Each year, Earth Day invites us to reflect on our relationship with the planet. The 2026 theme, “Our Power, Our Planet”, emphasises agency and action. In education, this often translates into renewed attention on climate literacy and encouraging more sustainable behaviours among learners. But there is a more immediate question we need to ask: What if climate change is not just something we teach about, but something that is already shaping the conditions in which teaching and learning take place? Most of us can recall a classroom that felt too hot to concentrate, or a day when heavy rain disrupted plans for outdoor learning. These moments are often treated as minor inconveniences, but increasingly they are not, as they become more frequent and extreme.
Much of climate education continues to be framed as preparation for the future. Students learn about sustainability, often assuming the most significant impacts lie ahead. Yet climate change is no longer distant. It is already influencing school environments through rising temperatures, extreme weather, and changing local ecologies. This is where the distinction between mitigation and adaptation starts to matter. Mitigation focuses on reducing emissions to limit future climate change. Adaptation is about responding to impacts that are already here. Within education, mitigation has received significant attention, while adaptation has not. There is a disconnect here: we ask learners to understand and respond to climate change, yet the very systems they learn within often remain unchanged. Research has long shown that the physical environment influences learning, affecting concentration, wellbeing, and attainment. Recent analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) on student exposure to rising temperatures highlights how these challenges will intensify. Climate change amplifies these pressures. Heat can reduce cognitive performance, particularly in poorly ventilated classrooms. Flood risk can disrupt access to school and limit the use of outdoor spaces. Despite this, climate change is still often treated as a topic within the curriculum, rather than as a condition shaping everyday educational practice.
If we take seriously the idea that climate change is already present in educational settings, then our response needs to shift. Rather than focusing only on what students should know or do, we also need to consider how educational environments and practices are adapting – or failing to adapt – in response. This might involve rethinking how school buildings and grounds manage heat, water, and biodiversity. It might mean embedding outdoor learning as a routine part of school life, rather than as an occasional activity. It could include supporting teachers to respond to climate-related changes in their classrooms or involving students in shaping how their school responds to these challenges.
In Sheffield and beyond, there are already examples of this beginning to happen. Through work with Sheffield City Council’s Built for Change programme, schools are exploring how their grounds can support both climate adaptation and learning, whether through increasing shade, improving drainage, or creating spaces that support biodiversity. These changes are not just operational. They create new opportunities for teaching and learning. Alongside this, the Adapt-Ed: Adaptation through Education project is working with primary schools to explore how climate adaptation can be integrated into teaching and learning. In partnership with Green Estate, this includes developing activities that use school grounds as sites for understanding heat, flooding, and biodiversity. This work also informs my doctoral research on how adaptation is understood and enacted in education. Together, these projects show how adaptation is not an abstract concept, but something that can be explored and integrated into everyday school practice. At its core, this requires a shift in perspective. Schools are not separate from climate change. They are embedded within it. When students investigate how heat affects their classroom or how their school grounds manage water, they are not only learning about climate change but experiencing it in context. When involved in shaping responses, they move from passive recipients of knowledge to active participants with agency to act. In this sense, adaptation is not just a technical response. It is also a pedagogical opportunity.
The theme of “Our Power, Our Planet” invites us to think about where power sits within education. If climate education focuses only on future action and individual behaviour, we risk overlooking the role of institutions and collective practices. Recognising climate change as a present condition of education changes that perspective. For educators, this raises a different set of questions. How are our learning environments being shaped by climate change today? What adaptations are already happening, and who is involved in them? How might these processes become part of teaching and learning?
Earth Day can be a useful moment for reflection, but if its impact is to extend beyond a single day, it needs to connect to educational practice. Recognising that climate change is already in the classroom is only a starting point. Designing education systems that respond is the next step.
Lee Jowett is a Climate Change and Sustainability Research Fellow in the Sheffield Institute of Education.
The views expressed in this post are the views of the author and do not represent the views of the university or its policies.
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