What motivates me is talking to students in a way that they’re not going to come back to me in 10 years with this look on their face, you know, Dr. Hiser, why didn’t you tell me this? Why didn’t you tell me? I want to be sure that they’re going to leave the interaction that we get to have that they’re going to leave with at least an idea that someone tried to help them see that reality.
dr krista hiser, conscient podcast, may 19, 2021, hawai‘i
Krista is a longtime Professor at KapiÊ»olani Community College in Hawai‘i where she teaches composition, climate communication, and climate fiction. Her PhD in Educational Administration focused on students as stakeholders in sustainability curriculum. She has published on service-learning, community engagement, organizational change, and post-apocalyptic and cli-fi literature. She is currently serving as director of the University of Hawai‘i System Center for Sustainability Across Curriculum where Krista’s work is to facilitate change management, coordinate sustainability across the curriculum, and facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue and professional development opportunities for faculty interested in teaching sustainability, climate change, and resilience. Krista is motivated by a quote from David Orr who said, “students deserve an education relevant to the future they will inherit.â€
I first heard about Krista work at a meeting of a group of climate educators, organized by Jennifer Atkinson and Sarah Raquette Ray, where Krista spoke about some of her research. I also heard her in conversation with my fellow art and climate podcaster Peterson Toscano on Citizens’ Climate Radio Ep. 51: Art & identity in a time of climate change.
I enjoyed my lively conversation with Krista, notably about how our brains try to protect us for the reality of the climate emergency and how to understand the levels of grief that we can experience and how to overcome it. I was also impressed by her thoughts on ungrading (which I shared with my two children, both University students).
Some of my favourite quotes from our conversation include:
The art space is maybe the last open space where that boxiness and that rigidity isn’t as present.
The shift is that faculty are really no longer just experts. They are knowledge brokers or knowledge intermediaries. There’s so much information out there. It’s so overwhelming. There are so many different realities that faculty need to interact with this information and create experiences that translate information for students so that students can manage their own information.
There’s a whole range of emotions around climate emergency, and not getting stuck in the grief. Not getting stuck in anger. A lot of what we see of youth activists and in youth activism is that they get kind of burned out in anger and it’s not a sustainable emotion. But none of them are emotions that you want to get stuck in. When you get stuck in climate grief, it is hard to get unstuck, so moving through all the different emotions — including anger and including hope — and that idea of an anthem and working together, those are all part of the emotion wheel that exists around climate change.
As I have done in all episodes in season 2 so far, I have integrated excerpts from soundscape compositions and quotations drawn from e19 reality, as well as new field recordings and moments of silence, in this episode.
I would like to thank Krista for taking the time to speak with me, for sharing her deep knowledge of climate education, her passion for literature and music and her courage to speak the truth to power through her work.
For more information on Krista’s work, see https://www.hawaii.edu/sustainability/staff-item/krista-hiser-phd/ and https://www.gcseglobal.org/bio/krista-hiser
Links
- Public Letter on Addressing Collapse Risk
- Worry and Hope: What College Students Know, Think, Feel, and Do about Climate Change
- Love in the times of coral reefs (Ruth Mundy)
- Existential Tool Kit for Climate Justice Educators
- The Ultimate Cli-Fi Book Club for Sustainability in Higher Education
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(translation)
Ce qui me motive, c’est de parler aux étudiants d’une manière telle qu’ils ne reviendront pas vers moi dans dix ans avec ce regard sur leur visage, vous savez, Dr Hiser, pourquoi ne m’avez-vous pas dit ça ? Pourquoi ne me l’avez-vous pas dit ? Je veux être sûre qu’ils quitteront l’interaction que nous aurons et qu’ils repartiront avec au moins l’idée que quelqu’un a essayé de les aider à voir cette réalité.
