Finding hope in climate education: Research reveals how to teach crisis without creating despair

A systematic study of an interdisciplinary climate change course revealed that active learning with climate models, peer community conversations, spaces for processing emotions, and multi-scale solutions focus transform student anxiety into resilient hope and empowerment.

The Project

Tara Holland has taught GEOG 104 for seven years, watching it expand from a small in-person class to online courses serving 300-600 students per offering. During this time, she has also observed students' emotional responses intensify including seeing increasing anxiety and despair. She needed to understand what pedagogy could promote resilience and action without leaving students feeling hopeless.

Working with TILT research assistants Shaghayegh Bahrami and Alexis Carr, Holland surveyed students in Summer 2024 and Spring 2025 using an instrument developed by Dalhousie researchers based on climate anxiety and ecological grief literature. The survey assessed urgency perceptions, emotional impacts, specific emotions, coping techniques, and how hopeful and empowered the course made students feel.

Project Highlights

Results confirmed strong student concern about climate change, with 90% viewing it as urgent and many reporting emotions such as anxiety, worry, and sadness, alongside hope. By the end of the course, most students felt more hopeful and empowered, with climate knowledge identified as a key driver of both outcomes. Comparisons of mid- and end-of-term reflections showed a shift from despair to constructive hope, emphasizing personal action, systemic change, and education. Effective teaching strategies included active learning, community-building discussions, opportunities to address climate emotions, and balancing local and global perspectives.

Looking Ahead

Holland plans to create a blended course version of her course to facilitate more student connection responding to in-person interaction requests, and aims to incorporate land-based teaching. She's collaborating with researchers from Dalhousie and University of Toronto on larger project on education for ecological resilience and plans manuscript for teaching and learning journal fall 2025.