Definition of Terms

Climate Breakdown: new extremes and the persistence of record-breaking conditions are creating danger and disruption for all life on Earth (Bergman, 2023)

 

Climate Change: long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle; however, since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas (United Nations, n.d.). 

 

Climate Equity: the understanding that climate breakdown does not affect all people equally. Some communities experience disproportionate impacts because of existing vulnerabilities, historical patterns of inequity, socioeconomic disparities, and systemic environmental injustices. People who already face the greatest burdens are often the ones affected most by climate breakdown (United Nations Development Programme, 2023).

 

Environmental Education: cultivates a love for nature, knowledge of the natural world, pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, and the skills to act to protect the environment. Environmental Education aims to do more than teach students about the environment, it seeks to move students to positive action for the environment (Steen, 2003; Williams & Chawla, 2016).

 

Environmental Lens: considers the protection and care for the environment in every decision.

Indigenous Land-Based Learning: Land has been at the center of Indigenous education since time immemorial; all life comes from the land and it is the foundation for all Indigenous cultural and traditional teachings. Land-based learning acknowledges the land as a sentient being and seeks to decolonize the land (Bowra et al, 2016).

 

Land: this term can include water, air, soil, and everything below the soil (Bang et al., 2016).

Language of Animacy: builds on the idea that the world is alive and has agency, therefore must be respected (Borrows, 2018).

 

Living World: all the plants, animals, and microorganisms on Earth. This term connects humans with all other life on Earth (MacFarlane, 2023)

 

More-than-Human World: everything not human or made by humans, including: plants, animals, rocks, water, soil, and air. Referring to the more-than-human world allows us to shift our gaze away from a human-centered viewpoint (Jukes, Stewart, & Morse, 2019).

 

Outdoor Education: any outdoor learning that encourages developing respect for and relationship with: a) self; b) others; and c) the natural world (Wattchow & Brown, 2011).

Outdoor Learning: experiential learning that takes place through engagement with the the outdoors (Priest & Asfeldt, 2022)

 

Place-Based Learning: Place-based learning uses local places, both natural spaces and the community, as starting points for teaching subjects across the curriculum. Place-based learning provides hands-on, real-world experiences with the goal of increasing academic achievement, developing stronger ties to the community, and enhancing appreciation of the more-than-human world (Sobel, 2004).

 

Seven Generations Thinking: considers the wisdom of the elders who have walked here before and the seven generations to come (Bell, 2013). The decisions we make today are just as much for the ones that are not yet born (Porter, 2008).

 

Sustainability: ways of living that reduce harmful practices with the aim of eliminating the destruction of resources and relationships (Crazy Bull & White Hat, 2019).

 

Bang, A., Curley, L., Kessel, A., Marin, A. (2016). Muskrat theories, tobacco in the streets, and living Chicago as Indigenous land. In McCoy, K., Tuck, E., & McKenzie, M. (Eds.). Land education: Rethinking pedagogies of place from Indigenous, postcolonial, and decolonizing perspectives. (pp. 37-55). Routledge.

 

Bell, N. (2013). Anishinaabe bimaadiziwin: Living spiritually with respect, relationship, reciprocity, and responsibility. In Kulnieks, A., Longboat, D.R., Young, K. (Eds.). Contemporary studies in environmental and Indigenous pedagogies: A curricula of stories and place (pp. 89-110). Sense Publishers.

 

Bergman, H. (2023). Anger in response to climate breakdown. Zeitschrift für Ethik und Moralphilosophie (Online), 6(2), 269–292. 

 

Borrows, J. (2019). Earth-bound: Indigenous resurgence and environmental reconciliation. In Tully, J., Borrows, J., & Asch, M. (Eds.). Resurgence and reconciliation: Indigenous-settler relations and earth teachings (pp. 49-81). University of Toronto Press.

 

Bowra, A., Mashford-Pringle, A., & Poland, B. (2021). Indigenous learning on Turtle Island: A review of the literature on land-based learning. The Canadian Geographer, 65(2), 132-140.

 

Crazy Bull, C., & White Hat, E. R. (2019). Cangleska Wakan: The ecology of the sacred circle and the role of tribal colleges and universities. International Review of Education, 65(1), 117-141.

 

Jukes, S., Stewart, A., & Morse, M. (2019). Acknowledging the agency of a more-than-human world : material relations on a Snowy River journey. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education, 22(2), 93–111.

 

MacFarlane, R. (2023, October 25). The Nature of Nonfiction: Robert MacFarlane [Radio broadcast}. In Ideas with Nahlah Ayed. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-23-ideas/clip/16018430-the-nature-nonfiction-robert-macfarlane

 

Porter, T. (2008). And Grandma said: Iroquois teachings, as passed down through the oral tradition. Xlibris.

 

Priest, S., & Asfeldt, M. (2022). The history of outdoor learning in Canada. International Journal of the History of Sport, 39(5), 489–509. Abingdon: Routledge.

 

Sobel, D. (2004). Place-based education: Connecting classrooms and communities. The Orion Society.

 

Steen, S. (2003). Bastions of mechanism, castles built on sand: A critique of schooling from an ecological perspective. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 8, 191-203.

 

United Nations. (n.d.). What is climate change? | United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change

 

United Nations Development Programme. (2023). Climate change is a matter of justice – here’s why. UNDP Climate Promise. https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/climate-change-matter-justice-heres-why

 

Wattchow, B., & Brown, M. (2011). A pedagogy of place: Outdoor education for a changing world. Monash University Publishing.

 

Williams, C. & Chawla, L. (2016). Environmental identity formation in nonformal environmental education programs. Environmental Education Research, 22(7), 978-1001.