Series 1Cultivating Relationships
In series 1, co-hosts Drs. Hannah Ascough and Tai Munro are exploring the essential relationships for a resilient future. The podcast as a whole centres four core relationships:
Relationships with knowledge - how we know, whose knowledge counts, how knowledge is created and shared
Relationship with others - students, colleagues, communities, and institutions
Relationship with ourselves - care, resilience, positionality, identity
Relationships with the more-than-human world - kinship, land, place
We will explore these four relationships as begin the journey of this podcast. We hope you will join us along the way.
Episode 1.1: Cultivating a Relationship with Ourselves
In the first episode, co-hosts Hannah and Tai reflect on what it means to build a relationship with yourself and how that relationship contributes to and grows from the other relationships in our lives.
Key Ideas from the Episode We Keep Thinking About
Relationships are essential for sustainability work
We have to take care of ourselves if we are going to address the heaviness of the world
We have to be careful not to fall into the productivity trap
We don’t need to have the answers
Institutions and society can make self-care challenging
Something to Try
Tai.
I start every class with a check-in with the students. These take a variety of forms, from putting up pictures of different cats and asking, "Which cat are you?" to having students write themselves a permission slip for the day to connecting with course content and asking what structures they have in place to help them during stressful times of the semester. One that I particularly like is the Blob Tree. It’s a picture of a tree with humanoid-ish blobs in various positions, and showing different emotions. Some are sitting by themselves with their backs turned, some are supporting others, and one is even falling off the tree. Every semester, a student will indicate that they are the blob falling off the tree. I acknowledge that space and say that if this course is making them feel that way, then connect with me. I also let them know that they aren’t alone and that every semester someone feels the same way. I’ve had students reach out to me after that to say how much they appreciated just the acknowledgement that they aren’t alone.
A Question to Sit With
What would you like to nurture in yourself as you move forward from this moment?
Worth Exploring
You’ll find our full reference list and recommendations at the end, but we wanted to highlight two that came up during the episode.
Climate Action Venn Diagram by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.
While centred in climate action, I (Tai) have used the climate action Venn diagram with students in sustainability more generally. I find that their process of working through the different categories helps them feel empowered by identifying something they are interested in, where they can make a difference. This helps shift the conversation away from the idea that all action is about sacrifice and towards autonomy, empowerment, and cultivating hope.
“How do we distinguish meaningful self-care from this productivity focused culture”
References and Recommendations
This list includes all of the sources that we mentioned and our closing recommendations. Many of them are books; we recommend finding used copies or supporting locally owned independent bookstores where possible.
Hersey, T. (2022). Rest is resistance: A manifesto. Little, Brown and Company.
Hilton, C. A. (2020). Indigenomics: Taking a seat at the economic table. New Society Publishers.
Johnson, A. E. (n.d.). Climate Action Venn Diagram. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.https://www.ayanaelizabeth.com/climatevenn
Katłı̨̀à. (2026). Mother Earth is our elder: A northern Indigenous perspective on the climate crisis. McClelland & Stewart.
Kelton, S. (2020). The deficit myth: Modern monetary theory and the birth of the people’s economy. PublicAffairs.
Mazzucato, M. (2021). Mission economy: A moonshot guide to changing capitalism. Harper Business.
Munro, T., & Regis, S. (2026). Can assessment be kind? A conversation about a pedagogy of kindness and specifications grading. Pedagogical Inquiry and Practice, 2(1).https://doi.org/10.31542/a0nb4581
Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21st century economist. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Redman, A., & Wiek, A. (2021). Competencies for Advancing Transformations Towards Sustainability. Frontiers in Education, 6, Article 785163.https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.785163
Rittel, H. W. J., & Webber, M. M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sciences, 4(2), 155–169.
Sah, S. (2025). Defy: The power of no in a world that demans yes. One World.
Samimi, P. M., & Balser, T. C. (2026, July 23). How to Teach Hard Topics: What Students Say. Inside Higher Ed.https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/career-advice/2026/07/23/how-teach-hard-topics-what-students-say-opinion
Weston, A. (2012). Mobilizing the green imagination: An exhuberant manifesto. New Society Publishers.
Wiek, A., Withycombe, L., & Redman, C. L. (2011). Key competencies in sustainability: A reference framework for academic program development. Sustainability Science, 6(2), Article 2.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-011-0132-6
Wray, B. (2022). Generation dread: Finding purpose in an age of climate crisis. Knopf Canada (imprint of Penguin Random House Canada).
