Year 13 Climate Change Trip: Making the learning authentic

One of the most difficult achievement standards that my year 13’s find challenging is ‘Conduct a critical social inquiry’.  It is a huge undertaking worth 6 credits and usually takes a whole term to complete.  I discussed with my colleague who helps to teach the course reshaping it so that it will be more meaningful to the students and hopefully enable their interest to grow.  A colleague of mine at a similar school to ours recommended a unit called ‘Climate Refugees’ which looked at how people were forced to move because of the rising waters in their lands.  Pacific Islands  like Kiribati and Tuvalu were already facing these challenges and in the next 20 years, the bigger islands would not doubt be facing the same issues.

I decided to use ‘Climate refugees’ as a focus for our context and set about researching resources to build the unit.  I didn’t know too much about the topic so I made contact with Olivia Yates who is a PHD student with the Centre for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies who agreed to meet with our students and talk about what they do and the importance of knowing about the impact of Climate on the people of the islands. 

We initially planned to meet in early March but with an unexpected lockdown, the day was moved to the end of March.  

Our students travelled to the Auckland University Fale Pasifika and for most students, it was the first time they’d set foot at the University.  We were then guided through a two hour workshop which allowed students to understand the difficulties faced by those in the Pacific who would potentially lose their homes.  We used the fonofale model of health which ‘encompasses a system of wellbeing that acknowledges and embraces Pacific perspectives’.  Students were provided the space to share their knowledge and ideas which we hoped would be used at a time where their voices were needed.

Our students outside the Fale Pasifika

Students found the experience interesting and useful in understanding the impacts of Climate change on all the Islands of the Pacific.

Some of the ideas our students came up with

I met one of my students Cathy from 2020 studying Law and Samoan - great combo!

In relation to which turn this learning experience relates to, it may be as an Experienced teacher, turu 2.11 Extensively uses Pacific resources, tools, references and conceptual models to enhance communication and relationship building in planning, teaching and assessments and turu 3.11 Uses data and evidence including the different Pacific conceptual models and frameworks as a reference and guide for planning, teaching and assessment.