Year of Climate Action Funding Awarded: “Benchmarking Climate Change Policies across Canadian School Boards”

Dr. Ellen Field (Assistant Professor, Education) is Principal Investigator on a research project that has been awarded funding from the Year of Climate Action fund. Ellen is working alongside co-investigator Dr. Muhammad Asaduzzaman (Assistant Professor, Computer Science) on this research project entitled Benchmarking Climate Change Policies across Canadian School Boards.

The research project, which will run from January-September 2022, will involve:

• developing a web scraping protocol to collect data on climate change policies from school board websites across Canada;
• quantifying the number of school boards that have developed climate change policies; and
• publishing a report on climate change policies across Canadian school boards.

Currently, there is limited data as to how the formal education system is responding to climate change, and Ellen notes that this study will determine existing policies within school boards.

“After analysis, the findings will indicate where gaps in policy exist both quantitatively, in terms of number of school boards with policies, and qualitatively, in terms of content in climate change policies for ensuring education systems are responsive to preparing young people for the rapid change and uncertainty they will face in the next 30-70+ years,” she explains.

The research will culminate in a report that outlines recommendations for Ministries and school boards on administrative leadership on climate change. 

Pictured below: Dr. Ellen Field (Principal Investigator) and Dr. Muhammad Asaduzzaman (Co-Investigator)