dr krista hiser, balado conscient, 19 mai 2021, hawai’i
Krista est professeur de longue date au KapiÊ»olani Community College à Hawai’i où elle enseigne la composition, la communication climatique et la fiction climatique. Son doctorat en administration de l’éducation portait sur les étudiants en tant que parties prenantes dans les programmes d’études sur la durabilité. Elle a publié des articles sur l’apprentissage par le service, l’engagement communautaire, le changement organisationnel et la littérature post-apocalyptique et cli-fi. Elle est actuellement directrice du University of Hawai’i System Center for Sustainability Across Curriculum, où le travail de Krista consiste à faciliter la gestion du changement, à coordonner la durabilité dans les programmes d’études et à favoriser le dialogue interdisciplinaire et les opportunités de développement professionnel pour les professeurs intéressés par l’enseignement de la durabilité, du changement climatique et de la résilience. Krista est motivée par une citation de David Orr qui a dit que “les étudiants méritent une éducation adaptée à l’avenir dont ils vont hériter.â€
J’ai entendu parler pour la première fois du travail de Krista lors d’une réunion d’un groupe d’éducateurs climatiques, organisée par Jennifer Atkinson et Sarah Raquette Ray, où Krista a parlé de certaines de ses recherches. Je l’ai également entendue lors d’une conversation avec mon collègue Peterson Toscano, podcasteur spécialisé dans l’art et le climat, sur Citizens’ Climate Radio Ep. 51: Art & identity in a time of climate change.
J’ai apprécié la conversation animée que j’ai eue avec Krista, notamment sur la façon dont notre cerveau tente de nous protéger de la réalité de l’urgence climatique et sur la façon de comprendre les niveaux de chagrin que nous pouvons éprouver et comment les surmonter. J’ai également été impressionné par ses réflexions sur la notion de ‘ungrading’ (que j’ai partagées avec mes deux enfants, tous deux étudiants à l’université).
Voici quelques-unes de mes citations préférées de notre conversation :
L’espace d’art est peut-être le dernier espace ouvert où le caractère fermé et la rigidité ne sont pas aussi présents.
Le changement réside dans le fait que les professeurs ne sont plus seulement des experts. Ils sont des courtiers ou des intermédiaires du savoir. Il y a tellement d’informations qui circulent. C’est tellement écrasant. Il y a tellement de réalités différentes que les professeurs doivent interagir avec cette information et créer des expériences qui traduisent l’information pour les étudiants afin que ceux-ci puissent gérer leur propre information.
Il y a toute une gamme d’émotions autour de l’urgence climatique et il ne faut pas s’enliser dans le chagrin. Ne pas s’enfermer dans la colère. Une grande partie de ce que nous voyons chez les jeunes activistes et dans l’activisme des jeunes, c’est qu’ils s’épuisent dans la colère et ce n’est pas une émotion durable. Mais aucune d’entre elles n’est une émotion dans laquelle vous voulez rester coincé. Lorsque vous êtes coincé dans le chagrin climatique, il est difficile de se décoincer, donc passer par toutes les différentes émotions – y compris la colère, l’espoir – et cette idée d’un hymne et de travailler ensemble, tout cela fait partie de la roue des émotions qui existe autour du changement climatique.
Comme je l’ai fait dans tous les épisodes de la saison 2 jusqu’à présent, j’ai intégré dans cet épisode des extraits de compositions de paysages sonores et des citations tirées de e19 reality, ainsi que de nouveaux enregistrements de paysages sonoresd et des moments de silence.
Je remercie Krista d’avoir pris le temps de s’entretenir avec moi, de partager ses connaissances approfondies de l’éducation climatique, sa passion pour la littérature et la musique et son courage de dire la vérité au pouvoir à travers son travail.
Pour plus d’informations sur le travail de Krista, voir https://www.hawaii.edu/sustainability/staff-item/krista-hiser-phd/ et https://www.gcseglobal.org/bio/krista-hiser .
Liens
- Public Letter on Addressing Collapse Risk
- Worry and Hope: What College Students Know, Think, Feel, and Do about Climate Change
- Love in the times of coral reefs (Ruth Mundy)
- Existential Tool Kit for Climate Justice Educators
- The Ultimate Cli-Fi Book Club for Sustainability in Higher Education
The post e51 hiser appeared first on conscient podcast / balado conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.
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About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer
The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.
I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.
The term ‘conscient’ is defined as ‘being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations’. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016–2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.
Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie’s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.
Season 2 (March 2021 – ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that ‘I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist’, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way’. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.
my professional services
I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I’m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca
acknowledgement of eco-responsibility
I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.
a word about privilege and bias
While recording episode 19 ‘reality’, I heard elements of ‘privilege’ in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like ‘ecological mansplaining’. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.
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