The Lessons of COVID for Climate Pedagogy with Young People: Learning to Navigate Urgency

ABSTRACT

Young people are currently emerging as political citizens into a world dominated by intersecting global crises, from the COVID pandemic to the quintessentially ‘wicked' problem of climate change. The rapid response of governments and education systems to the pandemic, once sufficient consensus built on the urgency of the threat, demonstrated that it is both possible and necessary to reorient education around supporting young people and their communities to thrive in crisis situations. Yet the very urgency of climate action has generated pedagogical approaches which can disillusion, frustrate and overburden young people. I draw on both educational literature and my own experience as an educator in schools, universities, youth theatres and activist spaces to identify four paradigms of climate education—‘Do Your Bit', ‘Apocalypse Soon', ‘Manifestos and Microcosms' and ‘Emotionally Reflexive Pedagogies'—and examine what each might learn from the ‘crisis pedagogies' of the COVID pandemic. Emotional literacy, active hope, systems thinking and comfort with uncertainty emerge as more important aims than immediate behavioural change. I also propose that story should take on a much greater role within learning, as a central pillar of a ‘thing-centred pedagogy' which brings adults and children together around the problem of building community resilience. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022