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30 SES 03 B: Education about/in/through/with Emotions in Times of Poly-Crisis
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30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Paper Emotions in ESE in Times of Poly-Crisis. From a Psychological Towards a Sociological Understanding. University of Graz, Austria Presenting Author:Climate change and the climate crisis as well as other current global concerns that can be subsumed under the term polcrisis are inherently emotional topics (Grund & Singer-Brodowski, 2020). Their emotionality has, however, long been neglected in scientific discourses. This has changed with the emotional turn (Zembylas 2007). Nowadays, emotions related to climate change are, for example, discussed under various terms such as climate anxiety (Kurth & Pihkala 2022), environmental melancholia (Lertzman 2015) or earth emotions. This discourse has also been making ist way into ESE (Prote 2024, Oberauer et al. 2023). In the more recent discourse on transformative learning in ESE, emotions are assigned a particularly central role (Pettig & Singer-Brodowski 2025; Pettig & Ohl 2023). However, it has become apparent that these discussions primarily adopt an individualized, psychological perspective on emotions, viewing them primarily as a means to promote behavioral change or focusing on learning strategies to regulate negative emotions. The instrumentalization of emotions poses an ethical challenge, and the emphasis on resilience risks promoting an uncritical therapeutic approach to education (Ecclestone & Hayes 2008). Therefore, it is important to develop a perspective on emotions that understands them as phenomena embedded within broader social structures. Building on this research gap, the presentation introduces a sociological perspective on emotions, with a focus on practice-theoretical approaches. Based on this perspective, implications are discussed for the educational design of ESE and the research of ESE. Finally, it is argued that Photovoice represents a suitable participatory method to both incorporate this perspective into didactic practice and to empirically explore emotions by giving insights into a Photovoice project which has been conducted with 10-14-year-old students in Austrian middle schools. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used Photovoice - a method of Participatory Action Research - was used. A particular focus was set on group interviews before, during and after the process. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The expected outcome is more nuanced knowledge on the way young people experience emotions regarding climate change. References Ecclestone, K., & D. Hayes (2009): Changing the subject: The educational implications of developing emotional well‐being. In: Oxford Review of Education, 35(3). S. 371–389. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03054980902934662 Grund, J. & M. Singer-Brodowski (2020): Transformatives Lernen und Emotionen. Ihre Bedeutung für die außerschulische Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung. In: Außerschulische Bildung 2020 (3). S. 28–36. Kurth, C., & P. Pihkala (2022): Eco-anxiety: What it is and why it matters. Frontiers in Psychology, 13.S. 1-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.981814 Lertzman, R. (2015): Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic dimensions of engagement. Routledge. Oberauer, K., M. Schickl, M. Zint, N. Liebhaber, V. Deisenrieder, S. Kubisch, S. Parth, M. Frick, H. Stötter & L. Keller (2023): The impact of teenagers’ emotions on their complexity thinking competence related to climate change and its consequences on their future: Looking at complex interconnections and implications in climate change education. In: Sustainability Science, 18(2). S. 907–931. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01222-y Pettig, F., & U. Ohl (2023): Transformatives Lernen für einen sozial-ökologischen Wandel: Facetten eines zukunftsfähigen Geographieunterrichts. In: Praxis Geographie, 53. S. 4-9. Westermann. Pettig, F., & M. Singer-Brodowski (2025): Learning in Relation with a Changing World: Thinking Beyond ESD 1 and ESD 2 Towards ESD 3. In: Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 18(2). S.176–201. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/09734082251347383 Prote, L.-M. (2024): Der Einfluss von Emotionen auf eine emanzipatorische und transformative Bildung für Nachhaltige Entwicklung am Beispiel des Lernformats „Reflectory“. In: Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Gesellschaftswissenschaften, 15(2). S. 84–103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46499/2419.3217 Zembylas, M. (2007): Theory and methodology in researching emotions in education. In: International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 30(1). S.57–72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17437270701207785 30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Paper Dread and Hope as Socio-Political Emotions in Sustainability Education: The Case of Engineering Education 1: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden; 2: Open University of Cyprus Presenting Author:Emotions are receiving increased attention in education research. This may be due to the increasing severity of sustainability challenges (climate