Restorative Democracies and Climate Literacy: The SECAP School Model for Civic Engagement and Ecological Agency in Secondary Schools

Abstract

The ecological crisis is not only about emissions and targets: it exposes a deeper fracture in sociocultural and educational models—namely, the persistent human–nature dualism. This article argues for transforming education into a space of reconciliation, in which society and ecology are conceived and lived as inseparable dimensions. Drawing on the pedagogy of reconciliation (Mansion, 2022), we foreground practices that cultivate relational knowing, embodied learning, and place-based responsibility. We present the SECAP/PAESC School Action Research, developed by INDIRE with EuCliPa.it and CMCC, as a participatory, place-based model that engages students in local climate governance through Nature-based solutions (NBS), in alignment with the EU Nature Restoration Regulation. The project adopts a multi-site action-research design with mixed methods and iterative cycles (co-design, implementation, reflection), integrating student questionnaires, observation rubrics, and focus groups. Early evidence indicates strong teacher interest and a strengthening of their environmental identity and civic agency, to be transferred to students through the co-design of concrete proposals within their municipalities. In the conclusions, we discuss implications for inclusive methodology and teacher education, with particular attention to collective and political action that operationalizes GreenComp through NBS activities, youth civic engagement, and renewed contact with nature—understood as a source of well-being and an ally of learning via embodied practices.