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Interdisciplinary and Critical Conceptualizations of Climate Change Education and Research

Fri, April 22, 11:30am to 1:00pm PDT (11:30am to 1:00pm PDT), AERA Presidential Session Virtual Session Rooms, AERA Presidential Session Virtual Paper Session Room

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

Given that climate change is one of the defining educational contexts in the 21st century, we ask this question of our educational research community: What is the role of education and educational research as we attempt to “cultivate equitable educational systems” in a world dominated by climate breakdown and related emergencies? This presidential session adds to a still relatively nascent literature in climate change education by drawing in diverse disciplines and key critical issues for climate change education and research.
Symposium Summary
Objectives
In response to the AERA 2022 theme ‘Cultivating Equitable Education Systems for the 21st Century’ this presidential symposium session addresses the role of educational research in responding to the climate change emergency and conditions of climate injustice.
Overview and Structure of Session
The 120-minute session will include six presentations discussing aspects of climate change education and research, including implications for interdisciplinary and critical curriculum, pedagogy, research, and policy. The session chair will facilitate an opportunity for questions following the scholarly presentations.
Scholarly Significance
The effects of climate change continue apace, as peoples around the world experience more intense wildfires, stronger storms and heatwaves, rising sea levels, precarious food and water situations, and the social upheavals associated with anthropogenic global warming. We know that the causes of climate change are not equally distributed, with those in the Global North more responsible for – and less likely to suffer from – the consequences of climate change than those in the Global South. This is a key injustice at the heart of climate change: those least responsible are suffering the most.
Given that climate change is likely one of the defining educational contexts in the 21st century, we ask this question of our educational research community: What is the role of education and educational research as we attempt to “cultivate equitable educational systems” in a world dominated by climate breakdown and related emergencies? We suggest our scholarly community needs to examine the systems and ideologies that are responsible for climate change in the first place: human supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, industrialization, white supremacy, among others. Perhaps the perpetuation of these ideas via educational institutions and practices is part of the problem?
In their collection Education and Climate Change (2009), Kagawa and Selby lamented that education cannot continue a business-as-usual paradigm and that instead of “shying away from looming runaway climate change, the learning moment can be seized to think about what really and profoundly matters, to collectively envision a better future” (p. 5). This proposed presidential session therefore adds to a still relatively nascent literature in climate change education (e.g., Henderson & Drewes, 2020) by drawing in diverse disciplines and key critical issues for climate change education and research. Panelists will highlight Black and Indigenous knowledges that prioritize relationality and reparations, the role of climate science fiction in the imagining of alternative futures, how culture and race impact decision making in educational policy settings, the physical and digital high carbon infrastructures implicit in governing climate change education, and a rising threat of ecofascist political movements as a response to climate emergencies. The session chair will then facilitate time at the end of the session for questions and discussion among the panelists and the audience.

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