Geographical process or global injustice? Contrasting educational perspectives on climate change

Climate change education and research: possibilities and potentials versus problems and perils?

“…Dove 1996;Leiserowitz 2006;Whitmarsh 2009;Porter, Weaver, and Raptis 2012;Blum et al 2013;€ Ohman and € Ohman 2013;Plutzer et al 2016;Kolleck et al 2017;Verlie and CRR 15 2018), the influence of everyday life, cultural to transcultural and subcultural norms, class, gender, age, personal beliefs, emotions, imagery and metaphors, information seeking and representations, consensus claims, risk perception, coping strategies, friends, parents and family in building or dissipating concern (Stern€ ang and Lundholm 2012; Boyd and Osbahr 2010;Kenis and Mathijs 2012;Niebert and Gropengiesser 2013;Stevenson, Peterson, and Bondell 2019;cf. Bord, O'Connor, and Fisher 2000;Leiserowitz 2004;Moser 2007;Hulme 2009;Leiserowitz, Maibach, and Roser-Renouf 2009;Myers et al 2012;Adger et al 2013;Cook et al 2013;Otieno et al 2014;Byrne et al 2014;Meeusen 2014;Capstick et al 2015;Theobald et al 2015;Pearse 2017;Kunkle and Monroe 2019), the role of evidence, argumentation, reasonableness, ideologies such as climate change denial, mental models and biases, cognitive challenges in comprehending visual representations and metadata projections, and expertise in designing and evaluating educational activities and communications about climate change (Shepardson et al 2012;Bentley, Petcovic, and Cassidy 2019;Sezen-Barrie, Shea, and Borman 2019b;Waldron et al 2019;Hestness, McGinnis, and Breslyn 2019;cf. CRED 2009;Taber and Taylor 2009;…”

“…For some, such considerations will essentially boil down to hard choices, such as, on what education policymakers (still/should) have to put on the back burner, so to speak, if the energies and passion of educators and learners are to be focused on the task at hand (Moser and Dilling 2004;Laessøe et al 2009;Stevenson et al 2014;Krasny and DuBois 2019)? For others however, such consultations and their considerations risk wasting yet more time: aren't they also/really a part of a heady mix of displacement activities, double think and bad faith (Foster 2008;Selby and Kagawa 2010;Waldron et al 2019), relaying a broad-based and deep-seated reluctance to unlearn and relearn the purposes and practices of education in the face of a climate crisis (Lotz-Sisitka 2010;Marcinkowski 2009;Shepardson et al 2012)? In other words, we have to ask, what have we come to believe, experience and expect of education, while global warming has advanced-or rather, is it ultimately a question of a change of many hearts, minds and actions that is required, and urgently so?…”

ART FOR CHANGE: Transformative learning and youth empowerment in a changing climate

“…Ojala (2012) stresses the importance of constructive hope as a motivational force for student engagement with climate change. Creating space to acknowledge difficult emotions and discussing the link between individual and collective change is seen as important (Waldron et al, 2016). Locating climate change solely in the private realm of the individual consumer may even run the risk of undermining climate action whereas locating climate action in the citizenship realm can support the extension of the concept of action necessary to enable change (Waldron et al, 2016).…”

“…However, for other students, addressing a global-scale problem felt overwhelming and led to statements of disempowerment. Although there is wide-ranging support of the idea of education for climate change empowerment (Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002;Monroe et al, 2017;Waldron et al, 2016) there is limited research on how to successfully promote it (Hesselbarth and Schaltegger, 2014;Monroe et al, 2017). Group discussions are seen as a valuable tool in this regard as they can generate spaces in which students can question their assumptions, identify their values, compare evidence and explore perceptions (Chawla and Cushing, 2007;Monroe et al, 2017).…”

Strengthening Planning’s Effectiveness in a Hyper-Polarized World/Responding to the Conservative Common Sense of Opposition to Planning and Development in England/The Limits to Negotiation and the Promise of Refusal/Planning Contexts in a Hyper-Polarized World/A Right to Sanctuary: Supporting Immigrant Communities in an Era of Extreme Precarity/Planning and Climate Change: Opportunities and Challenges in a Politically Contested Environment/Speaking with the Middle 40% to Bridge the Political Divide for Mut

“…Positive messages should be used instead of trying to scare people into action with doomsday predictions, as people are more likely to act when they believe they can make a tangible, positive difference (e.g. Deng, Wang, & Yousefpour, 2017;Ojala, 2015;Waldron, Ruane, Oberman, & Morris, 2016). Active learning is best, as people internalize while they participate and are more likely to continue learned actions (e.g.…”