In the course of the climate education project "makingAchange", a master's thesis was produced alongside the impact analysis, entitled "There's no going back (or is there?) on climate protection. An analysis of climate education and development issues at makingAchange". The author is Viktoria Vanek.
This master's thesis explores critical climate education and how it is implemented in the makingAchange climate education project. The theoretical section sets out the principles of critical climate education, structured around the dimensions of (1) critical pedagogy, (2) political ecology, and (3) climate justice. Additionally, climate education is contextualised within the Austrian school system. The empirical section focuses primarily on conversations held with project participants (group discussions with pupils and individual interviews with teachers). The findings suggest that background knowledge on the climate crisis was addressed in the groups surveyed, but that social issues were of secondary importance and historical analyses (such as those relating to (neo-)colonial structures) were absent. Existing inequalities and power dynamics in relation to the climate crisis were discussed, which points to critical reflection on the part of project participants. However, these reflections remain within existing systems.
The analysis also shows that few questions were raised about development and alternative, diverse development models (beyond the singular development pathway towards industrialised, neoliberal, Western societies). This means that predominantly dominant forms of knowledge were drawn upon for climate education in the projects. With regard to climate justice, intergenerational equity was found to be very prominent. By contrast, international and historical justice questions appear to receive little attention within the makingAchange climate education projects. Overall, this work suggests that future – critical – climate education projects should engage more deeply with the political dimension of the climate crisis.
Both versions can be read on the University of Vienna website.
