Teaching Climate Change for Resilience and Action

TILT program: TILT SoTL Project

Principal Investigator: Tara Holland, lecturer, School of Geography, Faculty of Environment

Project team: Shaghayegh Bahrami and Alexis Carr, TILT research assistants

Timeframe: May 2024 - August 2025

TILT Support: Up to 180 hours of TILT research assistant hours and up to $400 in participant incentives

Course addressed: GEOG 104 -- Climate Change, Water, and Society

Final report: View Tara Holland's final report (PDF) and Appendix (PDF)

Description: 

This project investigated which pedagogy is most effective at promoting students' climate change resiliency and action in an introductory climate change course. Building on her previous TILT project G0410 which measured student climate literacy improvement and responded to observed increases in student emotional responses to climate change, Tara found that her research echoed existing research into young people's worldwide experience of significant climate-related emotional distress.

Data showed that students in an online introductory climate change course experienced strong climate‑related emotional distress but became more hopeful, empowered, and resilient when teaching emphasized active, authentic learning, community connection, and space to process emotions. Most students viewed climate change as urgent and initially reported predominantly negative emotions, yet by the end of the course they demonstrated deeper climate knowledge, a shift from despair toward actionable hope, and greater confidence in both individual and global solutions. Four strategies proved especially effective: hands‑on and collaborative learning, structured peer conversations, intentional attention to emotional well-being, and a focus on solutions. Overall, the course fostered emotional resilience, increased climate literacy, and supported students in moving from being and feeling overwhelmed toward constructive engagement.

Questions addressed:

• What characterizes the emotional responses that students have when learning about climate change?
• How do students' emotional responses relate to specific pedagogy in GEOG 104?
• What teaching strategies help to counter climate distress and promote emotional resiliency and action?
• How does learning about climate solutions affect students' sense of hope compared to learning only about science and impacts?
• What roles do community, active learning, and spaces for emotional processing play in fostering climate resilience?

Knowledge sharing: Project preliminary findings were presented at Banff Symposium on Teaching and Learning (November 2024) and at the Canadian Association of Geographers conference (May 2025, Ottawa). Tara co-taught GEOG 104 in Summer 2025 with a new hire who will continue teaching with the same pedagogy. Tara has plans to write a manuscript for publication in fall 2025. Tara is also collaborating with researchers from Dalhousie and University of Toronto on a larger project on education for ecological resilience incorporating this research.

Keywords: Climate change education, geography education, climate change resilience, climate change action, climate anxiety, ecological grief, emotional responses, active learning, relational pedagogy, hope