One challenge for students as well as teachers is that climate change is often associated with feelings of hopelessness because the solutions to environmental and sustainability problems are not easy to implement. The approach to use critical climate education in the project is intended to help not only to better understand climate change, but also to counter apocalyptic narratives that often lead to feelings of fear, powerlessness or passivity. The project "Stories from the future" uses new narratives that give young people a voice and make a better world imaginable. In the spirit of a ‘pedagogy of hope’, it is important to orient oneself towards the lives and everyday worlds of young people and their questions and concerns. Researchers from the Wegener Center, a climate change research unit at the University of Graz, are also contributing their expertise as cooperation partners. 

The project uses feminist participatory action research, which involves all participants in the research process. This approach turns research into a shared learning process. Depending on the jointly developed research question, both social science methods such as observations, interviews, mapping or photovoice and natural science methods such as water quality measurements, soil sampling, insect observations or CO₂ balancing are used. Pupils will learn how scientific methods and theories can be used to explore their own questions. In addition, intergenerational storytelling will be used to address the connection between the past, present and future. Students will conduct intergenerational interviews with relatives, friends and scientists about experiences, knowledge and strategies related to climate change. Based on joint research, the students – supported by the project team – will produce (speculative) digital stories. This is a learning and teaching method based on the combination of different (digital) artefacts and can produce narratives in a variety of ways, which can then be shared with different listeners and readers. The aim is to empower young people to deal with climate change and to invite creative answers.

(Fotocredit © Pixabay)