Conference Agenda

This paper contributes with knowledge about the didactic potential of climate fiction for young learners’ action competence in the context of ongoing climate change. One of the greatest global challenges of our time is the escalating climate crisis, which raises questions on scientific, political, and existential grounds. There is still no comprehensive picture of what sustainable development of society looks like and/or how it is organized. Teachers therefore have the challenging tasks of teaching both what we know and also what is still unknown (Sund & Öhman, 2025; Nordh et al., 2025; Jickling, 1994). Teaching about sustainable development, democracy and specifically the hyperobject climate change can also raise questions in the classroom that teachers may find difficult to address (Sund & Öhman, 2025; Morton, 2013).

The concept of sustainable development has had a prominent place in Swedish national curriculum since 1994 (Skolverket, 1994). However, a recent inspection by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate found that few schools achieve high-quality work on sustainability issues (The Swedish Schools Inspectorate, 2023). The inspection shows that, instead of connecting larger structural changes at the societal level to the democratic system within sustainable development, students emphasize their individual and everyday responsibilities, such as sorting waste and limiting consumption. This can lead to feelings of indifference instead of engagement and action competence. Teachers in Sweden have predominantly worked with environmental and climate issues within the natural and social sciences, as well as in interdisciplinary projects, where environmental education in schools tends to be normative (Andersson Hval & Aijmer Rydsjö, 2021). Normative teaching can certainly contribute to understanding of how to behave sustainably but leaves little room for complex issues that engage on a personal level (Öhman & Kronlid, 2019). If students are to be able to think creatively and imagine alternative futures, which is the basis for a democratic approach, then access to qualitative, emotionally grounded, lived experiences is needed.

One way for schools to develop their work on sustainable development is to make the multifaceted nature of the climate issue visible through climate fiction (Andersson Hval & Aijmer Rydsjö, 2021). Climate fiction is a relatively young genre, originating from science fiction, sci-fi, with increasing popularity in libraries and schools as well as in research contexts (Andersen, 2019). Climate fiction provides pedagogical opportunities for examining future challenges at the intersection of social sustainability, climate change, and justice. (Nordh et al. 2025; Andersson Hval & Aijmer Rydsjö, 2021; Lindgren Leavenworth & Manni, 2021). While interest in climate fiction as a teaching resource has grown within Nordic and European research, its educational use is still relatively unexplored, which highlights the need for a deeper understanding of its didactic potential.

This paper is a narrative literature review focusing on articles on Environmental & Sustainability Education, ESE and literature education with Climate Fiction in European schools. Focus is both on the didactic potential of climate fiction and teachers’ didactic choices, as well as how these can promote students’ understanding of and action competence in sustainability issues. The questions asked are: How is the topic theorized? What teaching methods are being used? Is Climate Fiction seen as a solution to something? How is the climate issue problematized and/or addressed in teaching? What are the young learners’ responses to the climate fiction texts?

The findings will form the basis for a theoretical understanding and for the continued implementation of practical research in grades 7-9.

In a time of poly-crisis, environmental and sustainability education (ESE) is increasingly asked to respond to conditions that exceed conventional curricular reforms or behaviour-change models. Yet dominant forms of schooling often remain organised by logics of separability and individualism that constrain what kinds of educational futures can be imagined. This paper presents the final stage of a doctoral project that uses the architectural stage of Levitas’ (2012) Utopia as Method (UAM) as a research-creation approach to the question: what pedagogies, practices, and structures might support an ontological shift in ESE, toward relational, decolonial, and more-than-human ways of being and knowing?

This doctoral work is rooted in the premise that the stories we tell and those we hear shape our openness (or closedness) to certain ways of being. While often treated as supplementary or illustrative within educational research, storytelling has historically been central to philosophical inquiry itself: from Plato’s dialogues and parables, through Rousseau’s (1762) ideas on education by narrating the fictional story of young Émile, to Simone de Beauvoir’s (1949) personal narratives and anecdotes to explore the lived experiences of women. This project situates itself within that lineage, treating story as a philosophical method of world-making, not simply a representational device. In this sense, the project aligns with a tradition in which philosophy is concerned with how concepts live in the world rather than only how they are defined.

Building on earlier UAM stages (archaeological and ontological), this final stage translates diffractive insights into philosophical and pedagogical possibilities through an imaginative and practice-oriented repertoire that teachers can adapt to contemporary educational contexts. Conceptually, the work takes a decolonial and posthuman approach to ESE, understanding pedagogy as an emergent relational field rather than a fixed container of methods and practices (Barad, 2007; Hemara, 2000; Krenak, 2020). Pedagogy is framed as something that arises with and through human, more-than-human, and technological relations.

