EYES aimed to achieve four objectives. Firstly, by providing flexible, adaptable, self-guided cross-curricular CCE resources, the project aimed to increase the number of schools providing CCE in Europe and beyond, as well as to enlarge the scope and deepen the educational quality of those already doing so (SO1). Secondly, by offering flexible teacher training, support and networking opportunities tailored to teachers’ needs, it aimed to enable more educators in Europe and beyond to feel confident and motivated to offer CCE to their students (SO2). Thirdly, by providing innovative pedagogies focused on building knowledge, skills and agency, it aimed to increase the number of young people who are equipped to understand the climate crisis, its challenges and solutions, and are empowered with a strengthened agency to act (SO3). Finally, by facilitating cross-border multimedia collaborations and interactions, online community spaces and teacher networking opportunities, EYES aimed to foster a sense of international community among educators and young people, both for sharing experiences and information, and for building solidarity in the face of the climate crisis (SO4).
The motivation behind the EYES project was to address the mismatch between the ambitions for Climate Change Education (CCE) laid out in the Paris Agreement Art. 12 and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13.3, and its persistently weak uptake in school curricula across Europe. To address this challenge, the project focused on key critical obstacles to effective and systematic roll out of CCE, including lack of timetable space, inadequate teacher training, and insufficient innovative pedagogies. There is also a growing gap between youth concerns about climate change and schools’ inability to support students to constructively channel their concerns into civic expression. Another issue is young people’s increasing exposure to climate misinformation, calling for media literacy training. EYES sought to address the needs of young people deeply concerned by climate change, to respond to the professional development needs of educators, while also providing solutions for education policy makers and governments failing to meet their international CCE commitments (SDG 13.3 and SDG 4), and giving the partners in the project an opportunity to deepen their impact by unifying their complementary expertise to achieve shared goals.