What may we hope for? Education in times of climate change

Abstract

In "The Crisis in Education," published in 1954, Hannah Arendt suggests that adults who refuse to take responsibility for the world should not be allowed to educate children or to have children of their own. Her text describes the "general crisis," which, according to Arendt, "has overtaken the modern world everywhere and in almost every sphere of life," including education (Arendt, 2006, p. 170). Written for another time and with different problems in mind, her words were not meant to describe our present situation. Indeed, in light of the evolving ecological crises where the very conditions for life on earth are in peril (Masson-Delmotte et al., 2018; Steffen et al., 2015), Arendt's use of the term crisis seems quite overblown. Nevertheless, her warning can help us to explore some of the important dilemmas that face educators of today, in a time where a range of unfolding, interlocking crises (ecological, social, and political) are on the horizon. Arendt's concern was the child-centered pedagogy of modern mass society, which "insofar as it attempts to establish a world of children, destroys the necessary conditions for vital development and growth" (p. 186). At risk, for Arendt, is the preservation of a common world: a public realm where freedom and individuality is possible. 1 The continued existence of a common world depends, according to this remarkable analysis, on the basic asymmetry of the relationship between child and educator, described as follows: Insofar as the child is not yet acquainted with the world, he must be gradually introduced to it; insofar as he is new, care must be taken that this new thing comes to fruition in relation to the world as it is. In any case, however, the educators here stand in relation to the young as representatives of a world for which they must assume responsibility although they themselves did not make it, and even though they may, secretly or openly wish it were other than it is. This responsibility is not arbitrarily imposed upon educators; it is implicit in the fact that the young are introduced by adults into a continuously changing world. (Arendt, 2006, p. 186) This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Who Needs Sensory Education?

“…Philosophers of education like Straume (2019) and Su and Su (2019) have argued that the assumption that adults educate children towards a 'better' future no longer holds in light of contemporary planetary challenges (conf. Thunberg 2019;IPCC 2018;Eriksen 2016).…”

Letting Teach: Gen Z as Socio-Political Educators in an Overheated World

“…The commitments of the Paris Agreement 2016 were to respond to the red flags waved by the world's leading natural scientists. While the central demand of the movement is to pressure governments to stick to the goals of the Paris Agreement 2016-Gen Z activists strike and argue from a profound philosophical ground of intergenerational relationality, which at its heart pierces the question of education (e.g., Straume, 2018;Su and Su, 2019). Educational philosophers like Straume (2018) and Su and Su (2019) problematize the paradox that current adult educators must exercise responsibility while enabling children to become part of a resource-intensive capitalism that depletes its own support systems.…”

“…While the central demand of the movement is to pressure governments to stick to the goals of the Paris Agreement 2016-Gen Z activists strike and argue from a profound philosophical ground of intergenerational relationality, which at its heart pierces the question of education (e.g., Straume, 2018;Su and Su, 2019). Educational philosophers like Straume (2018) and Su and Su (2019) problematize the paradox that current adult educators must exercise responsibility while enabling children to become part of a resource-intensive capitalism that depletes its own support systems. Others like Biswas and Mattheis (2021) take a childist stance and propose that educational praxis should recognize the educational contributions of children in the lives of adult educators because pupils' activism and advocacy itself contributes to informal education of adults regarding the climate crisis.…”

“…In turn, protestors trigger adult reflection on what constitutes "appropriate" democratic participation for "minors." Straume (2018) has argued that educational responsibility in a contemporary context implies showing pupils that they themselves can become responsible and politically active. My prior discussion of Gen Z activism, however, demands that educational theorists and practitioners re-cognize when pupils assume political responsibility and organization on their own.…”

Re-Thinking the “Problem” in Inquiry-Based Pedagogies through Exemplarity and World-Oriented

“…Instead, the invitation is to respond positively to Lynette Shultz' outline of a pedagogy based on global social justice. Related to this is the growing call for pedagogic responses to climate change and the ensuing climate crisis [60][61][62]. The paper began by describing possible scenarios-melting glaciers in Greenland, and migration-as examples where inter-or transdisciplinarity are required.…”