Global Climate Education and Its Discontents

"Global Climate Education and its Discontents is a necessarily audacious response to the high-stakes challenge of how to live and educate amidst multiple, complex ecological crises. Through richly described and theorised practice, each chapter shows how drama is more than a tool in the environmental education toolbox. Rather, collaborative theatre and performance by and with youth are powerful ecopedagogies that activate other ways of knowing and, potentially, other climate futures. I’ve long been waiting for a book like this and have already started setting chapters as readings for my courses." -- Molly Mullen, Waipapa Taumata Rau – University of Auckland, New Zealand

"This rich book could not have arrived at a better time, offering trajectories of hope in difficult times. Writing in a context – the UK – where the arts are routinely disparaged and devalued, the centring of drama as a vital and meaningful way to practice socio-ecological pedagogy offers me something of a lifeline, powerfully reminding me of just what drama is capable of. Built on foundations of multi-generational and transnational research spanning many years, this research ensemble ethically centres the experiences, insights, feelings and dreams of young people. Conceptual gifts which I now carry close include found pedagogy, esperanza ambiental, eco-gladness, theatre publicing, and glocalised critical sensory pedagogy." -- Professor Dee Heddon, James Arnott Chair in Drama, University of Glasgow, UK

"This book is of exceptional importance at a time of global crisis. It uses the concept of ‘discontent’ with climate education as a wake-up call for active and collective engagement with environmental emergencies in local and global contexts. Three forms of dramatic performative tools – Verbatim Theatre, Devising, and Site-Specific Theatre – are utilized to generate a collective understanding of the healing, care, and recovery of the earth’s ecosystems. The unique and passionately argued chapters come together in interrelated arguments that are connected in their search for ecological recovery as it emerges in an ensemble of different knowledge systems." -- Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, Professor and Dean, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

"Global Climate Education and Its Discontents is a necessarily audacious response to the high-stakes challenge of how to live and educate amidst multiple, complex ecological crises. Through richly described and theorised practice, each chapter shows how drama is more than a tool in the environmental education toolbox. Rather, collaborative theatre and performance by and with youth are powerful ecopedagogies that activate other ways of knowing and, potentially, other climate futures. I’ve long been waiting for a book like this and have already started setting chapters as readings for my courses." -- Molly Mullen, Waipapa Taumata Rau – University of Auckland, New Zealand

"This rich book could not have arrived at a better time, offering trajectories of hope in difficult times. Writing in a context – the UK – where the arts are routinely disparaged and devalued, the centring of drama as a vital and meaningful way to practice socio-ecological pedagogy offers me something of a lifeline, powerfully reminding me of just what drama is capable of. Built on foundations of multi-generational and transnational research spanning many years, this research ensemble ethically centres the experiences, insights, feelings and dreams of young people. Conceptual gifts which I now carry close include found pedagogy, esperanza ambiental, eco-gladness, theatre publicing, and glocalised critical sensory pedagogy." -- Professor Dee Heddon, James Arnott Chair in Drama, University of Glasgow, UK

"This book is of exceptional importance at a time of global crisis. It uses the concept of ‘discontent’ with climate education as a wake-up call for active and collective engagement with environmental emergencies in local and global contexts. Three forms of dramatic performative tools – Verbatim Theatre, Devising, and Site-Specific Theatre – are utilized to generate a collective understanding of the healing, care, and recovery of the earth’s ecosystems. The unique and passionately argued chapters come together in interrelated arguments that are connected in their search for ecological recovery as it emerges in an ensemble of different knowledge systems." -- Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, Professor and Dean, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India