breakdown, ecological collapse, global injustice etc.). Learning about these predicaments can evoke emotions such as dread, anxiety, and anger. We ask about the role of such discomforting emotions in learning, focusing on the role of dread, and its interplay with hope. Parts of the literature on emotions of education (particular in psychology) see emotions as something individuals need to handle. We choose to conceptualise emotions and their role as socio-political. By socio-political emotions, we mean emotions as forces that are produced, circulated, and regulated within specific cultural and historical contexts, shaped by norms and values in these contexts and society at large. This presentation examines the role of dread and hope as socio-political emotions in sustainability education. In particular, we explore emotions as socio-political in the context of engineering education, a field of education that has high status in society. Decades of research suggest that engineering education is characterised by strong educational norms that privilege rationality, emotional detachment, and techno-optimism (Wajcman, 1991; Faulkner, 2000; Cech, 2014; Riley, 2017, Ottemo et al. 2020). Conducting education in ways that open up for discomforting emotions such as dread is therefore political as it challenges dominant ways of relating to the world in these fields and society at large. Here, we explore teachers’ experiences engaging with dread and hope in sustainability education, considering that teachers’ experiences have received little attention in research so far. We conceptualise dread as an emotion of fear about something that has yet to happen, and hope in relation to this as an emotion related to a wish that what we fear will not come to pass. As such, these emotions can be seen as anticipatory emotions directed towards imaginaries of futures in which things could be otherwise (Ojala, 2017). The presentation addresses the following focus questions:
Our theoretical framework builds on feminist, cultural, and critical theory traditions, especially the work of Sara Ahmed (2004), Megan Boler (1999), and Michalinos Zembylas (2007, 2014), to conceptualise emotions as socially constructed, historically situated, and politically consequential. Further, we integrate three concepts to theorize the socio-political role of emotions in sustainability education: pedagogy of discomfort (Boler, 1999; Zembylas, 2015), to make sense of unsettling emotions as a means of interrogating internalized norms and assumptions; dread and hope and their interplay, recognizing these as socially mediated emotional registers that shape responses to ecological crisis and educational action; and educators’ meta-emotion reflections (Gottman et al., 1997; Katz et al., 2012), i.e. educators’ awareness of and responsiveness to their own emotions and those of their students.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The study is designed as action research (Reason & Bradbury, 2006), aiming to explore emotions while further developing a long-running sustainability course within a media technology programme at KTH. The present study builds on an earlier intervention study (Eriksson et al., 2022) informed by a systematic review on climate-related emotions in education (Pihkala, 2020). A subset of the original teaching and research team continued the inquiry, deepening the focus on hope and dread in sustainability education, and invited an additional researcher, who is the final co-author of this paper. Empirical material was generated through three collaborative workshops (8 hours in total) conducted in Spring 2024. The workshops revisited diary notes written by all but one of us during the course in 2021, alongside field notes from classroom observations conducted the same year. In preparation of the workshop, those of us with diary or field notes selected emotionally salient situations from the material and prepared to share their original responses alongside present-day meta-reflections with the rest of the group. The empirical material consisted of workshop transcripts and notes, as well as the selected excerpts from diaries and field notes and reflections that were collectively discussed during the workshops. Data were analysed thematically (Braun & Clarke, 2006), guided by the study’s focus questions and the theoretical framework that conceptualises emotions as socio-political. Emotions were thus treated not only as internal states or as recognised through direct naming (e.g. “I felt dread”), but as relational and discursive phenomena or tensions (e.g. hesitation to share, classroom dynamics, concerns about legitimacy). In this view, emotions are embedded in how educators write, speak, and interact, and are shaped by affective-discursive structures such as norms of professional conduct and disciplinary expectations in engineering education (Ahmed, 2004; Zembylas, 2016). Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The study shows that dread is expressed by both educators and students in the course and embedded in the learning materials, yet also actively avoided. For example, we educators may avoid content that is too distressing in lectures due to concerns about losing control, such as starting to cry in front of students. Lectures, with their orientation towards content delivery from teacher to student, can limit students’ opportunities to express dread. Other educational formats, such as seminars or panel discussions centred around students’ own questions, can open up space for emotional expression. In a panel discussion with external guests, however, a student’s question signalling dread (“What if we don’t make it?”) was dismissed, suggesting that such concerns fall outside dominant societal and disciplinary norms of (techno-)optimism. The analysis raises questions about educators’ responsibility for students’ wellbeing. Should educators shield students from overly distressing facts, or, in other words, “What is the responsible thing to do - to give hope or to tell the truth?” While we agreed that it is important to engage with dreadful truths, the discussions also raised concerns about students’ wellbeing, pointing to the need to understand emotions as both sociopolitical and individual or psychological. This study shows how dread can function as a constructive part of learning, enabling students to grasp the severity of the current situation and acting as a catalyst for action. We problematise research proposing an emotional learning path from negative to positive emotions (Grund et al., 2024), arguing that such approaches risk instrumentalising education into a means of conveying, instilling, or reaching “positive emotions”, when what may be needed instead is the capacity to “stay with the trouble” (Haraway, 2016). References Ahmed, S. (2004). The cultural politics of emotion. Edinburgh University Press. Boler, M. (1999). Feeling power: Emotions and education. Routledge. Eriksson, E., Peters, A.-K., Pargman, D., Hedin, B., Laurell-Thorslund, M., & Sjoo, S. (2022). Addressing Students’ Eco-anxiety when Teaching Sustainability in Higher Education. 2022 International Conference on ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S), 88–98. Faulkner, W. (2001). The technology question in feminism: A view from feminist technology studies. Women’s Studies International Forum, 24(1), 79–95. Gottman, J. M., Katz, L. F., & Hooven, C. (1997). Meta-emotion: How families communicate emotionally. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Katz, L. F., Maliken, A. C., & Stettler, N. M. (2012). Parental meta-emotion philosophy: A review of research and theoretical framework. Child Development Perspectives, 6(4), 417–422 Ojala, M. (2017). Hope and anticipation in education for a sustainable future. Futures, 94, 76–84. Ottemo, A., Berge, M., & Silfver, E. (2020). Contextualizing technology: Between gender pluralization and class reproduction. Science Education, 104(4), 693–713. Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education. Sustainability, 38. Reason, P., Bradbury, H. (2006). Handbook of Action Research, SAGE Publications. Riley, D. (2017). Rigor/Us: Building Boundaries and Disciplining Diversity with Standards of Merit. Engineering Studies, 9(3), 249–265. Wajcman, J. (1991). Feminism Confronts Technology. Polity. Zembylas, M. (2007). The power and politics of emotions in teaching. In P. A Schutz & R. Peckrun (Eds.), Emotions in education (293-309). New York: Academic Press. Zembylas, M. (2014). Theorizing ‘difficult knowledge’ in the aftermath of the ‘affective turn’: Implications for curriculum and pedagogy in handling traumatic representations. Curriculum Inquiry, 44(3), 390-412. Zembylas, M. (2015). 'Pedagogy of discomfort' and its ethical implications: The tensions of ethical violence in social justice education. Ethics and Education, 10, 1–12. Zembylas, M. (2016). Making sense of the complex entanglement between emotion and pedagogy: Contributions of the ‘affective turn’. Cultural Studies in Science Education, 11, 539–550. 30. Environmental and Sustainability Education Research (ESER)
Paper Teachers' Conceptualisation and Contextual Expressions of Hope in their Professional Practice Monash University, Australia Presenting Author:Amid the nested social, environmental and global crises that increasingly shape contemporary life, many young people are experiencing heightened uncertainty and anxiety about the future (Kaukko et al, 2021). Issues such as climate change, social inequality, global instability, and the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to a persistent sense of insecurity among young people, raising important questions about the role of education in fostering resilience, agency, and hope (Ojala, 2012, 2015, 2016). In response to these conditions, this study explores educators’ own perspectives, understandings and expressions of hope, examining how these shapes their professional practice and feeds forward into classrooms contexts. Drawing on a wider doctoral project, the presentation focuses on data derived from a survey and short writing prompt on how educators come to understand, conceptualise and contextualise hope in their professional practice. In this phase of the broader study, perspectives on hope (Snyder, 2002; Snyder et al., 2002) and aspirations of the educators are considered through an interpretive lens and the theory of Practice Architectures (Kemmis et al, 2014), to explore how hope is understood within the educational settings of the participants in which their practices unfold. Through an analysis of educators’ professional thinking, the research highlights how hope is rooted in particular understandings of education, the role of education, and what it