Recognizing and Navigating Ecological Grief, Developing an Educational Ecological Grief Toolkit for Schools

Master of Community Development candidate: Joanna Regan

17 June 2026
10:00 AM Atlantic

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/2215742666912?p=275dKVMqkwVRiHJfaU
Meeting ID: 221 574 266 691 2
Passcode: ZG3To2Kc

Thesis Committee:

Dr. Katie Mazer, Supervisor
Dr. Russell Duvernoy, Univ. of Western Ont., External Examiner
Dr. Ahlam Rahal, Internal Examiner
Dr. Rebecca Casey, Chair of the defence

Abstract

Young people are not alone in feeling the weight of the climate crisis, as teachers also encounter its emotional and psychological reverberations in their daily work. This thesis argues that climate related emotions, including ecoanxiety, solastalgia, and ecological grief, are not peripheral experiences but present, consequential, and routinely encountered by both students and the educators who support them. What schools often lack is not compassion or commitment, but an organizing structure that offers shared language, professional preparation, and practical routines capable of helping teachers recognize, hold, and work constructively with these emotions in ways that sustain learning and nurture agency rather than intensify overwhelm.
Drawing on student and educator accounts, alongside a synthesis of research in climate psychology and education, this study demonstrates how grief, worry, and hope frequently coexists within classrooms and institutions, subtly shaping students’ attention, motivation, and sense of belonging. Educators describe themselves as improvising forms of care without adequate guidance, uncertain about what constitutes an appropriate response and constrained by institutional systems oriented toward standardized outcomes rather than emotionally complex realities. At the same time, students express a desire for spaces in which their losses can be named, validated, and transformed into purposeful engagement, seeking opportunities to channel their concern into meaningful and collective action.
In response to these findings, the thesis advances a Theoretical Toolkit for Educators designed to bridge the gap between emotional experience and pedagogical practice. The toolkit offers a shared vocabulary that legitimizes ecological emotions, facilitation frameworks that integrate climate knowledge with emotional literacy, and adaptable classroom practices such as structured discussions, reflective exercises, action-oriented pathways and referral guides that enable educators to hold grief while cultivating grounded and sustainable hope. In doing so, the study contributes both conceptually and practically by reframing climate education as inherently affective work and by providing educators with tangible scaffolds to engage that work with clarity and care.
The implications of this research suggest that if schools are to engage young people authentically in a warming world, they must also attend to the emotional capacities of the adults who guide them. Supporting teachers in naming what is felt, making meaning collectively, and building the capacity for courageous and collaborative action is not supplementary to contemporary education, but foundational to it.

About Joanna …

Joanna Regan holds a Bachelor of Social Work with a specialization in grief work from the University of Western Ontario and is currently completing her Master of Community Development at Acadia University. Her graduate research focuses on the intersection of climate change and emotional well-being, specifically exploring the complex feelings of eco-grief and eco-anxiety. Driven by a desire to turn theory into practice, Joanna is developing a specialized toolkit designed to help educators support students navigating these challenging environmental emotions. Her recent work extends into the field, where she is working with with front-line conservation and parks protection workers in BC and Ontario to address how grief impacts their daily operations. Through her research and advocacy, Joanna aims to further explore conversations within communities facing the emotional realities of the climate crisis.