Summer school on Working with Emotions in Climate Change Education
Climate change and other environmental problems bring new and important challenges to education, which have not yet received sufficient attention.
- How should we address emotions in topics where an emotional response is not only frequent but, in many ways, necessary?
- Can we overlook negative emotions in the educational process?
- How can we integrate deeper emotional work into current or future education?
- What do educators need to support effective climate education?
These were some questions that were explored at our Working with Emotions in Climate Change Education Summer School that took place at the beginning of September 2025 in Brno, Czech Republic.
A group of current and future educators from all over Europe worked on these topics at the summer school, on the border between therapy and pedagogy. Over the course of five days, they created a space full of creative work, shared enthusiasm, contact with their emotions, often moving outside their comfort zone.
Participants had oportunity to try eco-poetry led by Ulla Pötsönen, the concept of the forest mind accompanied by lecturer Martina Holcová, listened to a lecture on constructive hope from Maria Ojala, discussed action competencies with Miloslav Kolenatý, explored the connection between their body and emotions with Tati Neves and tried out activities for working with emotions in teaching led by Bohuslav Binka, Veronika Endštová and Václav Wortner. Team building activities, affectionately nicknamed "silly games", were organized by Jan Činčera. The necessary rest day on the trip was organized by Hana Mikulicová, and the entire event and the comfort of the participants was supervised by Hana Czajkowska.