means to be an educator in contemporary contexts. Practice Architectures offers a way of understanding educational practices as shaped by interrelated cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements within particular sites. The conceptual framework provides a structured lens for examining educational practices by conceptualising the interdependencies among sayings, doings and relating dimensions as they are shaped within specific contexts and sites. Practice Architectures also offers an analytical framework and a shared language for understanding how practices are formed, sustained, and transformed, enabling a nuanced exploration of educators’ hopeful practices within contemporary educational settings. Through this lens, hope is explored not only as an individual belief or intention but as something that is enabled, constrained, and mediated by the conditions in which educators work. This framework allows for a nuanced analysis of how hopeful practices emerge, how they are sustained, and how they interact with institutional structures and expectations. This research is grounded in the belief that educators play a critical role in mediating how hope is enacted and experienced within educational settings. While hope is often discussed as an individual psychological trait or emotional state, this study approaches hope as a socially situated practice that is actively shaped, sustained, and expressed through everyday pedagogical interactions. By centring educators’ voices, the research seeks to better understand how teachers conceptualise hope, how these conceptualisations inform their teaching practices, and how hope is embedded within broader educational purposes and values. The analysis revealed six key themes: agency; positivity; adaptability; envisioning the future; spiritual connection and/or caring relationships; and supporting learning. The findings suggest that educators often view hope as central to fostering agency (Hämäläinen, 2024), learning, belonging and being positive as a means of supporting students to navigate uncertainty and imagine positive futures. In essence, building capacity and resilience (Demetriou et al., 2020). Hope was frequently linked to relational approaches to teaching, the creation of supportive learning environments, and pedagogies that emphasise agency, and belonging (Kemmis, 2022). The findings indicate that educators’ understanding of hope emphasised looking forward, aspiration and creating a better future. By investigating how hope is understood and used in educational settings, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of hope and hopeful practices in classroom environments. It also offers insight into the use of hope to build capacity and resilience to face challenges and learning. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used This study is part of an on-going doctoral thesis in Australia that explores How educators use practices of hope in the classroom to build capacity and resilience for the future? In line with this aim, the focus of this phase of the study seeks to understand the following research questions: 1. How do educators understand hope? (conceptualisation) 2. How do educators bring hope into their classroom? (contextualisation) The first phase of the research model focussed on a participant survey and short writing prompt. The aim of the survey was twofold. First, it generated baseline information to contribute to the overall analysis of the data (demographical information, professional data and interests). The second type of questioning focussed on the participants’ understanding of pressing social and/or environmental issues and how hope was interpreted, including identifying how hope is understood by asking participants what features they associate with hope. This allowed for the central features of the concept to be established (Morgan et al., 2021), and provided some insights to expand the understanding of hope as a point of reference for consideration in the analysis of the data. Included in this phase of the study was a short answer writing prompts known as a ‘Stream of Consciousness writing discourse’ to examine expressions of hope. This approach refers to a narrative research technique where the thoughts and emotions of a narrator (in this case, the teacher participants) are written out such that a reader (in this case, the researcher) can trace the fluid cognitive state and thinking of the person (Macy & Johnstone, 2012). It was modelled on similar work carried out by Rachel Forgasz (2021) Playing our part in troubled times, Monash University, on eliciting pathways to respond to climate change among educators. Each writing activity commenced from a position of gratitude, to one of hope and moved towards action (Stevenson et al., 2015) or commitment. The writing prompts start with the issues people care about, with a specific focus on Social and/or Environmental issues in their local communities. Through the use of purposeful writing prompts and a strengths-based approach, participants are invited to engage in the writing process to imagine new ideas and possibilities for transforming the way educators respond to socio-Environmental issues and what kind of education they need for a sustainable future. An interpretive analytical approach (Creswell & Creswell, 2018) was employed to examine the data, drawing on Practice Architectures as a conceptual framework. