Centering Climate Justice Through Participatory Methods With Young Children in a Rural eSwatini Community

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: (Re)Centering Ecologies Toward Advancing Equity (Table 16)

Abstract

Set within the context of an after-school camp in a rural community in eSwatini, this paper responds to the marginalization of Global South childhoods in climate change education research. We discuss the creative activisms that emerged when young children were invited to visually story their perspectives on the impacts of climate change before and during walks in their community. We discuss children’s ecological caring, curiosity, and complex sense-making of place. The findings also illustrate the ways in which young children enact relationality and reciprocity in sharing knowledge about environmental precarity. We discuss the significance of the findings in relation to contributions to knowledge on how interdisciplinary climate justice education can foreground the creative activisms of children from marginalized communities.

Authors

• Fikile Nxumalo, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Alison Smith
  Presenting Author

• Correnda Downey, University of Toronto - OISE
  Presenting Author