment Institute. This can be accessed here |
| 3 | Video lecture; “Psychological barriers to climate change” | By Caroline Hickman and hosted at TEDxBathUniversity. This can be accessed here |
| 4 | Audio; “Speaking of Psychology: The Psychology of Climate Change” | By Susan Clayton and hosted at The American Psychological Association This can be accessed here |
| 1 | Video; ‘The Science of Behaviour Change’ | Prof Susan Michie, Nick Chater, and Toby Park. Hosted at The Royal Institute of Great Britain |
| 2 | Video lecture; ‘Cognition of Climate Change Denial’ | Prof Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Western Australia, hosted by the University of Sydney. |
| 3 | Video lecture; ‘Why Our Brains are Wired to Ignore Climate Change’ | George Marshall at Talks at Google. |
| 4 | Additional Resources | American Psychological Association (APA) Per Espen Stoknes, hosted at Stockholm Environment Institute Caroline Hickman, hosted on TEDxBathUniversity. Susan Clayton, hosted at APA. |
