'What Do I Stand For?' - A Phenomenological Account of an Identity Crisis in the Climate Classroom

This single-participant idiographic study examines the implications of a student's identity crisis in the climate classroom through the lens of existential phenomenology. The study analyses the ontological sense-making process of a mixed-race, bisexual female student reckoning with the racial dimensions of climate change during an environmental course in a liberal arts college in the Netherlands. By delving into the ontological implications of the participant's experience of the course, the analysis shows that environmental education can meaningfully impact the mind-body relationship and self-identification of students with marginalized identities. The findings challenge some of the assumptions of popular frameworks for understanding marginalization in environmental education, like intersectionality, and post-humanist perspectives. The authors conclude that attending to human sense-making in environmental education can benefit students with marginalized identities by grounding environmental education in practices that make space for these identities.