A glaring shortage of climate mobility education: A comparative analysis of curricula and textbooks in Finnish and Greek schools

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of Finnish and Greek school curricula and textbooks, on the theme of climate mobility. It is informed by Sultana’s conception of climate colonialities and da Silva’s relative critique of anthropocentrism combined with a critical approach to the posthumanist idea of distributed responsibility. In both countries climate change education is strongly science-based, and the societal dimensions are often presented as distant in space and time, even more so in Finland. The nexus between climate change and mobilities is thinly covered. Internal and international mobilities are significantly more present in the Greek materials, and the paucity of the migration theme in the Finnish materials is striking. Environmental education is more lacking in Greece with only an optional course included. In neither country is climate mobility recognized as an issue of shared responsibility in which the countries of the Global North should play a leading role in responding to climate colonialities. Thus, we propose the development of decolonizing climate change education in both Finland and Greece—and more broadly in the EU—to strengthen people’s understanding of climate change as a translocal and transnational phenomenon with a colonial-industrial history and presence.