Environmental Justice in Social Work Education: A Call to Integrate Children’s Voices

Children are especially vulnerable to the health and developmental risks associated with environmental degradation, yet social work education rarely prepares students to engage children as stakeholders in environmental justice activism and decision-making. Using the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a guiding framework, this paper highlights the urgent need to integrate children’s voices into social work environmental education. Strategies are proposed for embedding children’s participation across human rights, macro practice, research, and clinical courses. A practical teaching example is provided to illustrate how to equip students with the skills necessary to foster intergenerational engagement and advocacy. By centering children’s voices in environmental education, social work can better prepare future practitioners to advance rights-based, inclusive, and participatory approaches to addressing global environmental challenges.