This workshop will bring together participants coming mainly from SIDS in the Pacific region. In all, 34 teacher trainers, primary and secondary teachers, school principals, educators from ministries of education, curricula developers, and community educators from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will be introduced to climate change education for sustainable development (ESD), while considering the global as well as the local impacts of climate change.

In 2013, a training course for secondary school teachers on “Climate Change Education Inside and Outside the Classroom” was developed for UNESCO by the Environmental Learning Research Centre, Rhodes University, and the Sandwatch Foundation, through the Section for Small Islands and Indigenous Knowledge Section and the Education for Sustainable Development. The course combines elements from UNESCO’s Climate Change Education for Sustainable Development Course for Teachers with the Sandwatch programme’s methodology (measure, analyse, share and take action - MAST) and has been developed specifically for educators in African coastal regions and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). These regions are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and the challenges it raises for the wellbeing of people and the ecosystems on which they depend. The course supports a range of educators, most especially secondary school teachers, but also teacher educators and community educators, to teach about climate change in a more participatory manner.

The objectives of the course are to:
• Stimulate and support the integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) and science education approaches in pre- and in-service teacher education courses, in cross-curricula classroom practice, and in non-formal (community-based) learning programmes. This includes incorporation of rigorous scientific knowledge and ethical reflection into climate change adaptation and mitigation approaches and measures in small islands and coastal regions.
• Support educators to take local, contextualised action to mitigate and especially to adapt to climate change, through the MAST (measure, analyse, share and take action) application of ESD adaptive of social-ecological contexts.

The course has already been piloted in at
i) Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, from 8 - 11 October 2013,
ii) at Hotel Pestana Tropica, Praia, Santiago, Cabo Verde, from 20 - 23 November 2013, and
iii) at Hotel Bellevue Dominican Bay, Boca Chica, Dominican Republic from 26 - 29 May.
A fourth roll-out is now going to take place for the Pacific SIDS in Hotel Tieti, North Province, New Caledonia, from 27-30 October 2014, after which the course will be finalised.