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The findings from the analysis of the Australian teachers’ writing illuminate the processes through which teachers actively shape, enact, and give practical meaning to hope within educational contexts. By examining the consequences of educators’ practices and the Practice Architectures that support them, this phase of the broader study highlights how hopeful practices both influence and are influenced by educators. The research further demonstrates the potential of reflective inquiry as a form of “practice changing practice” (Kemmis et al., 2014), offering a valuable approach for professional self-evaluation and ongoing transformation in educational settings. Key findings to be discussed at the conference include how educators conceptualise hope and the ways in which hope is translated into classroom goals and approaches – the contextualisation of hope within Australian professional settings, and in relation to wider conceptions of socio-environmental issues and sustainable futures. The presentation will also consider the implications of these findings for local educational practice and its development (Marques & Lopez, 2017), and what it means to teach in these times, particularly in relation to supporting young people amid ongoing global challenges. By foregrounding educators’ perspectives, this research contributes to broader conversations about the transformative potential of hope in education and the importance of fostering hopeful practices as a response to contemporary crises. Transferability will also be considered. Overall, this part of the study highlights the nuanced and context-specific processes and manifestations of hope. It helps build a more comprehensive picture of pedagogical thinking and practices, a corollary of which is that no single, uniform approach emerged. Rather, the themes and examples underscore the inherent complexity and diversity in how hope is understood and manifested within educational settings. They also show how hope connects to senses of social contribution, how individuals hold diverse and preferred hopes for the future, and how these hopes inform practices that foster hopeful futures in education. References Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage. Drakontaides, M., & Hadjicharalambous, D. (2020). Psychological resilience hope and adaptability as protective factors in times of crisis: a study in Greek and Cypriot society during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social Education Research, 2(1), 20–34. https://doi.org/10.37256/ser.212021618 Forgasz, R. (2021) Playing our part in troubled times, Monash University. Hämäläinen, N. (2024). Hope and Agency in a Time of Environmental Upheaval. In O. Beran et al. (eds), The Philosophy of Environmental Emotions (pp. 97-115). Routledge. Kaukko, M., Kemmis, S., Heikkinen, H., Kiilakoski, T., & Haswell, N. (2021). Learning to survive amidst nested crises. Environmental Education Research, 27(11), 1559-1573. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1962809 Kemmis, S. (2022). Addressing the climate emergency: A view from the theory of practice architectures. The Journal of Environmental Education, 53(1), 42-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2021.2017830 Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014). Praxis, practice and practice architectures. In: Changing practices, changing education (pp. 25-41). Springer. Macy, J., & Johnstone, C. (2012). Active hope: How to face the mess we're in without going crazy. New World. Marques, S.C., Lopez, S.J. (2017). The Development of Hope. In: Wehmeyer, M., Shogren, K., Little, T., Lopez, S. (eds) Development of Self-Determination Through the Life-Course. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1042-6_21 Morgan, B., Gulliford, L., & Waters, L. (2022). Taking “Thanks” for Granted: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Gratitude in the UK and Australia. Cross-Cultural Research, 56(2-3), 185-227. https://doi.org/10.1177/10693971211067048 Ojala, M. (2012) Regulating worry, promoting hope: How do children, adolescents, and young adults cope with climate change. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 7(4), 537–561. Ojala, M. (2015). Hope in the face of climate change: Associations with environmental engagement and student perceptions of teachers’ emotion communication style and future orientation. The Journal of Environmental Education, 46(3), 133-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2015.1021662 Ojala, M. (2016). Facing anxiety in climate change education: From therapeutic practice to hopeful transgressive learning. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 21, 41-56. Snyder, C. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 249-275. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1304_01 Snyder, C., Rand, K., & Sigmon, D. (2002). Hope theory: A member of the positive psychology family. In C. Snyder & S. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of Positive Psychology (pp. 257-276). Oxford University Press. Stevenson, K., & Peterson, N. (2015). Motivating action through fostering climate change hope and concern and avoiding despair among adolescents. Sustainability, 8(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8010006 | ||