Agency in the Anthropocene

Young people are facing a future of complex environmental challenges. How can we prepare them to save the world when older generations haven’t?

Young people need to be equipped to deal with the future they’ll be living and working in. This means they need to understand the multiple colliding crises generated from human impacts on Earth systems, and they need to have the dispositions and skills to make responsible decisions and actions in response to these crises.

This need was picked up by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which administers the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) every 4 years. The assessment measures the ability of 15-year-olds to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. When planning the PISA 2025 Science Framework, the OECD identified the need for a stronger environmental education focus.

We’re looking to create citizens who can understand science, use science and actually create a better world for us. 

 The Environmental Science Expert Working Group was established to prepare a supplementary document to the science framework.

The report

The report, Agency in the Anthropocene, draws on research to identify core competencies our students will need for the future. These are the three core competencies at the heart of the report: 

• Being able to explain that the impacts of humans on Earth’s systems and understand that humans are part of the ecosystem as opposed to being separate from it.

• Making informed decisions to act, based on evaluation of diverse sources of evidence and the application of creative and systems thinking to regenerate and sustain the environment.

• Demonstrating hope for the future and respect for diverse perspectives and different knowledge systems when seeking solutions to the socio-ecological crisis.

Utilising the report

We have to think carefully about whether we’re teaching about the impacts of climate change or whether we’re teaching about the understanding of how we have human-induced climate change and what we might do about it.

The second part of the report includes suggestions for implementation, including teaching and assessment of the outlined competencies. The five socio-ecological crises used are:

• climate change

• biodiversity loss

• water availability and quality

• energy supply

• waste management and pollution.

Recognising the challenge of standardised, written assessment, the report offers three examples of how such assessment might be achieved:

• Top predators: This demonstrates knowledge about food chains and webs and ecosystems as well as the societal impacts of the reintroduction of these species via stakeholder analysis.

• Should we eat meat?: Questions such as these (with provided data) enable assessment of ethical considerations as well as data analysis.

• Life cycle analysis: Exploring the concepts of waste and pollution, questions around the circular economy and life cycle analysis including knowledge about energy and matter. 

Agency in the Anthropocene is available here. The PISA 2025 Science Framework is available here.