The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators: How to Teach in a Burning World

An easy-to-use field guide for teaching on climate injustice and building resilience in your students—and yourself—in an age of crisis. As feelings of eco-grief and climate anxiety grow, educators are grappling with how to help students learn about the violent systems causing climate change while simultaneously navigating the emotions this knowledge elicits. This book provides resources for developing emotional and existential tenacity in college classrooms so that students can stay engaged. Featuring insights from scholars, educators, activists, artists, game designers, and others who are integrating emotional wisdom into climate justice education, this user-friendly guide offers a robust menu of interdisciplinary, plug-and-play teaching strategies, lesson plans, and activities to support student transformation and build resilience. The book also includes reflections from students who have taken classes that incorporate their emotions in the curricula. Galvanizing and practical, The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators will equip both educators and their students with tools for advancing climate justice.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments and Gratitude Introduction. Climate, Justice, and Emotions in the Classroom: Why a Toolkit?  Sarah Jaquette Ray and Jennifer Atkinson PART I Getting Started with Emotions in the Climate Justice Classroom 1 A Pedagogy for Emotional Climate Justice Blanche Verlie 2 Balancing Feelings and Action: Four Steps for Working with Climate-Related Emotions and Helping Each Student Find Their Calling Andrew Bryant 3 Transformative Psychological Approaches to Climate Education Leslie Davenport 4 From Existential Crisis to Action Planning: Building Individual and Community Resilience  Jessica D. Pratt 5 Empathy and Care: Activities for Feeling Climate Change Sara Karn 6 The Emotional Impact Statement Christie M. Manning 7 The Politics of Hope Daniel Chiu Suarez, Sophie Chalfin-Jacobs, Hannah Gokaslan, Sidra Pierson, and Annaliese Terlesky 8 Unfucking the World Leif Taranta PART II Justice as Affective Pedagogy 9 Preparing Students to Navigate a Harrowing Educational Landscape: Accessibility and Inclusion for the Climate Justice Classroom Ashley E. Reis 10 Photovoice for the Climate Justice Classroom: Inviting Students' Affective and Sociopolitical Engagement Carlie D. Trott 11 Leveraging Affect for Climate Justice Michelle Garvey 12 Infrastructure Affects: Registering Impressions of Mega-Dams Richard Watts 13 From Principles to Praxis: Exploring the Roots and Ramifications of the Environmental Justice Movement Shane D. Hall PART III Embodied Pedagogies 14 Working with Ecological Emotions: Mind Map and Spectrum Line Panu Pihkala 15 Building Somatic Awareness to Respond to Climate-Related Trauma Emily (Em) Wright 16 Using Poetry to Resist Alienation in the Climate Change Classroom Magdalena Mączyńska 17 Prompts for Feeling-Thinking-Doing: Somatic Speculation for Climate Justice Sarah Kanouse PART IV Futurity, Narrative, and the Imagination: Visualizing What We Desire 18 The Tool of Imagination Doreen Stabinsky and Katrine Oesterby 19 Overcoming the Tragic Peter Friederici 20 Practicing Speculative Futures April Anson 21 Cultivating Radical Imagination through Storytelling Summer Gray PART V Unsettling Pedagogies: Discomfort and Difficult Knowledge 22 Critical Journalism, Creative Activism, and a Pedagogy of Discomfort Kimberly Skye Richards 23 Why Worry? The Utility of Fear for Climate Justice Jennifer Ladino 24 The Social Ecology of Responsibility: Navigating the Epistemic and Affective Dimensions of the Climate Crisis  Audrey Bryan 25 Beyond the Accountability Paradox: Climate Guilt and the Systemic Drivers of Climate Change Marek Oziewicz PART VI Joy and Resilience as Resistance 26 Joyful Climate Work: The Power of Play in a Time of Worry and Fear Casey Meehan 27 Finding Hope in the Influence and Efficacy of Native/Indigenous Rights Kate Reavey 28 Teaching Climate Change Resilience through Play Jessica Creane 29 Building Capacity for Resilience in the Face of Environmental Shocks Abosede Omowumi Babatunde 30 Releasing Growth Terry Harpold 31 Ecotopia versus Zombie Apocalypse: Collaborative Writing Games for Existential Regeneration Marna Hauk PART VII Community, Collaboration, and Kinship 32 Facilitating “R&R”: Student-Led Climate Resilience and Resistance Jessica Holmes 33 Climate Justice and Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum: Empowering Action and Fostering Well-Being Sonya Remington Doucette and Heather U. Price 34 Come for Climate, Stay for Community: Acting, Emoting, and Staying Together through the Climate Crisis Alissa Frame, Charlotte Graf, Lydia O’Connor, Jillian Scannell, Amy Seidl, and Emma Wardell 35 The Climate Imaginary: Reading Fiction to Make Sense of the Climate Crisis Benjamin Bowman, Chloé Germaine, Pooja Kishinani, and Charlie Balchin PART VIII These Skills Are Needed in the World: Career Planning for the Climate Generation 36 How Will Climate Change Affect My Career?  Debra J. Rosenthal, Jeffrey Johansen, and Ruth Jacob 37 Fostering Student Agency for Climate Justice through Vocational Exploration Rachel F. Brummel Appendix: Chapters Sorted by Themes List of Contributors Index

About the Author :
Jennifer Atkinson is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Washington, Bothell, and author of Gardenland: Nature, Fantasy, and Everyday Practice. Sarah Jaquette Ray is Professor of Environmental Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt and author of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.

Review :
“The Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators is an interdisciplinary amalgam of lesson plans and assignments for teaching about the climate crisis and climate change with the goal of helping students understand their emotions about the subject and to turn their emotions into positive activities.” ". . . I suspect even the most senior, experienced educators among us—the ‘executive chefs,’ to return to the cookbook analogy Atkinson and Ray use in their introduction—will find something new or provocative for their teaching methods within the earnest reflections compiled here. Dig in."