Critical Literacy for Climate Action (CL4CA) – International Edition

The course Critical Literacy for Climate Action brings together two key educational priorities: a well-founded engagement with the climate crisis and the targeted development of critical media and data literacy. Learners not only explore the causes, impacts, and possible solutions to climate change, but also learn to question information, interpret data, and critically assess media representations. They develop an understanding of how narratives are constructed, how uncertainty is communicated, and how to form their own informed opinions.

This integrated approach opens up a new perspective on learning: students develop the ability to understand complex relationships and make well-reasoned decisions. At the same time, they experience that their perspectives and actions matter. The course therefore strengthens their judgment, self-efficacy, and willingness to actively engage with societal challenges. Critical Literacy for Climate Action provides a cross-curricular framework that integrates climate knowledge with critical competencies across different learning contexts – with the aim of empowering learners to become informed, reflective, and active agents.

The course aims to foster “Climate Action Literacy” through a staged development of competencies: the ability to make informed decisions based on knowledge and critical reflection, and to participate actively in societal processes. Learners develop the skills needed to consciously shape their own futures.

The course focuses on

• building foundational data literacy, including understanding and critically interpreting graphs, models, and datasets
• recognizing how media and algorithms function, and identifying misinformation and bias
• explaining key concepts of climate change in clear and accessible ways
• designing learning processes that foster self-efficacy, judgment, and action-oriented thinking

The author would like to thank Naomi Held for her excellent collaboration in updating and translating this unit. 

The update and translation of the CL4CA self-study course into its international version was carried out as part of the project ‘Empowering STEM Educators: Future Literacies in International Teacher Education’. This project is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) within the programme “Internationalisation of Teacher Education,” supported by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), from January 2025 to December 2029.