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

Abstract

Young people represent a powerful force for social change, and they have an important role to play in climate change responses. However, empowering young people to be "systems changers" is not straightforward. It is particularly challenging within educational systems that prioritize instrumental learning over critical thinking and creative actions. History has shown that by creating novel spaces for reflexivity and experimentation, the arts have played a role in shifting mindsets and opening up new political horizons. In this paper, we explore the role of art as a driver for societal transformation in a changing climate and consider how an experiment with change can facilitate reflection on relationships between individual change and systems change. Following a review of the literature on transformations, transformative learning and the role of art, we describe an experiment with change carried out with students at an Art High School in Lisbon, Portugal, which involved choosing one sustainable behavior and adopting it for 30 days. A transformative program encouraged regular reflection and group discussions. During the experiment, students started developing an art project about his or her experience with change. The results show that a transformative learning approach that engages students with art can support critical thinking and climate change awareness, new perspectives and a sense of empowerment. Experiential, arts-based approaches also have the potential to create direct and indirect effects beyond the involved participants. We conclude that climate-related art projects can serve as more than a form of science communication. They represent a process of opening up imaginative spaces where audiences can move more freely and reconsider the role of humans as responsible beings with agency and a stake in sustainability transformations.

Learning about climate change in, with and through art

“…Art has multiple potentials that can be harnessed for climate change education, among them its capacity to engage emotions and to expand imaginaries of the future to create hope, responsibility and care, as well as healing. Art is also a powerful form of communication; it can integrate diverse knowledges through experiential learning and it can engage young people in deeper, embodied, and potentially transformative ways with the subject (Bentz and O'Brien 2019;Dieleman 2017).…”

“…This in addition with the group discussions and the artistic expression constituted a student-centered, learning-by-doing approach. Learning with the help of creative and experiential approaches has shown to help students to discover new insights about themselves and facilitate new relationships with resources and the topic climate change in general (Bentz and O'Brien 2019). For example, it enabled one student to discover her "own consumerist interior" (student T, written reflection, 2018) during the project.…”

“…Providing possibilities for direct experience in democratic processes, such as through participation in community projects, are examples that enable young people to come to their own decisions based on the information they gather and discussions they share (Chawla and Cushing 2007;Hess and Collins 2018). When contextualized in a broader integrative discourse, small behavior changes or school projects can be empowering too, as they can serve as entry points for larger changes on the political and systemic realm (Bentz and O'Brien 2019). Within this research, the integration of a 30-day behavioral change in a learning-through-art approach helped students to realize that their individual choices have an impact globally as well as on others (e.g., family and friends).…”

“…The arts and the humanities can play a critical role in engaging young people and adults with new perspectives on climate change. At universities as well as at school, humanities classes offer environments for critical, integrative, and reflexive approaches and the arts disciplines including visual art, theater, and music can provide spaces for creative imagination, experimentation, and perspective-taking (Bentz and O'Brien 2019). Art can also attend to and transform emotions, creating hope, responsibility, care, and solidarity (Ryan 2016).…”

“…2 Climate engagement in, with, and through art Art and arts-based practices are increasingly seen as a powerful way of developing meaningful connection with climate change (Bentz and O'Brien 2019;Shrivastava et al 2012). Artistic and creative practices and approaches can help expand our imaginaries of the future, opening up our minds to new scenarios of change.…”