Climate Activism and Education: Public Pedagogy in Historical Context
Week 10: Climate Activism, Education, and Public Pedagogy
Introduction to the Week
Week 10 concludes a series on major social, cultural, and political issues influencing education throughout history.
This week's focus is on climate activism and education.
The concept of public pedagogy, previously introduced, will be revisited in this context.
Week 11 will shift focus entirely to the second assessment piece, the essay, to avoid overwhelming students with new historical concepts at semester end.
The Core Connection: Education, Environmental Activism, and Protest
Central Question: What is the connection between education, environmental activism, and protest in history?
This week builds upon prior discussions related to how these elements manifest in society, often beyond traditional classroom or university settings.
Sub-Questions for Discussion
Defining Public Pedagogy: How would one explain public pedagogy, and why is it a philosophically helpful concept for understanding climate activism as an educational event or tool?
School Strike for Climate and Public Pedagogy: In what ways does the School Strike for Climate movement (to be discussed) utilize public pedagogy? How does it function as a form of public education?
Scope of Public Pedagogy: Is all education inherently a form of public pedagogy or public education? Is all activism a form of public education? (This requires considering the cultural, historical, and political legitimacy of various forms of activism within the public arena).
Case Study 1: The School Strikes for Climate Phenomenon
Origins: Made famous by Greta Thunberg, a young Swedish school student.
Thunberg's Rationale: She deliberately stopped attending school, arguing, "What's the point of going to school when the world is on fire through human inaction or action?"
Academic Insight: The academic article, Towards an understanding of how school climate strikes work as public pedagogy, explores the relationship between climate activism (especially youth-led initiatives) and legitimate public pedagogy or public education.
Educational Value: These strikes are seen as a valid form of public awareness and consciousness-raising for individuals beyond the formal classroom environment.
Critique of Formal Education: The movement partly stems from frustration with the perceived limitations and content taught within formal school contexts globally.
Engagement: Students may have personally attended these strikes. The global phenomenon's website (linked in the module) offers insight into how the movement positions itself in the public consciousness.
Ethical/Practical Implications: Should formal learning institutions (schools, universities, TAFEs) formally join or support this movement? Would such formalization undermine the inherent activist element, which originally aimed to highlight the inaction of official government channels and structures that children felt were failing to address climate change effectively?
Case Study 2: "Escalation" – The Woodside Protest and Legal Challenges
Event: A recent episode of Four Corners (ABC, Mondays at 08:30 PM) titled "Escalation."
Controversy: Woodside, a major gas company in Perth, successfully obtained a legal injunction to have ABC withdraw the episode from its iView platform, citing unfair depiction of the company's actions.
Protest Action: The episode featured "Disrupt Burrup" activists performing a stunt in the wealthy western suburbs of Perth, near the Woodside CEO's residence.
Activists' Goal: To draw public attention to what they termed "climate vandalism" being perpetrated by Woodside and other fossil fuel companies.
Hostility: The incident demonstrates the intense hostility between climate activists (specifically young activists in Perth) and industrial corporations.
Geographic Focus: The protests centered on the potential devastation from gas mining in the Burrup Peninsula and the Pilbara region.
Indigenous Context: The region is highly controversial due to the presence of significant Indigenous artwork, and the federal Labor government recently approved further gas exploration there.
Ongoing Public Pedagogy: Activists assert that these ongoing protest actions constitute a legitimate form of public pedagogy.
Western Australian Context: Due to the strong economic ties between Western Australia's economy and fossil fuel companies, major political parties are seen as complicit, leading to the criminalization or outlawing of virtually all forms of climate activism depicted in the episode.
Further Resources: Links are provided in the module to offer diverse perspectives on this ongoing struggle for public activism.
Case Study 3: The Franklin River Campaign (Early 1980s, Tasmania)
Historical Significance: Dating back approximately 40 years, this campaign is a landmark in Australian environmental history, setting a major environmental legal precedent.
Public Campaign Strategies: It was a pioneering public campaign that utilized diverse avenues to advance the environmental cause, including formal education systems and processes.
Podcast Insights: A linked podcast explores two facets of this campaign:
Schoolboy Activism: The involvement of young schoolboys in the early 1980s in Tasmania.
Christine Milne's Role: Christine Milne, then a local teacher, lost her job due to her participation in the campaign and later became the leader of the Greens party.
Outcome: The Franklin River was ultimately saved, making this a pivotal national campaign.
Additional Resources: A documentary about the campaign was released 2-3 years ago, and an article contextualizes this historical example of public pedagogy.
Concluding Remarks and Upcoming Week
Student Support: Students are encouraged to reach out for extensions or to discuss essay ideas, especially given the busy trimester and approaching assignment deadlines.
Week 11 Focus: Next week will be entirely dedicated to planning, researching, and drafting the final essay assessment for the unit, with no new substantive topics introduced. No ostensible topics.