An easy-to-use field guide for teaching on climate injustice and building resilience in your students—and yourself—in an age of crisis.As feelings of eco-grief and climate anxiety grow, educators are grappling with how to help students learn about the violent systems causing climate change while simultaneously navigating the emotions this knowledge elicits. This book provides resources for developing emotional and existential tenacity in college classrooms so that students can stay engaged.Featuring insights from scholars, educators, activists, artists, game designers, and others who are integrating emotional wisdom into climate justice education, this user-friendly guide offers a robust menu of interdisciplinary, plug-and-play teaching strategies, lesson plans, and activities to support student transformation and build resilience. The book also includes reflections from students who have taken classes that incorporate their emotions in the curricula. Galvanizing and practical, The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators will equip both educators and their students with tools for advancing climate justice.
Jennifer Atkinson is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Washington, Bothell, and author of Gardenland: Nature, Fantasy, and Everyday Practice.Sarah Jaquette Ray is Professor of Environmental Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt and author of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.
Acknowledgments and GratitudeIntroduction. Climate, Justice, and Emotions in the Classroom: Why a Toolkit? Sarah Jaquette Ray and Jennifer AtkinsonPART I Getting Started with Emotions in the Climate Justice Classroom1 A Pedagogy for Emotional Climate JusticeBlanche Verlie2 Balancing Feelings and Action: Four Steps for Working with Climate-Related Emotions and Helping Each Student Find Their CallingAndrew Bryant3 Transformative Psychological Approaches to Climate EducationLeslie Davenport4 From Existential Crisis to Action Planning: Building Individual and Community Resilience Jessica D. Pratt5 Empathy and Care: Activities for Feeling Climate ChangeSara Karn6 The Emotional Impact StatementChristie M. Manning7 The Politics of HopeDaniel Chiu Suarez, Sophie Chalfin-Jacobs, Hannah Gokaslan, Sidra Pierson, and Annaliese Terlesky8 Unfucking the WorldLeif TarantaPART II Justice as Affective Pedagogy9 Preparing Students to Navigate a Harrowing Educational Landscape: Accessibility and Inclusion for the Climate Justice ClassroomAshley E. Reis10 Photovoice for the Climate Justice Classroom: Inviting Students' Affective and Sociopolitical EngagementCarlie D. Trott11 Leveraging Affect for Climate JusticeMichelle Garvey12 Infrastructure Affects: Registering Impressions of Mega-DamsRichard Watts13 From Principles to Praxis: Exploring the Roots and Ramifications of the Environmental Justice MovementShane D. HallPART III Embodied Pedagogies14 Working with Ecological Emotions: Mind Map and Spectrum LinePanu Pihkala15 Building Somatic Awareness to Respond to Climate-Related TraumaEmily (Em) Wright16 Using Poetry to Resist Alienation in the Climate Change ClassroomMagdalena Mączyńska17 Prompts for Feeling-Thinking-Doing: Somatic Speculation for Climate JusticeSarah KanousePART IV Futurity, Narrative, and the Imagination: Visualizing What We Desire18 The Tool of ImaginationDoreen Stabinsky and Katrine Oesterby19 Overcoming the TragicPeter Friederici20 Practicing Speculative FuturesApril Anson21 Cultivating Radical Imagination through StorytellingSummer GrayPART V Unsettling Pedagogies: Discomfort and Difficult Knowledge22 Critical Journalism, Creative Activism, and a Pedagogy of DiscomfortKimberly Skye Richards23 Why Worry? The Utility of Fear for Climate JusticeJennifer Ladino24 The Social Ecology of Responsibility: Navigating the Epistemic and Affective Dimensions of the Climate Crisis Audrey Bryan25 Beyond the Accountability Paradox: Climate Guilt and the Systemic Drivers of Climate ChangeMarek OziewiczPART VI Joy and Resilience as Resistance26 Joyful Climate Work: The Power of Play in a Time of Worry and FearCasey Meehan27 Finding Hope in the Influence and Efficacy of Native/Indigenous RightsKate Reavey28 Teaching Climate Change Resilience through PlayJessica Creane29 Building Capacity for Resilience in the Face of Environmental ShocksAbosede Omowumi Babatunde30 Releasing GrowthTerry Harpold31 Ecotopia versus Zombie Apocalypse: Collaborative Writing Games for Existential RegenerationMarna HaukPART VII Community, Collaboration, and Kinship32 Facilitating “R&R”: Student-Led Climate Resilience and ResistanceJessica Holmes33 Climate Justice and Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum: Empowering Action and Fostering Well-BeingSonya Remington Doucette and Heather U. Price34 Come for Climate, Stay for Community: Acting, Emoting, and Staying Together through the Climate CrisisAlissa Frame, Charlotte Graf, Lydia O’Connor, Jillian Scannell, Amy Seidl, and Emma Wardell35 The Climate Imaginary: Reading Fiction to Make Sense of the Climate CrisisBenjamin Bowman, Chloé Germaine, Pooja Kishinani, and Charlie BalchinPART VIII These Skills Are Needed in the World: Career Planning for the Climate Generation36 How Will Climate Change Affect My Career? Debra J. Rosenthal, Jeffrey Johansen, and Ruth Jacob37 Fostering Student Agency for Climate Justice through Vocational ExplorationRachel F. BrummelAppendix: Chapters Sorted by ThemesList of ContributorsIndex
“The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators is an interdisciplinary amalgam of lesson plans and assignments for teaching about the climate crisis and climate change with the goal of helping students understand their emotions about the subject and to turn their emotions into positive activities.”