Environmental Education Research

Emotions in Environmental and Sustainability Education - Theoretical, Methodological, and Empirical Developments

Emotions have become a highly relevant field for Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) - both in theory and practice. From an educational perspective, there is a strong need for synthesizing key findings in current research to identify directions for educational policy and practice. ESE is a complex and contested field - the stronger consideration of emotions contributes to the tensions within the field as recognized by researchers and educators. The purpose of this Special Issue is to synthesize existing educational research on emotions in ESE that is inspired by and situated in a multi-disciplinary research environment. We want to contribute to moving the nascent field forward and thereby also practically contribute to the normalization of acknowledging, addressing and reflectively engaging with emotions in ESE.

Findings from climate change education regarding the so-called negative, unpleasant emotions, such as anxiety, grief or anger, pose new challenges for education in general and ESE in particular (e.g. Ojala 2012a, Ojala 2016). Yet, until now, the research field is influenced by highly complex and ambivalent evidence: While on the one hand negative emotions can lead to disengagement or emotional detachment (e.g. Grund and Brock 2019, Jones and Davison, 2021), contrasting evidence suggests they may also increase engagement and actions under certain conditions (Bechtoldt and Schermelleh-Engel 2025) . On the other hand, positive emotions are seen as important for fostering a sense of purpose as well as pushing climate engagement (Brosch and Steg 2021, Schneider 2021, Oberman 2023,), although emotions such as ‘hope’ can also be associated with disengagement (Ojala 2012b, Park et al. 2020). How emotions are dealt with in educational settings is of central importance. 

In recent years, many articles have also been published in Environmental Education Research that address mainly negatively connoted emotions in ESE (e.g. Affifi 2024, Levesque and Rocque 2024, Olsen et al. 2024, Schor et al. 2024). The literature on climate- or sustainability-related emotions often draws on psychological perspectives (e.g. Clayton 2020, Hickman et al. 2021). Here, discrete emotions, like anxiety, grief or sorrow are examined, emotion regulation mechanisms are explored, and coping strategies developed (e.g. Ojala 2016, Clayton 2020, Pihkala 2020, Pihkala 2022). While this body of work has generated important insights into individual emotional responses to sustainability crises, less attention has been given to how educational settings shape, cultivate, and transform emotions in collective and pedagogical contexts.  

Alongside these psychological perspectives are sociologically, culturally, philosophically and politically informed emotion approaches. These engage with the complexity of societal and collective emotions, highlighting how these are connected to shared values (Manni et al. 2017) and tied to social groups and societal discourses, reproduced or altered through societal structures, and emphasize the normative (Loonstra et al. 2024), relational and more-than-human (Verlie 2019) and political nature of emotions (e.g. Booler 1999, Zembylas 2002, Nussbaum 2012, Ahmed 2014, Neckel and Hasenfratz 2021, Diefenbach and Zink 2024). They point to emotions as cultural practices, as opposed to psychological states and how social phenomena and societal challenges can be subjectivized (for instance, take the example of flight shame, see Jacobson et al. 2020). They additionally ask not only how specific emotions can be influenced, addressed, or cared for but also what significance they have for social systems. This also brings questions of power and inequality and emotionally grounded aspects of resistance and barriers to social transformation processes at the collective level more sharply into focus. 

What is rare until now are perspectives decidedly grounded in educational research* that address the interactions between individual, collective and social conditions in educational processes, focus on the key concepts of educational research such as learning, education and socialization in relation to emotions in ESE or address the multiple ways sustainability-related emotions are approached in different formal, non-formal and informal learning environments. A key question here is which educational strategies or experiences can help learners in the context of ESE to process their sustainability-related emotions (Olson et al. 2024)**. As the research landscape on emotions in ESE is far from clear, there is a need to synthesize the essence of studies from the abovementioned disciplines for educational research and pedagogy. Although there are specific fields with particularly clear developments, such as engineering education (Lönngren et al. 2024), climate communication (Jones and Lucas 2023) or teacher education (Ojala 2021, Ojala 2023), the body of education-related approaches to theorizing, researching and approaching/dealing with sustainability-related emotions is still relatively small. 

For this special issue, we are seeking to move beyond descriptive accounts or empirical studies that demonstrate only the presence of emotions or that emotions matter. Instead, we are seeking critical and creative contributions that advance conceptual thinking, and interrogate and mobilize theoretical perspectives to deepen understanding and strengthen the explanatory and transformative potential of the field. We want to focus on specific educational questions about pedagogical theories, methodologies and practical approaches to sustainability-related emotions (Dunlop and Rushton 2022), the emergence and/or harnessing of these emotions in different learning environments, and the role of pedagogical relationships and professional training for educators.

We therefore wish to prioritize educational theories, inviting for example manuscripts that engage with learning theories (e.g., transformative learning [Mezirow 1978, Sterling 2011] or transgressive learning [Lotz-Sisitka et al. 2015]). We additionally encourage the submission of papers employing educational methodologies (e.g., inquiry based, participatory methods or summative/formative evaluations of educational interventions). We would also like to invite researchers from a wide range of educational fields, from formal, non-formal, and informal learning to organizational perspectives on learning environments. We invite papers that directly link theoretical and empirical discussions on emotions from multidisciplinary fields such as psychology, philosophy, social sciences and environmental education and others, specifically to the development of ESE. Additionally, we seek contributions that explore the topic from diverse global perspectives including those from the Global South and Indigenous perspectives. We aim to explore the multiple ways in which emotions can enhance education and learning around sustainability.

With this special issue, we aim to synthesize existing research in the field and highlight new lines of development for dealing with emotions in ESE. Additionally, we want to stimulate exchange between interested researchers and practitioners and foster further discussion on theoretical, methodological and practical developments. We want to contribute to clarify concepts, contrast different lines of thinking for analytical purposes and synthesize the existing research. The following questions are central for the SI:

Theoretical Perspectives

• How are emotions conceptualised in ESE, and which disciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches (for example psychological, sociocultural, philosophical, posthumanist or new-materialist perspectives) inform this work? What insights do these approaches offer in relation to both negative and positive emotions in sustainability education?

Methodological Approaches

• Which research methods are currently used to study emotions in sustainability-related educational processes, and how might methodologies better capture the interaction between individual, relational, and structural dimensions of emotion?

Pedagogy and Learning Contexts

• How do pedagogical approaches across formal, non-formal and informal settings engage with sustainability-related emotions? Which models and frameworks can be identified, and what role do educators and pedagogical relationships play?

Normative and Political Dimensions

• What implicit (normative, disciplinary, ideological, or political) assumptions shape how emotions are addressed in ESE research?

Future Research Directions

• Where do conceptual, methodological or empirical gaps remain in current research on emotions in ESE, and what developments are needed to advance and strengthen the field?

* For this reason, we will give preference to submissions with a focus on Educational Psychology, Didactics, Curriculum Studies, Assessment and Evaluation, Educational Sociology, Philosophy of Education etc. 

** For example, research in the field forwards the importance of centering nature, through for example nature-based education approaches (Gienger et al. 2024, Kopnina, 2020), that support mental health and wellbeing, as well as challenging the human centric voice (Kopnina et al, 2018, Heikkinen et al. 2024). The literature highlights the relevance of recognising nature and the more than human world and challenging narratives that promote separateness, superiority and dominance of humans on the more than human world (Taylor, 2017, Lynch and Mannion, 2021).

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