The REAL Framework
The REAL Framework emerged from the collective wisdom of frontline educators and student leaders in the Upper Valley who were working with equity and climate change issues. In-depth interviews with these educators and students revealed that social-emotional learning is as important as other core academic knowledge and skills when it comes to meeting the challenges of climate change and its inherent inequities. While state and national standards provide the building blocks for addressing content knowledge and critical-thinking skills, they need to be placed in a meaningful context to matter to students. The REAL Framework is designed to empower the hearts and minds of students and help them use these academic building blocks wisely and effectively to create a healthier future for all.​
Relationships
The REAL framework begins with nurturing Relationships. Building strong, healthy connections with self, others, and nature lays the groundwork for social and emotional development in climate stewardship. Reflective and place-based practices, like nature- and community-based activities, deepen students' understanding of their personal and collaborative role in stewardship.
Cultivating a Healthy Foundation for Climate Stewardship
Ethics
Understanding Systems and Centering Values
Considering those relationships, we explore Ethics—the values, narratives, and paradigms that shape how living communities experience and respond to climate change. Through engaging with the ethical dimensions of environmental and social systems, students gain insight into fairness, responsibility, and the shared work of building more just and sustainable futures.
Action
Making Meaningful and Visible Change
From there, we move to Action, focusing on climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts rooted in place. Action, while hard to do, is a crucial part of building hope in our students as they see that they can make a difference. Focusing on healing and restoring ecosystems in the context of place can help student see they can shift the dynamics of harmful systems toward ones that are more life-giving and regenerative
Leadership
Building a More Climate Resilient Culture Together
Leadership is an invitation for both educators and students to amplify their impact through their collective action, recognizing we need to encourage the voices and gifts of others to participate in climate resilience. In a distributed leadership model, we help students find places where they can shine.
The REAL components naturally scaffold. As relationships develop, so does understanding and care. From this foundation, a clearer view emerges of the systems that connect self, others, and the living world. These systems might include flows of energy, resources, power, and attention. When examined, imbalances or injustices in our environmental and social systems become more visible. To address these patterns, informed action is needed. And to extend that change more broadly and sustainably, leadership becomes essential—offering a way to foster collaboration, shared ownership, and collective joy in the ongoing work of climate resilience.