Navigating eco-anxiety and eco-detachment: educators’ strategies for raising environmental awareness given students’ disconnection from nature
Rachael C. Edwards, Brendon M. H. Larson, Susan Clayton
Abstract
Awareness of environmental problems such as climate change can motivate action, but educators debate whether to raise students’ awareness \ngiven that it may provoke eco-anxiety. We have even less understanding \nof how these relationships are affected by young people’s growing disconnection from nature. Through 28 semi-structured interviews in Canada and \nthe United Kingdom, we explore how educators perceive students’ nature \nconnection and eco-anxiety and how they introduce discussion of environmental problems. Educators frequently observed experiential, cognitive, \nand emotional indicators of nature disconnection and eco-anxiety, although \nmany (39%) reported rarely, if ever, witnessing such environmentally related \ndistress. Educators prioritised improving nature connection over raising \nawareness of environmental problems. When they discuss these issues \nwith students, they emphasise hope and encourage pro-environmental \nbehaviours to avoid eliciting eco-anxiety for those not currently experiencing it, a strategy that is partially inconsistent with literature suggesting \nsome eco-anxiety can nurture pro-environmental behaviour. Our findings \nprovide new insights into the challenges that educators face in helping \ntheir students navigate current environmental trends.