Teaching Climate Change at the Community College
- Teaching climate change at PCC
- Support networks
- Climate change and the brain
- Communicating climate change
- Climate grief
- Climate misinformation
- Climate justice
- Hope vs. doom
- Research articles and books
- Climate change 101
About this guide
These resources were compiled by librarian Roberta Richards as part of a professional development project, Spring 2021. Contact Roberta with questions, updates or corrections to this guide.
See also the guide Climate Change Curriculum.
Roberta Richards
rrichard@pcc.edu
Southeast Library 206
971-722-4962
Networks of support at PCC and beyond for instructors who teach climate change
Teaching climate change is hard, but support networks are available. See below lists of PCC faculty who teach climate change and can share insights; PCC campus supports; regional and national networks of faculty who teach climate change; and key voices in the international conversation about climate change pedagogy.
PCC instructors and staff who can provide advice and support
- Lutgarda CowanLutgarda Cowan has experience including climate change and other sustainability issues in Writing 121 courses.
- Kyle DittmerKyle Dittmer teachers Global Climate Change G184 and can answer science and technical questions.
- Rachelle KatterRachelle Katter teaches Human Health and Environment, HE 278. Her curriculum includes strategies for emotional processing of content around climate change and other environmental issues, and advocacy assignments to help students develop agency.
- Taryn OakleyTaryn Oakley teaches Environmental Studies and Resources, and is the coordinator of Community Based Learning (CBL). Contact Taryn to collaborate on CBL assignments related to climate change and the PCC Climate Action Plan.
- Kim SmithKim Smith teaches climate change as part of the curriculum for SOC 206 Social Problems, SOC 228 Introduction to Environmental Sociology, and other sociology courses. She also has deep experience teaching about the power of education to achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in addition to facilitating climate grief workshops.
PCC campus supports
- Sustainable Practices for Academics and Resources Council (SPARC)SPARC is a district-wide academic sustainability committee comprised of staff, administrators, and instructors from across the disciplines. The SPARC Council has created 7 sustainability-focus learning outcomes, and works to develop and share sustainability curriculum, in alignment with the college's Climate Action Plan.
- Sustainability staffPCC's excellent team of sustainability staff work to reduce the college's environmental footprint and promote education for sustainable development.
- PCC counseling resources"PCC offers free, short-term counseling to currently enrolled students (excluding Community Education). Service eligibility begins two weeks prior to a given term. In counseling, we discuss personal concerns students may be facing and work with students to develop new ways of addressing concerns. Many concerns are addressed within eight sessions or less."
Networks (regional, national and international) for faculty teaching climate change
- An Existential Toolkit for Climate Educators: Discussion Series"This discussion series brings together an international community of scholars, educators and climate justice leaders to explore the emotional impact of climate disruption, and how we can help our students navigate the long emergency ahead." Includes archived web presentations and discussions.
- CLEAN - Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness NetworkProvides an extensive collection of climate and energy science educational resources, and supports a community of professionals committed to improving climate and energy literacy. Funded by grants from NOAA, NSF and other government sources.
- GPSEN - Greater Portland Sustainability Education Network"GPSEN connects diverse organizations in a collaborative network that multiplies our collective capacity to educate, empower, and engage each other to help create a healthy, just, and thriving region where education for sustainability is prioritized and integrated across sectors and everyone has opportunities to shape a sustainable future."
- Faculty for a Future"Faculty for a Future helps academics who feel a duty of care over Earth’s colliding crises to transform research, teaching, and public engagement towards the pursuit of a better future."
- AASHE - Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education"AASHE empowers higher education faculty, administrators, staff and students to be effective change agents and drivers of sustainability innovation."
Climate change educators worth following
These educators are among the key voices in the conversation about how how to teach climate change across the curriculum in higher education.
Jennifer Atkinson, Associate Professor of environmental humanities at the University of Washington, Bothell. Her seminars on Eco-anxiety were some of the first of their kind on college campuses, and attracted national attention. Selected works:
- "Addressing climate grief makes you a badass, not a snowflake" Article in High Country News, May 2018
- Facing It: a podcast about love, loss, and the natural world A series of podcasts about the emotional burden of climate change, introducing "ways to move from despair to action by addressing the psychological roots of our unprecedented ecological loss."
- Website: drjenniferatkinson.com
Krista Hiser, Senior Lead and Advisor for Sustainability Education at the Global Council for Science and the Environment. Selected works:
- Worry and Hope: What College Students Know, Think, Feel, and Do about Climate Change Article reviewing the research about climate literacy of U.S.college students, and presenting results of a study at the University of Hawaii system, co-written by Matthew Lynch, 2021
- Field Notes: Teaching Climate Change in Higher Education Blog - "Interviews and musings, teaching to the issues of our times"
Elin Kelsey, a leading spokesperson, scholar and educator in the area of evidence-based hope. Selected works:
- Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis, 2020, Library ebook.
- Website: elinkelsey.org
Panu Pihkala, Scholar and writer, multidisciplinary environmental studies, University of Helsinki. Selected works:
- Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education Academic article reviewing the literature related to eco-anxiety, and proposing strategies for educators to address their own difficult emotions and to develop emotional skills for their teaching.
- "A hopely adventure in tumultuous times: in good company with Panu Pihkala" Blog article by Krista Hiser
- Blog: Eco-anxiety and Hope
Sarah Jaquette Ray, Program leader of the Environmental Studies Program at Humboldt State University. Selected works:
- A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet, Library ebook, 2020
- Coming of Age at the End of the World: The Affective Arc of Undergraduate Environmental Studies Curricula Article in anthology Affective Ecocriticism : Emotion, Embodiment, Environment, 2018
- Website: sarahjaquetteray.com
- Last Updated: Jun 13, 2023 1:48 PM
- URL: https://guides.pcc.edu/TeachingClimateChange
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