Climate Justice Education: Bending the Emissions Curve and Transforming Injustices in Settler Colonial Canada

• In Event: Confronting Colonial Legacies: Healing and Justice in Environmental Education

Abstract

This paper explores how youth movements have catalyzed climate action and examines the critical intersections between climate change education, decolonial efforts within the Canadian context, and petro-pedagogies within schools. Despite a climate change education policy vacuum, this paper showcases the possibilities of hopeful and transgressive social imaginaries through exploring several sites of transformative education including: Land-based climate education in Thaidene Nene, a climate justice education course for pre-service and in-service teachers, youth climate justice movements operating within social media, and youth climate justice education for financially-just climate futures. The paper draws upon the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) Changemaking Framework to discuss impactful and innovative approaches to climate justice education more broadly.

Authors

• Carrie Karsgaard, Cape Breton University

• Ellen Field, Lakehead University

• Maria Vamvalis, University of Toronto - OISE