This paper argues that in the present moment, ESE research must do more than critique dominant paradigms; it must also support educators in imagining alternatives that can be lived and reshaped in context. The architectural stage, therefore, takes up imagination as methodology –inviting writer and reader to imagine themselves, as well as the world, otherwise (Levitas, 2012)–while remaining accountable to the institutional and ethical conditions under which teaching takes place.

Through philosophical creative writing as research-creation, a speculative ‘teaching anthology’ designed as a pedagogical companion for teachers emerges. Methodologically, the anthology follows Loveless (2019) in treating research-creation as a form of theory-making, using creative practice as an intervention into what counts as knowledge and how educational futures can be imagined. The project proposes a form of philosophical pedagogy that travels through resonances rather than replication.

The international dimension of this contribution is twofold: First, it addresses the shared pressures shaping European schooling systems, such as standardisation, digital platformisation, and teacher workload, while recognising that poly-crisis is diversely lived across geographies and histories. Second, it positions ESE as an internationally contested field of knowledge production, proposing a form of research communication that can travel across contexts without forcing it into a universalised template. Stories and invitations within the teaching anthology are intended to be locally understood rather than exported as policy-ready solutions.

The presentation will share the methodological approach to this story-based research-creation, as well as the selection of pedagogical commitments and design invitations within the anthology that demonstrate how ontological shifts can be translated into classroom-relevant possibilities without collapsing into replicable technique.

General description

Biomimicry is an approach that aims to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to human problems by drawing inspiration from living systems, structures, and processes in nature (Benyus, 1997). As a concept, biomimicry first emerged in 1982 and reached a wider audience with Janine Benyus’s book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature published in 1997. Benyus defines biomimicry as follows: “Biomimicry is learning from and then emulating natural forms, processes, and ecosystems in order to create more sustainable designs” (Kenny et al., 2012, as cited in Fıstıkçı & Gündüz, 2021).

There are many products and structures developed by drawing inspiration from nature. For instance, the Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe, was designed by drawing inspiration from the natural ventilation systems of termite mounds, enabling the building to maintain stable indoor temperatures without the use of energy-intensive air-conditioning systems (Tzonis, Lefaivre, & Slogno, 2001; as cited in Avcı, 2019). Similarly, Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral’s observation of the hook-like structure of burdock seeds led to the development of the Velcro fastener, now widely used across various fields (Geyik Değerli, 2020). These examples illustrate how imitating natural structures can result in innovative and functional design solutions

In an educational context, biomimicry has gained value as a pedagogical approach that enables children to perceive nature not only as a learning object but also as a teacher and a model system. Learning in the preschool occurs through observation, imitation, and hands-on activities, which makes the application of biomimicry in education both natural and effective. . The biomimicry approach enables children to develop skills for understanding natural processes through structural and behavioural models in nature (Mart, Kesicioğlu, & Gökhan, 2024). According to the study by Mart et al., observing the solutions that living organisms develop for the challenges they encounter enhances creative thinking and problem-solving skills in children.

In the context of environmental education, storybooks support children’s abilities to become familiar with nature, develop awareness of environmental issues, and foster positive attitudes toward the environment (Erten, 2005). According to the study by Ergül (2023), the use of illustrations in picture storybooks, photographs of living beings in nature, and models showing the relationships between organisms facilitates children’s process of applying the biomimicry approach. For example, when the phrase 'flying like a bird' is used in a classroom, a child can research what is needed to build a flying device after examining visuals that depict the diverse flight characteristics of various bird species.

Existing research shows that environmental education in early childhood is predominantly implemented through direct instruction, drama, or field-based activities (Kaçak Tümer & Kaya, 2023; Jirásek, Čutová, & Jirásková; Güvenir & Türkmen, 2024; Uçar Çabuk & İşal, 2023). However, no experimental studies have been identified that examine the effects of biomimicry representations in storybooks on children’s environmental awareness. In this context, the present study is considered original in that it tests, within a quasi-experimental design, the assumption that biomimicry-oriented story narratives can support children’s understanding of the nature–human–design relationship and contribute to the development of environmental awareness.

In this context, the present study aims to examine the effects of biomimicry-based storybooks on preschool children’s environmental awareness. The study evaluates whether storybooks that incorporate systems inspired by living organisms contribute to an increase in children’s environmental awareness.

Research Questions

1. Do activities implemented through biomimicry-based storybooks have a significant effect on preschool children’s environmental awareness?
2. Is there a significant difference between the environmental awareness scores of the experimental and control groups after the intervention?