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As part of the University’s broader strategy on climate change, the Committee on Climate Education is examining what teaching and learning about climate should look over the next decade. Recently, the group released surveys to solicit input from staff, alumni, students, and affiliates.
The Gazette spoke to co-chairs of the committee Dustin TingleyProfessor of Government and Vice Provost for Advances in Learning, Noel Michele “Missy” Holbrook, the Charles Bullard Professor of Forestry, professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, and director of the Harvard Forest, to learn more about the committee’s work. This interview was edited to be more concise and clear.
GAZETTE: Why are teaching and learning about the environment and sustainability so critical when it comes to fighting the climate crisis?
HOLBROOK: The climate crisis has arrived. It’s now, it affects everyone, and all of our students are inheriting this. Our students are one of the most important ways Harvard can make a difference in how the world tackles this crisis. Our students must be prepared to tackle the climate crisis if we want to make a difference. But they won’t be effective if they’re not educated in this area. It’s not enough just to be interested in it, you need to be knowledgeable, and all disciplines have bearing on this. It’s not just a technological, economic, or political issue, but it also involves the humanities — getting people’s hearts and minds behind the work. It’s a very broad endeavor, and it’s important that we do this, because the climate crisis is so urgent.
TINGLEY: Harvard students are going to be some of the leaders of the next generation and leading the fight on climate requires a multifaceted view of the issue. Harvard’s multifaceted nature makes it a unique institution that can take a leadership role in this area. Few institutions have the programs and professional schools that we do. Those are amazing assets to meet an extraordinary challenge. Education is the way we meet that challenge because it touches almost everything we teach. I’m hard-pressed to come up with a discipline or social issue that in some way doesn’t have a connection. One great example is the problem of race and social justice which will be exacerbated in many parts by climate change. Climate offers an educational opportunity that allows for a broad range of learning opportunities that we can then offer to our students, faculty, staff, and alumni, regardless of their expertise.
HOLBROOK: It’s not that we think climate is the only crisis, or that everything has to be remade around climate, but it is an important and timely moment, and it is incredibly broad in its reach.
GAZETTE: Right now, your committee is looking for input from the entire community on ideas for the future of climate education at Harvard. Given the wealth of knowledge available to your committee why is it so important to seek out perspectives and ideas from alumni, staff, and students?
TINGLEY: There have been lots of conversations, focus groups, etc., that our colleagues on the committee have been doing. I think that oftentimes expertise operates in a way that doesn’t think about the people who we’re trying to engage with. Our students, staff, and alumni have had amazing lived experiences themselves, so we’re trying to develop an approach to education that is welcoming of those diverse experiences, and that you might not get if you simply were to just talk to the experts. As with the work of our committee, we are eager to hear from our alumni. SurveyIt is a chance to generate ideas from this diversity of experiences.
It’s also a recognition that our students’ educational experience does not end with the classroom. In fact, many students will articulate all the other things that they do that can connect with this topic, like internships, clubs that they’re in, and so forth. If we don’t hear those perspectives and use them to build a robust approach to education that includes those opportunities, then we’re really missing a bigger, more holistic, educational perspective for the institution.
The same applies to alumni, who have much to offer. They’ve experienced Harvard, but they’ve also had experience out in the world. They can help open that gauntlet of experiences that we want to be exposing our students to, and it is extremely welcome for the challenge that we’re dealing with here.
GAZETTE: Could you give some examples of the scale of opportunities and ideas that you’re hoping to get from folks in the community?
HOLBROOK: Some of the most interesting educational spaces, whether they be intellectual or physical, are the spaces between the Harvard’s conventional departments, disciplines, and Schools. Dustin and myself are both involved in the undergraduate concentration Environmental Science and Public Policy. It is one the most comprehensive undergraduate academic endeavors, as it draws faculty members from multiple professional Schools. There are undergraduates who take classes at both the Kennedy School as well as the Design School. Faculty from all over the University also participate in this program, which allows us to tap into the connections that can be lost between disciplines. That’s a small example, but I think it illustrates how we want to take advantage of those synergisms and the important connections and creative spaces that fall between our more traditional boundaries.
TINGLEY: We’re also thinking a lot about ideas that will not only serve as an educational opportunity but also scale Harvard’s actual impact itself in this space. Is there a way to allow Harvard students to collaborate with the most innovative groups in the field of climate change, and have valuable learning experiences as well as making tangible, tangible contributions to the climate crisis? Those are real opportunities and need to be done in close partnership with communities and organizations, but sometimes we don’t think in those terms when it comes to climate education.
