The role of schools and teachers in nurturing and responding to climate crisis activism

ABSTRACT

This viewpoint concerns the places and spaces for youth participation in climate activism in formal education and considers what is – and what ought to be – the role of schools and teachers in nurturing and responding to climate crisis activism. Reflecting on our work on young people’s perspectives of hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) and associated anti-fracking protests, we consider some of the barriers to climate activism in formal educational spaces associated with petro-pedagogy. Finally, we outline the contribution of research in children’s geographies and education to counter regimes of obstruction to climate activism in schools, considering its relevance to young people’s participation in decision-making, educational policy, and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Fracking
• climate crisis
• schools
• education
• protest
• petro-pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).