Each chapter in this collection offers a practical approach for using literature to engage and empower students to confront aspects of climate crises. Educators from different backgrounds and parts of the world share their experience using novels, short stories, drama, poetry, and nonfiction to help students understand the causes and consequences of climate change as well as how they can contribute to potential solutions.
Rebecca L. Young is content specialist at Cognia and chief examiner for the International Baccalaureate's Middle Years Programme in Language and Literature.
Introduction Rebecca L. Young Chapter One"It wasn't us!": Teaching about Ecocide and the Systemic Causes of Climate Change Marek C. Oziewicz Chapter TwoAmitav Ghosh and Arundhati Roy on Climate Change: A Pedagogical Approach to Awakening Student Engagement in Ecocriticism Suhasini Vincent Chapter ThreeClimate Crisis Confluence, History, and Social Justice: How Race, Place, Privilege, Past, and Present Flow Together in YA Literature Anna Bernstein and Kaela Sweeney Chapter FourStarting Points for Student Inquiry into Our Relationship with the Environment Ryan Skardal Chapter FiveForegrounding the Value of Ecocriticism in a South African University Context David Robinson Chapter SixThese Are the Forgeries of Jealousy: Nature Out of Balance Timothy J. Duggan and Natalie Valentin-Espiet Chapter Seven Raising Environmental Awareness and Rewriting Education Through Haiku Lorraine Kerslake and Maria Encarnacion Carrillo-Garcia Chapter Eight Introducing Sustainability Topics with Ursula Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" and Richard Powers' "The Seventh Event" Rachel Cohen and Sarah Wyman Chapter Nine Developmental Bibliotherapy and Cli-Fi: Helping to Reframe Young People's Responses to Climate Change Judith Wakeman Afterword Suzanne Keen
Literature as a Lens for Climate Change: Using Narratives to Prepare the Next Generation is a timely and necessary volume in the field of climate education. Rebecca L. Young has assembled a diverse range of contributors whose ideas about marshalling the power of narrative to teach climate change are both thought-provoking and practical. The chapters foreground the truth that young people today are not just victims of the intergenerational violence of climate change; they are themselves powerful leaders, activists, and storytellers.Yet as this book makes clear, the responsibility is not theirs alone for addressing the climate crisis; it is the responsibility of educators as well. This book then is not just a set of resources but an important call to action. -- Stephen Siperstein, Choate Rosemary Hall
