Education in the Face of Global Crises – On Pedagogical Approaches to Emotions in Education for Sustainable Development

In my dissertation project, I examine how climate- and environment-related emotions are addressed in a school context. The focus is on the development and empirical evaluation of a seminar for prospective teachers designed to promote a professional approach to the emotional challenges of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The goal of this work is to empirically examine how participation in such a seminar affects prospective teachers’ self-efficacy expectations as well as their teaching-related decision-making behavior when dealing with climate emotions. The findings will be used to derive implications for the professional development of prospective teachers in addressing the emotional challenges of ESD.

The current state of research on addressing climate- and environment-related emotions in school settings, as well as on didactic approaches to ESD, is being examined as part of a systematic literature review (SLR). In particular, the study investigates which didactic approaches have been described and empirically examined in school-related studies.

Based on the results of the systematic literature review and existing theoretical approaches to teachers’ professional competence, a state-of-the-art seminar for prospective teachers on dealing with climate- and environment-related emotions in ESD will be designed. The goal is to develop a theoretically grounded and empirically valid teaching-learning arrangement to promote a professional approach to emotional challenges in the school context.

The impact of seminar participation on the professional development of preservice teachers will be examined in an empirical study. In particular, changes in self-efficacy expectations and in teaching-related decision-making behavior when dealing with climate-related emotions will be analyzed to assess the extent to which the seminar contributes to professional development in the context of ESD.