Fiery spirits: educational opportunities for accelerating action on climate change for sustainable development

This chapter considers questions of how people move from being informed about climate change and unsustainability to acting to address these issues – including in a passionate way. Parts of the answer relate to an individual experience or experiences. Parts of the answer relate to education including self-consciously ecological schools often with hands-on learning by doing and immersion in addressing ecological concerns as part of the way that they operate. Pedagogical literature in this field suggests that education practices that engage heart-head-hand rather than simply head are often more effective and perhaps necessary to achieve changes in behaviour at the required speed to address the reality of climate change and unsustainability. The global movement sparked by Greta Thunberg suggests individual experiences can start widespread change very rapidly. The chapter explores the possibility of encouraging these pivotal ecological experiences via tailored activities and suggests that producing a spark can be done. However, it also indicates that often turning that spark into a wider flame is difficult because the ‘damp wood’ of context snuffs out enthusiasm – at least for a time or until another spark relights a fire elsewhere or embers are allowed to rekindle.