In a post for the BERA blog, Stephen Scoffham wonders whether it is time to start thinking about reframing climate change education. This is how his post begins:
Teaching pupils about climate change and sustainability is problematic. Simply confronting them directly with the facts can be both disturbing and unsettling but trying to conceal or ignore the dangers that lie ahead is neither desirable nor practical. We need to be truthful about the science of global warming and what it might mean in the years to come without provoking eco-anxiety. Finding a way to be both honest and hopeful is a delicate balancing act. And as Nicola Walshe reports in an earlier blog post, many secondary school pupils are responding to climate change with expressions of fear and hopelessness.
Climate change raises complex psychological issues (Klein, 2015). Throughout recorded history, human beings have proved remarkably adept at ignoring things they do not want to acknowledge. Climate change falls into this category and is particularly challenging because it involves multiple interconnections and complex feedback loops. It also threatens our way of life and seems overwhelming. This leaves people of all ages – children and adults alike – feeling powerless and frustrated. Grief, guilt and anxiety are common responses.
Wonder, compassion and humility
We need a different starting point. Engaging with the world in a spirit of wonder, compassion and humility – as advocated by Kumar and Howarth (2022), Khovacs (2024) and others – opens up, rather than closes down, possibilities. This approach extends the notion of biophilia which was popularised by E. O. Wilson (1986) to describe the innate tendency humans have to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. It also builds on the way that Indigenous people see themselves as belonging to the environment and invest it with meaning. …
To read the whole post, click here.
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Dr Stephen Scoffham is a Visiting Reader in Sustainability and Education at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK and was Geographical Association President (2018–19). An established educational author and atlas consultant, Stephen has written widely on primary geography, global learning, environmental education and sustainability – all areas which correspond to his research interests. His latest book, Sustainability Education: A Classroom Guide, co-authored with Steve Rawlinson, was shortlisted for the BERA educational research book of the year award 2023.
He can be contacted at: s.scoffham848@canterbury.ac.uk