Roundtable Discussion on Barriers and Potentials in Using Social-Emotional Learning Towards Climate Justice: A View from South Asia

• In Event: Virtual Roundtable Session 3

Group Submission Type: Refereed Roundtable Session

Proposal

This roundtable highlights ideas emanating from a series of discussions amongst a group of academics, researchers, practitioners and activists in the fields of education and climate from South Asia. The discussions reflected on how climate justice education (CJE) and education for sustainable development (ESD)can be conceptualised to incorporate deeper engagement with social emotional learning (SEL). Two overarching concerns of climate and sustainability education informed the discussions of the group: the first was the over-reliance on scientific epistemology informing ESD and CJE. It was argued that while science explains the facts as they are, it does not impart a notion of care and call to action to students who will determine the future of these disciplines, and indeed the state of the environment. The second concern was that discourses in both disciplines are dominated by issues and concerns facing lived experiences in the Global North, many of which are far removed from those affecting the global majority. Furthermore, there is diversity of experiences across social contexts in the Global North and South that climate justice education needs to incorporate.
These issues debated extensively and informally over the course of several months and through more formal engagement through a public webinar. The group will now gather to take the discussion forward on two ideas, firstly, framing SEL in the fields of CJE and ESD. While dominant conceptualisations of SEL engage with lived environments, there was a consensus that this was inadequate to address the multifarious concerns emanating from lived climate injustices in global south contexts, and indeed broader issues impeaching students’ ability to live in positive peace i.e. one that not only includes an absence of violence but embodies structures for the removal of all inequities. Thus, embedding SEL into ESD, grounded in respect for land and habitat, must include learning for positive peace, all of which is grounded in the notion of fundamental empathy for the natural and living world. Empathy conceptually requires viewing another through their eyes to understand their lived realities. For the purposes of ESD this can take different approaches across the spectrum of passive (that processes emotional responses) to active empathy (that takes action to create a change), grounded in a typology of cognitive (learned) and emotional empathy. Building on these thoughts, the first output was that education for sustainable development must integrate empathy as a foundation for SEL in CJE and ESD.
Second, how to integrate empathy-driven SEL into CJE and ESD. The next question that the group debated was the practicality of embedding such thinking into learning processes given contextual diversity and time and resource constraints faced by educators globally. Solutions to achieve this were viewed both through formal teaching pathways and more holistically.
The fundamental question that the group grappled with concerning embedding SEL into CJE and ESD was how to create content that was relevant across contexts. Two related avenues were highlighted both grounded in imaginings of creative pedagogies: the first was to make the content experience-based so that learning projects for ESD would include interactions with the natural environment, animals, and promoting peace, incorporating ideas of SEL (underwritten by empathy). Such learning design imagined the creative use of surrounding natural habitats and socio-human contexts rather than overarching global issues that may not hold contextual relevance to students. Thus for example for those living in arid regions, water conservation topics may take precedence while for those living in urban centres, learning about mitigating pollution, excessive heat and flooding would be topics of learning. Such pedagogical design is informed by global citizenship education that highlights contextual learning and action as fundamental precepts of learning.
This South Asian collective would like to have a space at CIES to continue its discussions to reflect on these issues characterised by the varied perspectives shared by the group members, for which a pilot is planned for testing in the near future. This variety brings shared experiences and values, theoretical framing tempered by practical feasibility of solutions. What remains fixed is the commitment on imagining more equitable education for climate and environmental sustainability in the hope of more climate just futures for all.

Sub Unit

• South Asia SIG

Organizer

• Radhika Iyengar, Columbia University, climate School

Chair

• Iveta Silova, Arizona State University

Individual Presentations

• Reimagining Science Classrooms as a Space for Climate Justice and Care - Arya karumanthra, Indiana University

• Environmental Stewardship through Empathy, Equity and Empowerment – Pakistan’s First Curriculum on Climate Change Education (grades 1-10) - Ambreena Ahmed, Teachers' Resource Centre

• Feeling for Climate: The Case of New Jersey’s Climate Education Curriculum - Radhika Iyengar, Columbia University, climate School

• Teaching Climate by Touching Soil: Reframing Environmental Learning through Local Contexts - Viplow Shivhare, Pratham Education Foundation

• Reimagining Climate Justice Education in Pakistan through Social-Emotional Learning and Empathy - Baela R Jamil, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi ITA; Arooj Khalid, Idara-E-Taleem-O-Aagahi (ITA)

• Different Strokes for Different Folks: Reaching the Impacted - Afia Salam, Indus Earth Trust