Enhancing resilience and fostering a perspective of hope in climate change education

The project Hopeful and resilience perspective in climate change education to inspire (promote) action competence (HARP) aims to address key challenges related to CCE content, communication and learning strategies. The project therefore highlights the need to explore the emotional aspects of climate change and how these emotions influence engagement in climate action.

Team Success Stories

We explore what makes climate change education successful in high schools. Our research examines students' emotions (anxiety, hope, resilience) and their link to action competence, teaching strategies, and factors driving teachers’ success.

Team Universities

We examine how climate change education integrates socio-economic perspectives at universities. We analyze the inclusion of heterodox economic topics in curricula, mapping case studies from economics programs in the Czechia and Austria.

Team
Emotions

We assess how different approaches support university students' emotional resilience in the face of climate change. Through in-depth interviews, we evaluate how strategies like gestalt therapy and biosynthesis enhance well-being.

Team Drivers and Barriers

We focus on the perspectives of school teachers. On the motivations and barriers they have associated with teaching about climate change. We are also interested in the extent to which (and whether at all) they learn about climate change.

Join our activities

21 May

Webinar: "Why knowledge alone is not enough: Supporting climate change education from the perspective of psychology"

1:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Researchers, students and practitioners interested in climate change education are invited to the following webinar organized by the University of Vienna. In the first part, the psychological and behavioural foundations of climate change education are introduced. The webinar’s second part is based on the applied psychological disciplines, mostly school and vocational psychology.

6 Jul
10 Jul

July 6 - 10, 2026: Summer school on Climate Change Education

In this summer school, we explore climate change emotions and emotion-sensitive climate change education. The programme consists of keynotes and workshops on climate change emotions and emotion-sensitive climate change education, mentor groups on your own research project, and an excursion on water governance and climate change in the Netherlands.