What may we hope for? Education in times of climate change

In “The Crisis in Education,” published in 1954, Hannah Arendt suggests that adults who refuse to take responsibility for theworld should not be allowed to educate childrenor to have childrenof their own.Her text describes the “general crisis,” which, according to Arendt, “has overtaken the modern world everywhere and in almost every sphere of life,” including education (Arendt, 2006, p. 170). Written for another time and with different problems in mind, her words were not meant to describe our present situation. Indeed, in light of the evolving ecological crises where the very conditions for life on earth are in peril (Masson-Delmotte et al., 2018; Steffen et al., 2015), Arendt’s use of the term crisis seems quite overblown. Nevertheless, her warning can help us to explore some of the important dilemmas that face educators of today, in a time where a range of unfolding, interlocking crises (ecological, social, and political) are on the horizon. Arendt’s concernwas the child-centeredpedagogyofmodernmass society,which “insofar as it attempts toestablish a world of children, destroys the necessary conditions for vital development and growth” (p. 186). At risk, for Arendt, is the preservation of a commonworld: a public realmwhere freedom and individuality is possible.1 The continued existence of a common world depends, according to this remarkable analysis, on the basic asymmetry of the relationship between child and educator, described as follows: