Conference Agenda

Today, humanity finds itself facing fundamental transformations to its relationships with the environment. For better or worse, these transformations are likely to shape and define the coming century. The ongoing planetary and humanitarian crisis requires transformations which may help humans regain their relationships with themselves, their communities and the environment. Education generally, and education for sustainable development specifically, are seen as the key drivers– or at least as significant factors, in shaping those transformations in the desired direction (compare, for example, Rieckmann 2017 and Wals 2011).

However, the question of whether formal education specifically can contribute to desired social changes is a controversial topic in educational science.

Some argue that schools in particular can be an essential factor for (desired) social change (compare, for example, Archer 2013, Tröhler et al. 2011). Educationalists, however, have repeatedly pointed out that education in general and schools in particular are a decisive factor in the reproduction of normalized social relations to the environment (compare, for example, Berndfeld's (2006) fundamental critique of education and the idea of social change through education). Assuming that schools are a place for the reproduction of social-natural-relations, they have become a battleground for social or political movements that are seen as drivers of social change, such as the youth movement Fridays for Future.

The symposium starts at this interface of education and social movements as outlined above. The aim of the symposium is to highlight the scientific research on different aspects of the aforementioned questions, to analyse them and to bring them into discussion with each other.

The first contribution asks from a normative (educational) philosophy perspective what knowledge climate activists should have in order to achieve their goals -- above all, to build political pressure in favor of the desired transformation.

The second contribution of the symposium conducts an empirical analysis in the context of Fridays for Future and asks about the pedagogicalisation of political problems, the politicisation of pedagogical ideas and what can be concluded from this for education for sustainable development.

The third contribution analyses intrinsic factors that can accelerate actions against climate change by examining pedagogical programs. The author also discusses these programs through the lens of international frameworks for ESD and climate change. The analysis aims to contribute to the dialogue through the question: what kind of education for climate action are we aiming for?

The fourth and final contribution focuses on students’ engagement and how formal educational settings can learn from informal educational settings such as social movements. Student engagement as part of ESE-practice is as crucial as civil engagement when it comes to educate students efficacy in taking civil action on sustainability issues. Therefore, a transdisciplinary approach will be fruitful to explore student engagement. Following research aim guide the exploration: how can ESE practice establish student engagement in sustainability issues and its function in developing students’ capability to take civic action to achieve sustainable development?

The symposium will be structured as follows:

A maximum of 15 minutes will be available for each of the four individual contributions. This means that the content of these contributions will remain very structured and focused. Immediately afterwards, Helge Kminek will comment on the authors’ contributions, especially from the perspective of the philosophy of science. In other words, the four contributions will be questioned about the ways in which research could be systematically advanced.

In the remaining 20 minutes will be devoted to audience questions and discussion. If there are no questions from the audience, the contributors will refer to each other.

The population seems increasingly aware of climate change, with groups such as Fridays for Future spreading awareness and organising demonstrations worldwide to pressure political leaders into taking action. However, false beliefs concerning climate change are widespread, even among the politically active (Eurobarometer 2019, Leiserowitz et al. 2019). Such false beliefs may lead them to concentrate their efforts on ineffective actions. For example, they may focus on separating recyclable material from their waste, which are minimally effective in addressing climate change. They may also engage in radical activism that risks being counterproductive, though they intend to foster public support and political action (Patterson & Mann 2022). Such phenomena show a lack of orientation among activists , who often have trouble understanding how to become effective agents of change. My consideration posits that perhaps for younger generations to actively participate in climate change mitigation, they need more than awareness of civil disobedience and of climate change itself. Perhaps there is the need to rethink, and fully grasp, young people’s roles both as individuals and as members of a collective. As individual agents, humans can contribute to cutting emissions by reducing their own. As collective agents, they can exercise pressure on political leaders to promote a climate agreement. These actions are not mutually exclusive, but they are different and presuppose the acquisition of different kinds of knowledge: individual agents aiming to cut emissions need to know how to best to go about that, while collective agents aiming to exercise pressure on political leaders need knowledge of the most effective approaches/channels for getting their message across. This contribution will specifically focus on activists’s aim to exercise pressure on institutions through civil disobedience and demonstrations. Through argumentative analysis of texts produced by activists and spread through their web pages or social media channels, interviews, and slogans used in demonstrations, I aim to identify intellectual attitudes or postures ("epistemic vices” – Cassam 2019) that tend to produce suboptimal epistemic outcomes. Furthermore, it will be shown how, in many cases, young people seem to lack an understanding of deliberative processes in democracies. This results in ineffective actions; complaints and protests either directed toward people who have only limited responsibility, or performed at the wrong time. I ultimately argue that (young) activists would benefit from a deeper knowledge on the functioning of deliberation in democracies, and need a more thorough understanding of the decisional processes leading to climate policies.

Cassam Q. (2019). Vices of the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press EC (2019), Special Eurobarometer 490, Climate Change. https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion Leiserowitz A., Maibach E., Rosenthal S. et al. (2019) Climate change in the American mind: November 2019. Yale University and George Mason University. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication Patterson S., Mann M.E. (2022) Public Disapproval of Disruptive Climate Change Protests. Annenberg Policy Center, Penn State University.

‘Why learn without a future’ was written on the front banner of a ‘Fridays for Future’ (FFF) demonstration in Germany in 2019. In addition to climate policy, such expressions call pedagogy into question. For when future-oriented educational promises are fundamentally uncertain, they must be justified, especially if a ‘climate crisis’ is assumed – a circumstance that was recently discussed in the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Germany (see Holfelder et al., 2021, Kminek et al. 2022). Given this line of argumentation, I am interested in what is stated in the FFF context about what to do with this diagnosis. The commitment of those involved with FFF could be understood as giving priority to fighting climate change over their participation in educational institutions such as schools (regarding the history of school strikes see Teune, 2020). At the same time, FFF actors themselves perform pedagogical practices, e.g. in Germany as part of a Public Climate School. Conceptually, these actions are linked to the promise of transforming feelings of power- and helplessness in the struggle against a ‘climate crisis’ into experiences of self-efficacy (SFF, 2021). Pedagogical positions are thus simultaneously criticised and actualised in the FFF context, which constitutes an inherent tension, which suggests the question: should attending educational programs be deferred in favor of the fight for climate justice, or is the former a prerequisite of the latter? To reconstruct how this question is answered in the FFF context, I examine statements using the Sociology of Knowledge approach to discourse by Keller (2011). One way of condensing his central concern is to ask: who can or may say what, where and with what consequences (see Keller, 2011, p. 206)? I considered this question in relation to a wide range of material from the FFF context. Based on a comparative analysis, which focuses on the (re)production of ‘subject positions’ (see Keller, 2011, p. 235) in ‘discourse fragments’ (see Keller, 2011, p. 234), I illustrate in my contribution how positioning in what I call ‘demonstrative engagement’ conveys pedagogicalisation of political problems and politicisation of pedagogical ideas. I then discuss this interpretation with regard to its implications for ESD and come to the conclusion that 'demonstrative engagement' may well represent an adequate orientation for pedagogical practice based on the contemporary diagnosis of a ‘climate crises’ and at the same time, from a more systematic point of view, cannot escape its inherent contradiction.

Holfelder, A.-K., Singer-Brodowski, M., Holz, V., & Kminek, H. (2021). Erziehungswissenschaftliche Fragen im Zusammenhang mit der Bewegung Fridays for Future. Zeitschrift Für Pädagogik, 67(1), 120–139. Keller, R. (2011). Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse: Grundlegung eines Forschungsprogramms (3rd ed.). Interdisziplinäre Diskursforschung. VS; Springer Fachmedien. Kminek, H., Holfelder, A.-K. & Singer-Brodowski, M. (2022). Zukunft war gestern – Zur Legitimität der Pädagogik in Zeiten der sozial-ökologischen Krise. In Bünger, C., Czejkowska, A., Lohmann, I. & Steffens, G. (Eds.), Jahrbuch für Pädagogik 2021. Zukunft – Stand jetzt (pp. 265–276). Beltz Juventa. SFF. (2021). Public Climate School: Konzeptpapier [Students for Future (SFF)]. https://publicclimateschool.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/PCS-Konzeptpapier_Oktober-2021.pdf Teune, S. (2020). Schulstreik. Geschichte einer Aktionsform und die Debatte über zivilen Ungehorsam. In S. Haunss & M. Sommer (Eds.), Fridays for Future – die Jugend gegen den Klimawandel: Konturen der weltweiten Protestbewegung (pp. 131–146). transcript.

Education is considered to be the roadmap for tackling the global challenges. Climate change, is a wicked problem that threatens the continuity of life (Lehtonen, Salonen & Cantell, 2019). Throughout the last decade, efforts to reorient education to more radical and deliberate forms of learning, seem too vague and insufficient to respond to the urgent call of youth for an education that should promote action in the face of the current climate emergency. The role of education seems to be, and remain uncertain concerning questions as to how we approach education for climate action. Critical issues for strengthening climate action through education include shifting away from standardization and social reproduction and towards education for all and social change, from discipline based education, towards project based education, from knowledge based education towards value driven education, and from traditional forms of teaching towards more deliberate and action oriented pedagogies. These issues seem more demanding considering that many research findings regarding youth climate change knowledge, climate change concern and climate change action indicate that there is: a) knowledge misconceptions on climate change , b) gaps between knowledge and action and c) a low self-efficacy to participate in climate actions (Kolenatý, Kroufek & Cincera, 2022; Scoullos & Zachariou; 2022). Based on the above considerations the aim of this paper is to: identify the inherent ingredients of climate action in relation to the model of Anticipation-Action-Reflection, (OECD 2019) to examine the pedagogies that lead to climate action (“Walk to talk”, Whole School Approach, community based learning, peer learning), and c) to discuss the main characteristics of the education that leads to climate action (agency, political will, rethinking teaching techniques, supporting teachers) (Monroe,Plate, Oxarart, Bowers, & Chaves, 2017). The above issues will be: examined under the lens of various programs that applied in Cyprus the period 2018-2022, such as the international program “Unesco Associated Network Schools” and the national programs “Action for Climate Change: The Climate calls for S.O.S.” and discussed in accordance with international and regional ESD Frameworks such as the implementation framework of the UNECE Strategy for ESD 2021-2030, the ESD Mediterranean Action Plan 2030, the UNESCO ESD#2030 etc (UNECE 2022; UNESCO 2020) that developed for supporting countries to work more effectively in the field of ESD and Climate Change Education. Our aim within this discussion is to contribute to the wider dialogue concerning which education for climate action we are aiming for.

Ehlers, S., et al. (2021). Education for Climate Action: Why education is critical for climate progress. CARE International. Evicted BY Climate Change: Confronting the Gendered Impacts of Climate Induced Displacement. Kolenatý, M.; Kroufek, R. & Cincera, J. (2022). What Triggers Climate Action: The Impact of a Climate Change Education Program on Students’ Climate Literacy and Their Willingness to Act. Sustainability, 14, 10365. Lehtonen, A., Salonen, A.O. & Cantell, H. (2019). Climate Change Education: A New Approach for a World of Wicked Problems. In: J.W. Cook (Ed.), Sustainability, Human Well-Being, and the Future of Education (pp. 339-374). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Monroe, C.M., Plate, R. R., Oxarart, A., Bowers, A. & Chaves, A. W. (2017): Identifying effective climate change education strategies: a systematic review of the research, Environmental Education Research. OECD (2019). Conceptual learning framework: Anticipation-Action-Reflection Cycle for 2030. The future of education and skills 2030. Scoullos, M. & Zachariou, A. (2022). Climate Change Education and Outreach in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East Region. UNECE (2022). Framework for the implementation of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development from 2021 to 2030. ECE/CEP/AC.13/2022/3. UNESCO (2020). Education for Sustainable Development: A roadmap #ESDfor2030.

Civil society engagement is key to achieving sustainable development and environmental goals. In addition, students engement is vital in environmental sustainability education (ESE) and its aim to enrich students’ democratic participatory and deliberative way of life. This paper builds on the concept "action competence”. Sass, et al (2020) break down action competence into “the willingness, commitment, knowledge, skills and confidence to engage in finding solutions to controversial problems or issues” (p. 6). In addition, Öhman & Sund (2021) argue that the commitment is “crucial for turning knowledge about sustainability problems/issues into action” (p. 2) and continue, arguing that, “a commitment speaks back to you, in the sense that you want to do something” (p. 3). This paper is limited to explore teaching in which students can transform the experience of controversial sustainability issues - i. e issues consisting of beliefs and arguments that are beyond judgment and scientific evidence - into active engagement such as civic action. However, student engagement is a complex entity. This paper takes a transactional approach on engagement, which means that engagement is an experience taking place between an individual and his environment’’ (Dewey, LW 13, p. 25). The environment is ‘‘whatever conditions interact with personal needs, desires, purposes, and capacities to create the experience’’ such as toys with which he/she is playing, others with which he/she is talking, or books which one is reading (LW 13, p. 25). Here, experience is defined as the process and result of which a living organism tries to do something to and undergoes by its environment (Dewey, LW 9). Furthermore, the environment involves other-than-humans. Consequently, the teacher is vital in setting the scene when it comes to engaging students in CSI and civic action. However, there is a lack of research on teachers' didactical work how to transform students’ engagement in CSI into civic action. However, in social movements theory engagement is vital and pervasive, which also regards research fields such as student engagement and political participation. Can formal educational settings on student engagement learn from informa settings? Therefore, a transdisciplinary approach will be fruitful to explore student engagement. Following research aim guide the exploration: how can ESE-practice establish student engagement in sustainability issues and its function in developing students’ capability to take civic action to achieve sustainable development? Following research questions guide the exploration: engagement for whom, engagement in what, engagement for what purpose and to what end?

Dewey, J., 1988. Experience and education. In: J.A. Boydston, ed. The later works, 1925–1953. Volume 13: Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1–62. Dewey, J., 1986. How we think. In: J.A. Boydston, ed. The later works, 1925–1953. Volume 9: Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 105–351. Niesz, T. (2022). Education as a social movement tactic, target, context, and outcome. In Handbook of civic engagement and education (pp. 68-82). Edward Elgar Publishing. Öhman, J., & Sund, L. (2021). A didactic model of sustainability commitment. Sustainability, 13(6), 3083. Sass, W., et al. (2020). Redefining action competence: The case of sustainable development. The Journal of Environmental Education, 51(4), 292-305. Underhill, H. (2019). Learning in social movements: Emotion, identity and Egyptian diaspora becoming logically and emotionally invested in the continuing struggle. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, 59(3), 365-388. Vallee, D. (2017). Student engagement and inclusive education: reframing student engagement. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 21(9), 920-937 Van Poeck, K., Vandenplas, E., & Östman, L. (2023). Teaching action-oriented knowledge on sustainability issues. Environmental Education Research, 1-26 Wildemeersch, D., Læssøe, J., & Håkansson, M. (2022). Young sustainability activists as public educators: An aesthetic approach. European Educational Research Journal, 21(3), 419-434.