2.4.1 Creating dialogic spaces for climate education and action

While teachers often have limited influence over what is prescribed to be taught, they do tend to have influence over how subjects are taught. In line with the approaches to fostering civic engagement previously discussed – encouraging positive intergroup contact between people from different ages and social groups, and developing social capital – it follows that education intended to support civic engagement and climate activism should necessarily involve nurturing learning environments where all views can be expressed and challenged, promoting more dialogic, participatory approaches to education, and engaging with difference, complexity and power relations (de Andreotti, 2014).

If you’re considering using intergenerational dialogue or other forms of intergroup contact within your own practice, or already do so and are interested in further developing it, the characteristics of ‘optimal’ classroom dialogue proposed by Alexander (2008) are worth considering. Alexander suggests dialogue is optimal when it is:

1. collective, with participants reaching shared understanding of a task
2. reciprocal, with ideas shared among participants
3. supportive, with participants encouraging each other to contribute and valuing all contributions
4. cumulative, guiding participants towards extending and establishing links within their understanding
5. purposeful, that is directed towards specific goals.

Vrikki et al. (2018) identify the following strategies as among those leading to effective dialogue in educational settings, regardless of whether that dialogue takes place between large groups, small groups or on a one-to-one basis:

• invitations that provoke thoughtful responses (e.g. authentic questions, asking for clarifications and explanations)
• extended contributions that may include justifications and explanations
• critical engagement with ideas, challenging and building on them
• links and connections
• attempts to reach consensus by resolving discrepancies.

If you’re devising a lesson plan, course or other educational intervention intended to address the climate emergency through dialogue – intergenerational or otherwise – it could be worth thinking about ways in which each aspect of dialogue covered in the lists above could be supported and developed.