Towards a 'reparative climate education': lessons from a youth climate fellowship program

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Youth Leadership and Action

Abstract

While youth participation is noted as a precondition for the success of climate action, youth from Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities remain grossly underrepresented in climate decision-making spaces. To enable meaningful youth participation, racialized youth need climate education to speak to their lived realities while also fostering a socio-political literacy on what systems are responsible for the climate crisis, and what kinds of mechanisms can help address the root causes. This paper reports on the findings from a youth climate fellowship that was designed in partnership with the City of Toronto and Toronto Community Housing. Through the lens of ‘reparative climate education’, we theorize how racialized youth characterize impactful climate education in the City.

Author

• Preeti Nayak, University of Toronto