‘The world is under threat and we had best get a move on’: Canadian climate activist teachers

Abstract

As part of mixed-methods research, we interviewed 30 K-12 teachers in Canada who teach about climate change, in part to see if they identified as climate activists. There is almost no literature available that explores whether people teaching about climate change identify as activists, which seems odd, given that we are deep into a climate emergency. Sixteen of our participants felt comfortable identifying as climate activists. With activism defined as taking action in an attempt to change things for the better, we believe any early-adopter teaching climate change seriously is a climate activist. While some participants were happy to call themselves climate activists, others felt they perhaps “didn’t do enough” to be an activist or preferred to see themselves as “advocates” or “educators.” We examine teachers’ thoughts around the identity of climate activist, document some of the amazing climate teaching described by participants—both those who considered themselves climate activists and those who did not—and discuss why we hope more teachers will adopt this identity in these dying days of the fossil fuel age.