In the face of declining human-ecological systems, as well as intercultural and interspecies trauma, we are currently witnessing a renaissance of activist-orientated environmental education. In Canada, this work is increasingly viewed as part of a broader healing response of "DEEP" reconciliation work between Indigenous and…

This study reviews the Ontario secondary school curriculum in light of recommendations made by the 2007 Bondar Report, "Shaping Our Schools, Shaping Our Future." It analyzes curriculum expectations and enrollment data for the purpose of reporting upon and providing recommendations for place-based environmental education. The extent and…

The place of activism in environmental education is an ongoing conversation among educators. In this article I highlight an area that has received minimal attention within that conversation: aesthetics and activism. While activism can be enacted at the personal and public levels, I focus on the personal level of activism as I discuss links between…

Based on a three-year research project in which outdoor and environmental education were embedded in classroom curricula, this paper considers learning story pedagogy and accompanying emotional elements often found in narratives. We draw on neuroscience research findings that support the importance of emotion in focusing attention and supporting…

Nature-play inspires a sense of awe and wonder in young children, however, the uncertainty of elements in nature can also bring about fear and anxiety. Using sensory tours as a data collection method, this qualitative study explores the emotions of a four-year-old during his exploration of an imaginary "monster castle" in the forest, and…

Environmental educators recognize the importance of empowering children and adults, yet environmental education operates within a grand narrative of environmental gloom and doom. Growing evidence exists that children feel hopeless about the future of the planet. Given relationships between hope and agency, the question arises of how to propagate…

Escalating environmental controversies are placing Indigenous peoples and First Nation communities at the front lines of protests, opposing unjust government policies and corporate actions. Yet, many environmental educators are not actively engaged or affectively learning about Indigenous Land struggles against Canada's colonial oppressions.…

This paper considers a person's endogenous and emotional relationships to outdoor childhood or adolescent (trans)formative places. By revisiting the (trans)formative places of four citizens and filming the experiences, I gained an understanding of how these places engage emotional learning. The emotional data were explored through phenomenology…

This paper briefly explores the gap in the environmental education literature on emotions, and then offers a rationale and potential directions for engaging the emotions more fully, through the arts. Using autoenthnographic and arts-based methods, and including original songs and invitational reflective questions to open spaces for further inquiry…

This article discusses the need for critical emotional awareness in environmental and sustainability education that aspires to result in transgressive learning and transformation. The focus is on the emotions of anxiety/worry and hope, and their role in climate change education. By disrupting unsustainable norms and habits, hope for another way of…

This paper begins with two parallel, although not identical, images. The first is of Ota Benga, a Congolese "pygmy" brought to the St. Louis World Fair in 1904 and displayed in a cage for the entertainment of the visiting public. The second is of a Red Maple tree in a large concrete pot on the campus of Simon Fraser University on the…

The importance of imagination in understanding sustainability has often been overlooked. This paper examines acts of imagining in teaching and learning that elicit and enable the emotive experience of empathy. I frame ways of thinking about imagination and empathy through theoretical perspectives of otherness. I report on research findings into…

What role can awe play in the practice of environmental education as our lives become increasingly urbanized? This paper looks at the historic emergence of land experience in environmental education and thinking as a means for examining its potential role in an urban academic setting. Many early environmental scholars proposed that the mind is…

While food is an exceedingly rich area for environmental education, I caution environmental educators and researchers from moving too quickly into messaging about what people "should" eat, given the many complexities around food and identity. Eating, as an inherently identity-laden practice, is fraught with complicated meanings,…

This paper presents a case study of a private preschool in Thessaloniki, Greece. The school, located at the unique setting of an educational farm, has a curriculum focus on environmental education. An analysis of teacher interviews and lesson plans in the span of three years presents insights into the barriers teachers faced in implementing their…