University of Sussex
Browse
Conceptualising uncertainty and the role of the teacher for a politics of climate change within and beyond the institution of the school.pdf (750.45 kB)

Conceptualising uncertainty and the role of the teacher for a politics of climate change within and beyond the institution of the school

Download (750.45 kB)
Version 2 2023-08-23, 16:02
Version 1 2023-06-09, 23:53
journal contribution
posted on 2023-08-23, 16:02 authored by Perpetua KirbyPerpetua Kirby, Rebecca WebbRebecca Webb
This predominantly conceptual paper explores “uncertainty”: it foregrounds students engaged with climate change, in all its socio-political and more-than-human complexity, as political subjects within and beyond the school. It combines conceptual work on Rancièrian political philosophy with empirical work on teaching climate change in a range of schools in the Southeast of England. The paper makes the case for the educational importance of engaging with a Rancièrian logic of politics as a democratic mode of twenty-first century existential engagement. This takes seriously citizenship as a dynamic of schooling, which occurs through momentary rupture that can never be fully pre-determined or foreclosed. The paper applies ideas of a “thing-centred pedagogy” to pay deep attention to the unbounded subject matter of climate change. It explores how such an approach opens the scope of engaging with issues of adapting to, and living with, the ontological uncertainties of human-induced climate change, including the tensions and complexities of how to act within and beyond the school. This includes political subjectification as transformation, by which students (and teachers) take up their freedom to act. The paper integrates interviews with nine teaching staff working with students aged between 4–18 years-of-age, including in local authority controlled schools, academies and the private sector. While the fieldwork was conducted in England, its conceptual emphasis has international relevance, focusing as it does on a politics of schooling for global climate change.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Educational Review

ISSN

0013-1911

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

1

Volume

75

Page range

134-152

Department affiliated with

  • Education Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Sustainability Research Programme Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2021-05-18

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2022-12-16

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2021-05-17

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC