Teaching in the Anthropocene:Navigating Educational Realities in Times of Crisis

ABSTRACT:

“I think I realised I lived in climate crisis when I was in year nine at high school and we were asked to fill out an online survey about our footprint on the Earth. At the end of the quiz, it produced how many planet earths we needed to sustain our individual lifestyles. I think my result was maybe 1.2 Earths or maybe 1.5. The quiz was implemented to introduce us to a sustainability project where we would investigate environmental and sustainable energy making techniques. I did my research on wind turbines. The year was 2009 and I lived in Brisbane” (Tipping Point Climate story #1 from ‘Hacking the Anthropocene’ workshop, Melbourne, 2024).

As this SWISP Lab ‘tipping point’ climate story suggests, we learn about the interconnected complexities and pluriversality of living in Anthropogenic times through a range of personal experiences. Some, like this ‘Footprint on the Earth’ story, are educational. Others are familial stories of times gone by told by grandparents to contextualise change in a community over time. Others are political, geographic, cultural or told through the lens of forced migration and displacement after homes have been ravaged by flood, fire or drought. Collected and curated by SWISP Lab, these everyday tipping point stories ground this chapter’s contribution to critical discourse in teacher education, which is a much-needed discussion of the unique challenges and opportunities that educators face today as they navigate the realities of educating for Anthropogenic times when we all have a tipping point.

In Critical Conversations in Teacher Education
Copyright © 2025 SWISP Lab, Kathryn S. Coleman and Sarah Healy

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited