Environmental emotions, environmental social justice, and hope

Abstract

Educators are faced with teaching their students about subjects such as climate change, the mass extinction of species, and environmental degradation while trying to encourage a love of nature and pro-environmental behaviour. Challenging emotions related to the environment may arise for both students and educators, and the literature highlights an opportunity for more acknowledgement and consideration for the emotional toll that can occur when learning about environmental crises. This portfolio seeks to illuminate environmental emotions and related social justice issues for the purpose of creating a tool for educators to present the topic and provide an opportunity for further questions to be raised and knowledge to be generated with and by students. This portfolio utilizes Parallaxic praxis as the methodology and consists of: 1) a literature review; 2) an illustrated short story inspired by the data and concepts considered in the literature review; 3) and a critical reflection on the creation of the illustrated short story and potential uses for it as a tool of illumination.