As climate change, inequality and biodiversity loss dominate global headlines, educators face a growing challenge: how to teach about the climate crisis without leaving students overwhelmed by despair.
A new paper from the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford suggests the answer lies in building “communities of hope”.
In a study published in the journal Oxford Review of Education, Dr Mark Hirons argues that climate educators should focus less on simply delivering facts and more on creating supportive learning environments where students can critically explore the crisis together and imagine possible futures.
Dr Hirons, a Senior Researcher and former MSc Course Director, says students are increasingly encountering climate change alongside wider global challenges such as ecological loss, conflicts, political polarisation and inequality. These overlapping crises can contribute to feelings of anxiety and hopelessness.
The central task of climate educators is creating communities of hope. Education should help students remain motivated to act even when the scale of the climate challenge can feel overwhelming”.
The study highlights three approaches educators should prioritise: encouraging critical and creative thinking, promoting interdisciplinary learning across fields such as science, politics and the humanities, and fostering strong relationships and dialogue between students and teachers.
Together, these approaches can help create learning communities where students feel able to grapple with complex and contested questions about climate action.
While the research focuses on climate education, Dr Hirons notes that many of the ideas discussed could apply across a range of educational settings.
Read the full paper in Oxford Review of Education Special Issue: Education and Training for the Climate: Building communities of hope is the central task of climate educators in the 21 century