Teaching the Climate Crisis: Existential Considerations

Abstract

It is urgent that educators in social studies and science (among other disciplines) consider the ethical imperative of teaching the climate crisis—the future is at stake. This article considers a barrier to teaching this contentious topic effectively: existential threat. Through the lens of terror management theory, it becomes clear that climate catastrophe is an understandably fraught topic as it can serve as a reminder of death in two ways. As will be explained in this article, simultaneously such discussions can elicit not only mortality salience from considering the necrocene produced by climate catastrophe, but also existential anxiety arising from worldview threat. This threat can occur when Western assumptions are called into question as well as when there is disagreement between those with any worldviews that differ. After summarizing relevant aspects of terror management theory and analyzing the teaching of the climate crisis as an existential affair, specific strategies to help manage this situation (in and out of the classroom) are explored: providing conceptual tools, narrating cascading emotions, carefully using humor to diffuse anxiety, employing language and phrasing that does not overgeneralize divergent groups, and priming ideas of tolerance and even nurturance of difference.

Conceptualising eco-anxiety using an existential framework

“…The above findings support past propositions (Pihkala, 2018; van Kessel, 2020) that existential ideas offer a suitable reference point in formulations of eco-anxiety. To recapitulate briefly, such a formulation might consider issues of…”

“…Eco-anxiety has also attracted analyses of a more existential nature (Pihkala, 2018; van Kessel, 2020). Common threads to these analyses emphasise the association between climate change and death, the threat of climate change to one’s ‘symbolic immortality’ (one’s legacy through children or culture), and beyond this on the potential for climate change to evoke a sense that something is wrong in the natural order of the world.…”

Climate change and the assemblages of school leaderships

“…This transition of schools into the reality of the climate emergency will require bold leadership and we argue that deliberate deterritorialising and decoding actions by school leaderships can promote this process. Teaching the existential threat of the climate crisis is an ethical imperative (Kessel, 2020). The stakes are as high they get.…”

Regards croisés sur le phénomène « d’écoanxiété » : perspectives psychologique, sociale et éducationnelle

“…À ce titre, les travaux de synthèse de Pihkala (2018, 2020a) et d'Ojala (2012b, 2016 fournissent des repères d'une grande pertinence, certains plus théoriques (en termes d'approches éducatives à privilégier), d'autres plus appliqués. À titre d'exemple, Pihkala, avec Nairn (2019) et Van Kessel (2020, recommandent de ne pas passer sous le silence les émotions difficiles vécues par les étudiant.e.s lorsque des enjeux socioécologiques sont abordés. Le seul fait que la personne enseignante admette sa propre vulnérabilité et ses ambiguïtés émotionnelles face aux enjeux écologiques contribue à favoriser les échanges entre étudiants.…”