Content and skills
· Indigenous content
o Traditional Ecological Knowledge (generally content from traditional Knowledge Holders)
o Worldviews
o Decolonialism / Decolonization
· Climate/Sustainability/Earth science basics
o Study climate change impacts and connect to the land
· Climate justice, racial justice, and other types of justice (content from Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour -BIPOC- folks)
· Complexity and navigating complex systems (incl. post-humanism, post-modernism, post-anthropocene)
· Climate solutions / real-world applications
o Unlearn superficial/2000s sustainability trends
o Individual, institutional, and collective action
· Compelling personal narratives as a relational approach to help attitude and behaviour change
· Options and strategies for individual and collective action / civics basics, e.g., organizations, policies and political engagement, options regarding work in climate and sustainability, etc.
· What the community is doing and how to get involved
· Hope and dealing with climate anxiety (incl. having difficult climate conversations)
· Media literacy (navigating misinformation, plus language to communicate effectively)
· Regional, national, global movements (incl. UN SDGs, UNDRIP, and Global South content)
· History, culture, art of/on climate and sustainability
Format
· Need for experiential and hands-on approaches to learning
· Collaborative/group/conversational work is valued – but along with some individual work for learning and reflection
· Short and impactful
· Support advance planning (not major last-minute changes, or week-by-week reveal of material)
· Cohort-based to build trust and foster relationships
· Learning circles to break hierarchical structures – along with peer-to-peer and Community/ies of Practice
Methods
· Videos
· Engaging visuals
· Art
· Storytelling / first-person narratives
· Series of webinars (not just one) and recordings
· Conversations, ideas/examples exchange, and debates/collective problem-solving
· Options for in-person (not just virtual)
· Podcasts
· Well curated and well communicated readings (not just academic articles)
· Self-reflection opportunities, engaging the affective/heart space, slowing down
o Related: techniques to self-assess
· Nature walks, outings, contemplative spaces
· Hands-on / experiential / applied learning
o Examples, case studies
o Collective/collaborative activities
o Meetups with university labs, local professionals, and local grassroots who work on climate solutions
· Use of accessible and inclusive platforms (not just email, not just via Canvas)
· Database that's Creative Commons and accessible post-cohort
· Gamification
· Annual event/symposium