Abstract
Traditionally, our secondary education is geared towards the future. Its main aim is to prepare young people for their future lives. Underlying this forward-oriented education lies a notion of the future as a bright land of opportunities that young people can grasp as long as they are properly prepared for them. However, young people’s own understanding of their futures is quickly shifting away from this optimistic notion of the future. Global studies indicate that young people see anthropogenic climate change as a serious threat to their future life on this planet. In this chapter, we aim to target this divergence in the largely optimistic educational vision on the future as upheld in Dutch secondary education, and the increasingly pessimistic understanding of the future as held by students at this school level. We use existing climate fiction as a main facilitator of this shift, as literature plays an important role in expanding our potential imaginations of futurity.
This chapter proposes two alternative strategies for traditional future-oriented education that is facilitated by existing climate fiction. First, it explores how dystopian YA novels can facilitate classroom discussions about the varied set of emotions that young people express to feel in the context of climate change. We propose that these emotions can be discussed more safely when we mediate them via fiction that is placed in a fictional future. Second, it explores how literary non-fiction books can be used to shift away our attention from notions of the future and rather ground students firmly in the “now.” As such, it can be used to invite students to foster a deeper connection with the other creatures with whom we share life on this planet. Together, this chapter provides two literature-based alternatives to traditional future-oriented education in the context of climate change.
This chapter proposes two alternative strategies for traditional future-oriented education that is facilitated by existing climate fiction. First, it explores how dystopian YA novels can facilitate classroom discussions about the varied set of emotions that young people express to feel in the context of climate change. We propose that these emotions can be discussed more safely when we mediate them via fiction that is placed in a fictional future. Second, it explores how literary non-fiction books can be used to shift away our attention from notions of the future and rather ground students firmly in the “now.” As such, it can be used to invite students to foster a deeper connection with the other creatures with whom we share life on this planet. Together, this chapter provides two literature-based alternatives to traditional future-oriented education in the context of climate change.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Engaging young people with the climate emergency through authentic texts |
| Publisher | Brill |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 2026 |
Keywords
- Children's literature
- Climate Change
- Education
