As 80s teenagers, attending high schools in Sweden, England and Canada, nuclear holocaust was the dreaded eco-catastrophe threatening not just our existence but ALL LIFE ON EARTH. Angst, distress, dark days (and nights). For what else could we associate with our ‘futures-oriented’ educations about the environment and humanity?  Social researchers and cultural commentators have regularly documented a range of human hopes and fears, including their frustration (or not) in reality (e.g. Bardwell, 1991; Hicks & Holden, 1995; Nicholsen, 2002; Tutu, 2010). Consistently, they suggest feelings of helplessness, guilt and fears of ontological insecurity, and that these continually abound for those at school—most recently, in relation to climate change threats.  In fact, a survey of the centrality of values and emotions to environmental learning by Rickinson et al. (2010) argues for a renewed focus on the affective in students’ (a) responses to environmental learning activities, (b) perceptions of environmental subject matter, (c) encounters with new concepts and disciplines, and (d) interactions with teachers. Discussing how environmental subject matter and tasks might provoke strong emotional reactions and challenge learners’ closely-held values, they identify ‘constructive and unconstructive’ pedagogies and responses, before requesting “more detailed investigations of the affective dimensions and emotional dynamics of everyday environmental learning and teaching situations” (p.105). In this paper, we draw on transactional theory (Rosenblatt, 2005) and feminist-informed theories of affect, materiality, and the politics of touch (e.g. Ahmed, 2004; Norgaard 2006; McKenzie, 2009) to show how being so far away/close to ‘our fears’ might be re-theorized in terms of potentialities and actualities, the realities and relations of fearing and knowing, and the agential and pedagogical dynamics of suppressing or eliciting ‘unproductive emotion’. We then apply this analytical frame to a model (Eilam & Trop, 2010) for theorizing pedagogies in this field. Declaring ‘emotional learning’ as a final step to complement natural, multidimensional and multidisciplinary learning principles, its authors cite De Sousa (1987, p.2): “Emotions concern what gives meaning to life; they frame, transform and make sense of our perceptions, thoughts and activities.” In their model, ‘emotions inherently involve raising questions of values and ethics, which form a central part in any educational effort towards sustainable development’ (p.49). In short, we ask how different forms of affect—including identification, belonging, apathy, responsibility, anger, hope and fear—are and can be conceptualized, addressed and/or productively mobilized in education that responds to the environmental sustainability challenges of these times?

Ahmed, S. (2004). The cultural politics of emotion. Routledge. Bardwell, L. (1991). Success stories: Imagery by example, Journal of Environmental Education, 23: 5-10. De Sousa, R. (1987). The rationality of emotion. MIT. Eilam, E. & Trop, T. (2010). ESD Pedagogy: A Guide for the Perplexed, Journal of Environmental Education, 42(1): 43-64. Hicks, D. & Holden, C. (1995). Exploring the future: A missing dimension in environmental education, Environmental Education Research, 1(2): 185-93. McKenzie, M. (2009). Pedagogical transgression: Toward intersubjective agency and action. In M. McKenzie et al. (Eds.), Fields of green: Restorying culture, environment, and education (pp. 211-224). Hampton. Nicholsen, S. (2002). The love of nature and the end of the world: The unspoken dimension of environmental concern. MIT. Norgaard, K. (2006). ‘People want to protect themselves a little bit’: Emotions, denial, and social movement nonparticipation, Sociological Inquiry, 76(3): 372-396 Rickinson, M. et al. (2010). Environmental learning: Insights from research into the student experience. Springer Rosenblatt, L. (2005). Making meaning with texts: selected essays. Heinemann Slaughter, R. (2004). Futures beyond dystopia: Creating social foresight. Routledge Tutu, D. (2010). The fatal complacency. In F. Kagawa & D. Selby (eds) Education and climate change: Living and learning in interesting times. Routledge.