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My research into Climate Change Education (CCE) and the transformative potential of pedagogy for mobilizing the public in systemic change has required a deeper analysis of the problem and potential solutions of the climate emergency. Perhaps it is to be expected, but this deeper analysis has led me into a ‘rabbit hole’ of the multi-dimensional nature of the climate crisis with its political, economic, cultural, social, historical and emotional dimensions. The latter has been especially visible in my research as the invisible factor of CCE, specifically in light of how emotions relate to addressing the cognitive and psychological roots of mobilizing the public for climate action.
Tasked with a design challenge with a team of Graduate students in the course titled CALS 501 Leading Climate Action in Society at Royal Roads University, we’ve been challenged with designing a prototype of an Open Educational Resource (OER) for empowering climate action with Canadian youth, my team’s chosen target demographic. At its current stage, our team has revised our design concept through several iterations and yet certain questions linger. Such as, what are the barriers for youth in taking climate action? What are the gaps in our current CCE model in Canada? Lastly, what alternative educational approaches exist that we can draw from to tackle some of these gaps and barriers?
Of course, there are numerous answers and possibilities to these questions, but one approach in particular I will focus on here is the gap of ‘emotional labor’ in CCE. This is to say that one of the biggest risks I see in the educational space of climate change is the lack of emotional work in teaching and learning practices, which is especially true for youth in their formative years of life. This emotional work can entail pedagogical approaches that encompass emotional coping strategies and emotional support by adults to youth (Ojala, 2017). For as Sally Weintrobe (2020) argues, in a ‘culture of uncare’ in the logic of the neoliberal economy, in which the global health pandemic has increasingly been made visible, this work of ‘emotional labor’ seems ever more important.
At its core, the climate crisis is the greatest existential threat of our times (Lehtonen, Salonen, & Cantell, 2019; Ojala, 2017). Arguably it is greater than the global health pandemic before us, as the climate emergency has no ‘vaccine’ to solve it despite the promised technological-economic fixes with it being a ‘wicked problem’ that requires systemic change (Funtowicz & Ravetz, 2003; Lehtonen, Salonen, & Cantell, 2019). This existentialism is what Swedish psychologist Maria Ojala (2016) argues is a threat-multiplier across the many aspects of being. For as she references the philosopher Paul Tillich in The Courage to Be (1952/ 2000), the climate crisis presents threats to the individualistic being (via the fear of physical death), the moral being (via feelings of guilt or being condemned), and the spiritual being (via a lack of meaning or purpose to one’s life). Moreover, Ojala argues that existentialism of the climate crisis has potentially widespread significant impacts on both learning about the crisis and taking action (Ojala, 2016)
For example, in the emerging field of Climate Psychology, we see rising evidence that youth (and adults) are experiencing a phenomenon called ‘climate anxiety’ or otherwise called ‘eco-anxiety.’ In a recent Lancet survey of the largest global study of youth and climate anxiety, it was found that nearly half of global youth (45 percent) are affected by climate anxiety (Hickman et al., 2021). Climate anxiety is said to manifest in multiple ways, as a form of stress, grief or worry over an impending ecological doom scenario with wide ranging symptoms, including cognitive learning issues that can lead to long-term developmental and educational consequences (Hickman et al., 2021; Ray, 2020; Wu, Snell & Samji, 2020).
However, as Ojala (2016) argues, if education on climate change holds space for emotional coping strategies and provides a support system for youth, then much of this can be circumnavigated and potentially hold space for transformative political action. She argues that Critical Affective Pedagogy, not Therapeutic Education, is the way forward (Ibid.). Rather than pointing the blame on the individual for experiencing hard emotions like climate anxiety, it is instead about acknowledging these emotions as normal and healthy given the ‘wicked’ systemic crisis we are in (Ibid.). Additionally, it is about providing an educational space premised on critical thinking about this system while creating space for imagining even cultivating alternative systems that help to foster agency (Ibid.). Examples of this that she and others have suggested might address the ‘emotional’ gap in CCE, include:
- Arts-Based Learning: Arts can offer a space to think critically and deconstruct the system, imagine alternative systems, express hard emotions, activate one’s agency on issues, embody alternative knowledge and at times spark cultural transformations (Lehtonen, Salonen, & Cantell, 2019).
