Educators’ experiences and strategies for responding to ecological distress
Abstract
Research is increasingly identifying the issues of ecological distress, eco-anxiety and climate grief. These painful experiences arise from heightened ecological knowledge and concern, which are commonly considered to be de facto aims of environmental education. Yet little research investigates the issues of climate change anxiety in educational spaces, nor how educators seek to respond to or prevent such emotional experiences. This study surveyed environmental educators in eastern Australia about their experiences and strategies for responding to their learners’ ecological distress. Educators reported that their students commonly experienced feeling overwhelmed, hopeless, anxious, angry, sad and frustrated when engaging with ecological crises. Educators’ strategies for responding to their learners’ needs included encouraging students to engage with their emotions, validating those emotions, supporting students to navigate and respond to those emotions and empowering them to take climate action. Educators felt that supporting their students to face and respond to ecological crises was an extremely challenging task, one which was hindered by time limitations, their own emotional distress, professional expectations, society-wide climate denial and a lack of guidance on what works.
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Parents and educators report hearing great concern about climate change from young people.
“Parents and educators also report hearing great concern about climate change from young people. 20,21”
From Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey (2021) · cites this paper as [21]
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- Authors
- Verlie, B., Clark, E., Jarrett, T., & Supriyono, E.
- Venue
- Australian Journal of Environmental Education
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2020-12-14
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 132-146
- ISSN
- 0814-0626 (ISSN-L)
- 2049-775X
- OpenAlex
- W3110948063
- Semantic Scholar
- fc5bd03b55ecee6ee281a26ce43f110b438db3e8
- Cited by
- 93
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 7
- FWCI
- 7.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Australian Journal of Environmental Education (publishedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental and sustainability education
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
- Social Sciences › Education › Indigenous and Place-Based Education
- Keywords
- climate anxiety, climate grief, environmental educators, student emotional responses, climate action, climate change denial, environmental education
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