From Hopelessness to Transformation in Geography Classrooms

Abstract

We renew a call for action and build on work by geographers and others who have detailed how hopelessness emerges and the consequences this has for teaching and learning about the environment in universities. Scholars have written about a sense of hopelessness in students and faculty, anecdotal evidence supports it, and a survey we distributed in our courses confirms it. Here we contribute to this ongoing conversation by examining possibilities and limitations college teachers navigate when trying to implement teaching strategies that may help foster hope and agency in their students in relation to environmental issues. We conclude by putting forth three steps for educators to initiate efforts to encourage a sense of possibility in students and conclude with specific actions educators can take individually and collectively to overcome hopelessness in university classrooms and beyond.

Keywords:

• College teaching
• hopelessness
• critical pedagogy
• neoliberalism

Notes

1 The following websites share teaching resources: the American Association of Geographers Center for Global Geography Education at www.aag.org houses a collection of online geography modules; the Geographical Association website at www.geography.org houses teaching resources for various levels of students such as lesson plans, classroom resources, and case studies, some of which are submitted by members; and MERLOT II, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Teaching and Online Learning at www.merlot.org provides a curated collection of free teaching and learning services.