Empowering the young generation to constructively cope with on-going socio-ecological sustainability challenges through education, is a focal point of attention in this time of crisis. This is however a complex task given that sustainability challenges, like for example climate change, are emotionally charged. Researchers acknowledge that many of us are emotionally affected by such challenges (e.g. Ojala, 2021; Ogunbode, 2022). This encompasses the experience of a range of emotions (e.g. anxiety, anger, and hope) which in turn affect people capacity to constructively cope with those threats.

The young generation, inheriting the escalating socio-ecological crisis, is emotionally affected too by such challenges. The interaction with the close environment and society at large, including also the participation in environmental and sustainability courses, are an example of factors that bring socio-ecological challenges very close to the heart of the younger generation (e.g. Hiser and Lynch, 2021; Ojala and Lakew, 2017; Ojala, 2007). Findings report that young adults experience an increasing emotional distress (Hickman, et al. 2021) and sense of disempowerment in their life also in connection to their educational encounters with sustainability challenges and climate change (e.g. Jones & Davison, 2021). This suggests the relevance of considering the emotional dimension in educational processes of empowerment, as also highlighted elsewhere (Tassone, 2022).

However, in spite of those acknowledgments and reported insights, emotion-inclusive pedagogies that empower students to cope constructively with the on-going crisis in the face of emotional distress, are under-researched. Furthermore, educators are left with question marks about what are the emotional experiences of their students, and whether and how to channel them in a constructive and empowering way (e.g. Verlie et al., 2020). This challenge is exacerbated by the contemporary higher education teaching and learning system which is  geared towards enhancing development of cognitive learning, while ignoring more subjective and (inter-)personal experiences (Ives et al., 2019), devaluing the emotional dimension or tending to dismiss it to philosophical matters.

In the attempt to take a first step towards illuminating those aspects, and with a focus on sustainability challenges related experiences of young adults studying in higher education, this exploratory study addresses two Research Questions (RQs):

(RQ1) what are experiences of emotional (dis) empowerment in relation to sustainability challenges?; and (RQ2) what pedagogical endeavors can help to cultivate a sense of emotional empowerment?

This study addresses those two questions by exploring the lived emotional experiences of 27 students, in a life science university in the Netherlands. The objective of this study is to inform, based on the insights generated through the exploration, the pedagogical endeavors of educators attempting to empower young adults studying in higher education in times of emotional distress.

Two conceptual lenses are guiding this study. Firstly, this study conceptualizes emotions as broad phenomena including feelings, affects, moods, and related mental states (e.g. Pihkala, 2022). Empowerment (and disempowerment) are regarded too as an emotion. Empowerment is thus approached in this study as a personal feeling or perception that one can (or cannot in case of disempowerment) constructively cope with sustainability challenges. Understanding emotion as a broad term encompassing such multiple phenomena is not new in environmental and climate research (e.g. Jones and Davison, 2021; Landmann, 2020). Secondly, this study takes a post-critical pedagogical approach (Hodgson et al. 2018). In line with post-critical pedagogy, this study considers and moves beyond a critique on the current (pedagogical) system, by exploring pedagogical ways to relate affirmatively and attentionally to the word as it stands through the cultivation of emotional empowerment.

In order to explore and interpret the lived emotional experiences of the participants, this study takes a phenomenological approach and apply an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology (IPA) (Smith and Osborn, 2003). The study participants are international Master of Science students, joining a course focusing on empowerment for sustainability in a university in the Netherlands. A total of 27 students, agreeing to participate to the study, signed a statement of informed consent prior to its start. Furthermore the Research Ethics Committee of the university in question, positively assessed the study. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted individually with each of the participants. Those interviews, with an average duration of 40 minutes, were conducted online via MSteams. The procedural steps undertaken were the following:  The students were asked to choose a sustainability challenge they cared about. Then, they were guided into a short contemplative inquiry exercise. In this exercise, the students were asked to become aware of possible emotions that their chosen sustainability challenge did trigger in them.  The interview focused on the exploration of two interrelated aspects. One aspect, concerning RQ1, focused on exploring students’ emotional experiences and felt sense of (dis-)empowerment, in relation to the chosen sustainability challenge. This was investigated by asking: Is there an emotion or are there emotions that you experience in relation to you sustainability challenge? Is there any sense of (dis)empowerment arising, when you experience those emotions in relation to your sustainability challenge? Could you elaborate on that? The other aspect, concerning RQ2, focused on exploring factors that enhance the felt sense of empowerment experienced by the students. This was investigated by asking: What helps you or could help you to cultivate a sense of empowerment? Could you elaborate on that?  At the end of the interview, the experiences of the students were validated. The interviewer summarized what was heard and checked with the student if the summary was accurate. The feedback received by the student helped to establish the accuracy of the researchers’ understanding and of the data set. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, with repeated words and fillers removed. Currently, the transcriptions are analyzed qualitatively, through an on-going iterative co-engagement of the author and a co-coder based on thematic analysis, following the IPA methodology.

While the analysis of the data is on-going and the final results will be presented during the conference, we anticipate here preliminary results. Students brought forward a variety of sustainability challenges they feel deeply concerned about. Examples are climate change (e.g. climate migration), environmental and social (un-)justice (e.g. gender issues), environmental degradation (e.g. marine degradation), etc. With regard to students’ experiences of emotional (dis)empowerment (RQ1), the majority of students experience negative emotions associated with a felt sense of disempowerment towards sustainability challenges: e.g. students experience anxiety about the uncertain climate future. Students also experience positive emotions associated with a felt sense of empowerment: e.g. students experience passion as they feel eager to address challenges that matters to them. In some cases students experience ambivalent emotions (e.g. anger, hope), associated to either empowerment or disempowerment depending on the situation. With regard to pedagogical endeavors that can support students’ emotional empowerment (RQ2), enable students to navigate negative emotions and cultivating positive ones, this study proposes a pedagogy of the heart. Such a pedagogy, inviting the emotional world of the students into education, has multiple points of focus. For example, it provides the space for cultivating a sense of belonging by humanizing the classroom. Students feel emotionally empowered when they can meet each other as human beings and listen to each other aspirations, when they discover they are not alone in their struggle as others share similar or other hopes and concerns. Or for example, it provides the space for cultivating reflexivity. Students feel emotionally empowered when they can connect to their sense of purpose and concerns, and consider affirmative ways to navigate them. A full description of the proposed pedagogy of heart, based on findings will be provided during the conference.

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