How can we educate about the climate crisis in a way that gives students the tools they need to create hopeful visions of the future?

Through our collaboration at McGill University with representatives from environmental science, biology, geoscience, and science communication, we joined forces to explore this issue and created a new type of climate course.

The Climate Crisis and Climate Action course is an interdisciplinary, holistic introduction to the climate crisis that emphasizes individual and collective action.

Designing a different kind of course

Designing the course required reaching beyond the boundaries of our discipline to address the multifaceted nature of the climate crisis. For more than two years, we consulted with researchers and educators across campus and beyond.

The value of a holistic approach was inspired by discussions about Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy, and we received early guidance and consultation on this from Kanien’kehá:ka Faithkeeper Ka’nahsohon Kevin Deer of Kahnawake and Stryker Calvez, a Michif researcher and educator and Director of Reconciliation, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the City of Saskatoon.

We wove threads of Indigenous perspectives and resources into course materials, lectures, and assignments. For example, the importance of learning physically, emotionally, and spiritually, in addition to intellectually—central to Deer and Calvez’s teachings—was a central theme of our course through weekly reflective journals to help students engage on these levels. Deer continued to participate in the course as a guest lecturer and advisor.

Below are some of our guiding principles for the course.

1. Collaboration and multiple ways of learning

We wondered: Do we start with the science of carbon in the Earth system or the roots of colonialism? Do we emphasize Indigenous knowledge, science, or the socioeconomics of climate change? The problem or the solutions? What role should strengthening our intellects play versus our emotions? Many educators are grappling with these questions as we collectively think about how to prepare the next generation for the challenges ahead.

For us, the solution was to appreciate and embrace the diversity of disciplines, perspectives and approaches to understanding the climate crisis and taking climate action.

We had lectures from scientists from various fields, including Earth system science, political science, biology, English literature, environmental studies, education, sustainability, and more. The lectures also included musical performances and poetry readings.

We had visits from people working on climate solutions. Collaborators shared their expertise and experiences on the climate crisis, including classroom visits from Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk, President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada, Indigenous youth activists on the front lines, and other speakers from around the world. We heard from a national expert on carbon policy, a solar industry leader, national journalist Senator Rosa Galvez, and former NHL goalie Ken Dryden, also a former member of parliament.

The week’s course materials included excerpts from the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report and the work of Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer on repairing our relationship with the Earth in Greta Thunberg’s book A book about climatefor a film made by indigenous people of Greenland and the Marshall Islands.

In small workshops, led by teaching assistants, students benefit from peer learning as they discuss topics or work on assignments together. At the end of the course, students collaborate to write a proposal for climate action on campus. With support from McGill’s $1 million Sustainable Project Fund, students can apply for seed funding and potentially see their climate project come to fruition.

2. Take your whole self with you

Academics are used to solving problems by speaking only from our formal knowledge. But as researchers and teachers, we are learning that if we bring our whole selves to the table—talents, skills, passions, life experiences, positions of power and privilege—we can do so much more.

This can help build a strong community, support learners who are feeling anxious, fearful or sad, and help them make better use of multidisciplinary course materials.

It can also help teachers and students find their place in the climate crisis and better understand the possible actions each person can take.

Following a talk on the scientific evidence that climate change is caused by human activity, which might otherwise have left students feeling despair at the scale and severity of the impacts, we planned interactive activities that aimed to lead the class down a path of hope and action.

Inspired by marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s Venn diagram of climate action and using games to encourage authentic ways of relating, students worked in small groups, supporting each other to share strengths and come up with possible actions.

Each of them declared another feasible step forward that they could take based on one of the ideas that emerged.

3. Start Where You Are

…and not where you think you “should” be. The climate crisis is an unprecedented, alarming, complex, and multifaceted challenge. It can be hard to know how to talk about it. There are many valid ways to approach the problem, and there are real barriers surrounding many of the solutions people have identified. But as climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe points out, the most important step toward solving the climate crisis is talking about it.

Students join the course from a variety of disciplines and contexts. Each year we begin the course by asking students to put pen to paper to visualize and share their personal journey of engagement with climate crises leading to joining the course as a “River of Experiences.”

We ask students to represent influential experiences, people, events, and more in their rivers, and in doing so, we acknowledge that we all come from different places. We then create a group model to help students envision their own learning path during and after the course.

Powerful hope and community

Although the course was designed for students, these guiding principles work just as well outside of the classroom. As instructors and climate experts, we have found powerful hope, community, and paths to climate action in new ways by applying them to our own lives.

We invite readers to explore these principles and consider how they can work together across differences to contribute to climate action. What has shaped the river of experience with the climate crisis, and where do you want it to flow?

This article is reprinted from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.