Episode 1.2: Exploring Our Relationships With Knowledge | Climate Kind Pedagogy with Dr. Kshamta Hunter
Tai and Hannah have a conversation with Dr. Kshamta Hunter about our relationships with knowledge including exploring Climate Kind Pedagogy.
Key Ideas from the Episode We Keep Thinking About
Values are going to show up in the classroom; making them explicit allows for dialogue
Kindness is not creating leniency; it is creating space for innovation, for ideas to flourish, and relationships to thrive
Dialogue leads to deeper learning and can contribute to how we enact the future
Something to Try
Kshamta.
A sit spot is a place in nature that an individual visits regularly. Students can choose their own location to sit. While you are there see if you can find examples of respect, reciprocity, relevance, responsibility, and relationality when you are sitting and observing. What do you experience and feel?
A Question to Sit With
How do we objectively look at the subjective elements, such as values?
Worth Exploring
You’ll find our full reference list and recommendations at the end, but we wanted to highlight the Climate Kind Pedagogy website. The site provides additional information on the framework, links to presentations and publications, has sample projects, and provides tools and resources for getting started.
“Students are people first and students second.”
References and Recommendations
This list includes all of the sources that we mentioned, others that Kshamta provided that inform her work, and our closing recommendations. We recommend finding used copies of books or supporting locally owned independent bookstores where possible.
Achurra, A. (2022). Plant blindness: A focus on its biological basis. Frontiers in Education, 7, Article 963448. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.963448
Aikenhead, G. S., & Elliott, D. (2010). An emerging decolonizing science education in Canada. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 10(4), 321–338.
Bloom, B. S. (1968). Learning for Mastery. UCLA Evaluation Comment, 1(2).
Burr, J. (Host). (2024, July 17). The right to feel (Bonus Episodes) [Audio podcast episode]. In Future Ecologies. https://www.futureecologies.net/listen/the-right-to-feel
Cirkony, C., Kenny, J., & Zandvliet, D. (2023). A Two-Eyed Seeing teaching and learning framework for science education. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 23(2), 340–364. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42330-023-00276-z
Clegg, S., & Rowland, S. (2010). Kindness in pedagogical practice and academic life. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31(6), 719–735. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2010.515102
Finnegan, W., & d'Abreu, C. (2024). The hope wheel: A model to enable hope-based pedagogy in climate change education. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, Article 1347392. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1347392
Hunter, K. (n.d.). Climate-Kind Pedagogy. The University of British Columbia. https://climateeducation.ca/
Johnson, A. E. (n.d.). Climate Action Venn Diagram. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. https://www.ayanaelizabeth.com/climatevenn
Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.
Leacock, M. & Menapace, M. (2023). Daybreak [Board game]. CMYK.
Mezirow, J. (1997), Transformative learning: Theory to practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, 5-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ace.7401
Monroe, M. C., Plate, R. R., Oxarart, A., Bowers, A., & Chaves, W. A. (2019). Identifying effective climate change education strategies: A systematic review of the research. Environmental Education Research, 25(6), 791–812. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1360842
Munro, T. (2020, September 18). Reflections on Value and How We Measure Success. Connecting with Science. https://connectingwithscience.org/2020/09/18/reflections-on-value-and-how-we-measure-success/
Nilson, L. (2014). Specifications grading: Restoring rigor, motivating students, and saving faculty time (First). Stylus.
Ray, S. J. (2020). A field guide to climate anxiety: How to keep your cool on a warming planet. University of California Press.
Sedkaoui, S., Benaichouba, R., & Mohammed-Belkebir, K. (2025). Leadership, curriculum and pedagogy for sustainability: A systematic review. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 27(7), 1532–1554. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-08-2025-0838
Schlosberg, D., & Collins, L. B. (2014). From environmental to climate justice: Climate change and the discourse of environmental justice. WIREs Climate Change, 5(3), 359–374. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.275
Sjøberg, S. (2010). Constructivism and learning. In P. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGaw (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (3rd ed., Vol. 5, pp. 485–490). Elsevier.
Stachowiak, B., & Nilson, L. B. (Hosts). (2015). Specifications Grading (No. 029) [Podcast]. https://teachinginhighered.com/podcast/specifications-grading/
Tobin, T. J., & Behling, K. T. (2018). Reach everyone, teach everyone: Universal design for learning in higher education (First). West Virginia University Press.
White, L. A. (2026). Against the climate clock: Pedagogical journey mapping and learner voice for climate-just education. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2026.2632628
Whyte, K. P. (2017). Indigenous climate change studies: Indigenizing futures, decolonizing the Anthropocene. English Language Notes, 55(1–2), 153–162. https://doi.org/10.1215/00138282-55.1-2.153