In the sixth episode of Conversations4Citizenship, Adam Lang interviews a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto, Maria Vamvalis who shares her research on how she uses the classroom as a space of possibilities to discuss the complex issues of racial injustice, social inequity, Canada’s colonial history and the relationship between the land, Indigenous communities, and the rest of society to address climate change.
In this episode, we speak to Maria Vamvalis who described the skewed relationship to the environment that people in parts of Canada have which informs her work in climate justice pedagogy. Maria speaks to us about the necessity of engaging young people with complex issues around climate change that have had a profound impact on life in Canada as well as globally. Maria discusses the impacts that climate change has had on creating disputes between Indigenous communities and nations and the extractive industries that place issues of land dispossession and Canada’s colonial structures at the forefront of environmental challenges. As a teacher, Maria has incorporated complex topics under the umbrella of social justice, racial inequities, and cultural erasure to their ties to climate change action or inaction into her curriculum. This incorporation of complex ideas can cause eco-anxiety in students as they see the inaction of governments globally, looking for short-term financial gains at the expense of future generations. Through this discussion, Maria hopes to inspire teachers to teach towards the transformative agency possible when recognizing our deep interconnectedness within nature and in tackling complex and conflictual issues with students. Lastly, she speaks about the structural impacts of behaviour in areas of the Global North having impacts on climate patterns in the Global South.
This episode is hosted by Adam Lang, together with Kamille Beye and Stella Mi-cheong Cheong, recorded and sound mixed by Heejin Ban.
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