Creating a New Border Culture in the Midst of the Climate Crisis: Activism and Pedagogy Strategies for Teacher Preparation

Abstract

This paper documents the efforts of an activist group that came to teach about activist efforts, climate change/climate justice/climate crisis issues, and to create leaders in one border community. The leaders of this three-day workshop are a part of an activist organization named SOMOS Sunrise, the Latine constituency of the Sunrise movement. In this paper, I will analyze the climate change workshop training days and components of the workshops. Secondly, this paper will document a climate cohort education group conducted with undergraduate students and pre-service teachers the following summer. This climate cohort helped articulate art activism and public speaking opportunities to advocate for change with the city council. The implications for teacher preparation programs and strategies to situate situate climate activism as a tool to reimagine border culture within the climate change/climate crisis will be discussed.