One reoccurring topic in all discussions around how to teach sustainability is how we can turn frustration into constructive action. I haven’t found a comprehensive answer, but I’ve been reading!

Almers (2013) looked at narratives of life stories of three young Swedish activists to distil which circumstances led them to not only reduce their own ecological footprint, but step up and become active in society. For this, they clearly had to develop “action competence” — the ability to take responsible action, even based on incomplete information. But how did that happen Almers finds six themes in the histories:

In their article, Almers (2013) is very clear that they don’t want to give recommendations for teaching based on their findings. But some things nevertheless stick out to me, like for example using a “language of possibility”, pointing out the positive space to make changes rather than just critiquing what is; or modelling how to deal constructively with conflicting perspectives (team teaching!) or how to take one strategy and adapt it for a different purpose.

Almers (2013) refer to another article that might shed light on the “teaching” aspect, though: Schusler & Krasny (2010) describe how educators can facilitate environmental actions with young people in ways that lead to their intellectual, personal, and social development. It seems reasonable to assume that participants’ growth can be transferred outside of the context of summer camps, too, but that is not explored in the article, nor is how young people could be recruited to even participate in the growth opportunities in the first place.

But another article that I found interesting is Stanley et al. (2021). They look at three negative emotions regarding climate change, and how those lead to (in)action: Depression is not likely to lead to action, whereas anxiety leads to flight in avoidance of negative outcomes, and anger to fight, i.e. targeted action to change the outcomes. Especially experiencing unfairness seems to work to provoke anger in groups, which then leads to collective, rather than just individual, action. Stanely et al. (2021) point out that it is important to look at all three emotions individually, because the overlap and the strong effect of anger can mask the deactivating effects of depression and anxiety. So teaching in a way that makes people angry about climate change, rather than depressed or anxious, can lead to behaviour change that have positive effects both on the climate and on individual mental health. How exactly do we do that? You tell me…

Almers, E. (2013). Pathways to action competence for sustainability—Six themes. The Journal of Environmental Education, 44(2), 116-127.

Schusler, T. M., & Krasny, M. E. (2010). Environmental action as context for youth development. The Journal of Environmental Education, 41(4), 208-223.

Stanley, S. K., Hogg, T. L., Leviston, Z., & Walker, I. (2021). From anger to action: Differential impacts of eco-anxiety, eco-depression, and eco-anger on climate action and wellbeing. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 1, 100003.