The Pacific islands Climate Education Partnership (PCEP) is a collaborative network of Pacific Island communities and organizations responding to the impacts of climate change and committed to enhancing climate education in the Pacific Island region. The core team includes PREL, WestEd, the University of Hawai'i, the College of the Marshall Islands, entity-based Curriculum and Instruction Chiefs, and other researchers. About 40 other organizations, including all U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) school systems and institutions of higher education, as well as governmental agencies and a broad range of non-profit groups and local communities, comprise the cadre of supporting partners. The PCEP strategic plan is founded on a K-14 Climate Education Framework (CEF) that is based on the Next Generation Science Standards and Pacific Island Indigenous knowledge and practices. The CEF guides the PCEP work throughout the USAPI in professional development, curriculum contextualization and dissemination, and assistance to community-school partnerships. The regional implementation and dissemination strategies are informed by deep understanding of the differences and similarities among the region's islands, cultures, and governments.
The PCEP vision is to empower the region's students and citizens through education that exemplifies modern science and indigenous environmental knowledge, addresses the urgency of climate change impacts, and honors indigenous cultures so that students and citizens within the region will have the knowledge and skills to improve understandings of climate change and adapt to its impacts. A strategy of connecting community adaptation and K-14 education to advance climate science education is particularly appropriate for this highly vulnerable and currently impacted region. This aspect of the PCEP work can serve as a beacon for climate education strategies that may become equally appropriate and desired if projected increases in climate change occur in other regions of the USA and internationally.
This project is one of six Phase II projects being funded through the Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP) program. The CCEP program was developed as part of the NSF Climate Change Education program, established through Congressional appropriations in FY 2009. The CCEP program is a one-time, dedicated NSF effort to establish a coordinated national network of regionally- or thematically-based partnerships devoted to increasing the adoption of effective, high quality educational programs and resources related to the science of climate change and its impacts. The CCEP portfolio encompasses a major interdisciplinary research and development effort designed to promote deeper understanding of, and engagement with, climate system science and the impacts of climate change on natural and human systems. The vision of this program is a scientifically literate society that can effectively weigh the evidence regarding global climate change as it confronts the challenges ahead, while preparing the innovative scientific and technical workforce to advance our knowledge of human-climate interactions and develop approaches for a sustainable, prosperous future. Each CCEP is required to incorporate innovative collaborations among expertise of climate scientists, learning scientists, and education practitioners in either formal or informal learning environments to research, design, and test new models and strategies for effective teaching and learning about climate science. With its focus on interdisciplinary approaches and transformative scales of impact, the CCEP program occupies a unique and complementary niche in the portfolio of Federal investments related to climate science education and workforce development.
