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CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1455430

Climate change injustice and school attendance and absenteeism: Proximal and distal ecological links

Provisionally accepted
  • University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Climate change has been linked to a myriad of problems related to human functioning, with a particular scientific emphasis on economic, physical damage, and health sectors. Less attention, however, has been given to the links between climate change and problems in the educational sector, such as school attendance problems, which represent practical and everyday manifestations of the effects of climate change. This is unfortunate given that children, and particularly those in Black and Brown communities and in the majority world, are expected to bear the greatest burden from climate change now and in the future. One fundamental right of children is the right to an education and to attend school, and this right is threatened particularly for vulnerable populations in different ways by climate change. Narrative synthesis of key terms (e.g., climate change, school absenteeism) for literature review was conducted to identify key patterns that produced the primary themes represented in this article: physical health, mental health, violence, school environment, school displacement and migration, and economic challenges. These themes were organized along a general proximal-to-distal spectrum. The descriptions of each theme also illustrate mechanisms connecting these issues that may help inform future mitigation efforts.

    Keywords: Climate Change, School attendance, Health, Violence, School environment, school displacement

    Received: 27 Jun 2024; Accepted: 13 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kearney, Ellis and Arcaina. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Christopher Kearney, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.