- Prefigurative Politics: Prefigurative politics moves from critical thought and critical imaginations into performing or experimenting one’s political ideals in the material world (Ojala, 2016). In essence, it is actualizing the world you want, which has been expressed in such movements as the Tiny House Warriors, the Occupy Movement, the Degrowth movement, the Transition Network and to some extent, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
- Adult Allyship: There is a ‘relational turn’ in this emotional work in which youth are best assisted in climate action when they have adult allies. Such as teachers, parents or a positive role model that can emotionally support youth in climate work by talking, caring and helping them in their actions (Elsen & Ord, 2021). However, one important caveat to this is for adults to not simply ‘take over’ the climate work of young people but to ‘support from behind’ by respecting the autonomy, knowledge and decision-making power of young people (Ibid.).
In closing, there is much work to be done on the ‘emotional labor’ of the climate crisis. However, this so-called ‘soft-work’ is often ignored in educational spaces and yet it is one key underlying factor for mobilizing the public into climate action (Chopin, Hargis & McKenzie, 2018; Ojala, 2016). For if we don’t hold space pedagogically for addressing the hard emotions in the climate crisis then we leave youth abandoned with a dizzying mess of existentialism that can breed a nihilistic and paralyzing state. Yet when emotions are legitimized and youth are provided the tools to cope, as well as given support, several scholars argue that we can foster emotional resilience in the face of adversity for youth, while encouraging their agency in acting on the crisis and even foster a transformative mindset to seeing or building a new world ahead (Ibid; Knight, 2007). Hence, if the political capacity for climate action appears blocked then instead of more policy fixes (WFD, 2021) we may need to finally address the ‘action gap’ through the ‘emotional labor’ of the climate crisis. This is in essence a call for the ‘pedagogy of care’ in an increasingly uncaring world.
References:
- Chopin, N., Hargis, K., & McKenzie, M. (2018). Building Climate-Ready Schools in Canada: Towards Identifying Good Practices in Climate Change Education. Sustainability and Education Policy Network, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
- Elsen, F. & Ord, J. (2021). The Role of Adults in “youth Led” Climate Groups: Enabling Empowerment. Frontiers in Political Science, 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2021.641154 \
- Funtowicz, S., & Ravetz, J. (2003). Post-normal science. In International Society for
- Ecological Economics (Ed.), Online Encyclopedia of Ecological Economics. Retrieved from: https://eclass.yorku.ca/eclass/mod/url/view.php?id=1074167
- Hickman, C., et al. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. Lancet Planet Health, 5(12), e863-e873. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3.
- Knight, C. (2007). A resilience framework: Perspectives for educators. Health Education, 107(6), 543–555. https://doi.org/10.1108/09654280710827939
- Lehtonen, A., Salonen, A. O., & Cantell, H. (2019). Climate Change Education: A New Approach for a World of Wicked Problems. In J. W. Cook (Ed.), Sustainability, Human Well-Being, and the Future of Education (pp. 339–374). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78580-6_11
- Ojala, M. (2017). Facing Anxiety in Climate Change Education: From Therapeutic Practice to Hopeful Transgressive Learning. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 21, 41–56.
- Ray, S.J. (2020). A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep your Cool on a Warming Planet. Oakland, California: University of California Press.
- Tillich, P. (1952/ 2000). The Courage to Be. Yale University Press.
- Weintrobe, S. (2020). Moral injury, the culture of uncare and the climate bubble. Journal of Social Work Practice, 34:4, 351-362, DOI: 10.1080/02650533.2020.1844167
- WFD. (2021). Why the empowerment agenda at COP26 matters for the success of the Paris Agreement. Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD). Retrieved from: https://www.agora-parl.org/sites/default/files/agora-documents/Addressing%20climate%20change%20-%20Parliamentarians%20around%20the%20world%20emphasize%20the%20role%20of%20public%20empowerment%20ahead%20of%20COP26.pdf
- Wu, J., Snell, G., & Samji, H. (2020, October). Climate anxiety in young people: a call to action. The Lancet Planetary Health, 4 (10). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30223-0