Glossary

an individual or group who actively works to initiate, facilitate, and drive positive and sustainable change within their communities, organizations, or broader society. They play a pivotal role in driving the transition towards a more sustainable and equitable world, working at the intersection of education, advocacy, policy, and action.

“Eco-anxiety is the distress caused by climate change where people are becoming anxious about their future (Coffey et al., 2021, p.1)”. The term "eco-anxiety" usually refers to climate change-oriented anxiety (Kurth & Pihkala, 2022). However, for Kurth & Pihkala (2022, p.1), “the label “eco-anxiety” may be best understood as referring to a family of distinct, but related, ecological emotions”. The authors also discuss “a specific form of eco-anxiety, “practical eco-anxiety,” or “the unease that one experiences when thinking about how to respond to ecological threats like climate change. Given the daunting complexity of these situations, one is uncertain about what the best course of actions is; one’s resulting anxiety not only sensitizes one to these challenges, but also prompts the cognitive engagement and motivation that can help one address them (2022, p.1)”.

Also known as the self-awareness competency. The ability to consciously and pro-actively engage as a change agent for sustainability. This involves the ability to be aware of one’s own emotions, desires, thoughts, and behaviors as well as one’s positionality in society and one’s own role in the local community and (global) society and in the local community. Building on this, the intrapersonal competency involves the ability to reflect and act on that self-awareness and to regulate, motivate, and continually evaluate one’s actions and improve oneself, drawing on and developing emotional intelligence.

"Land-based education, in resurging and sustaining Indigenous life and knowledge, acts in direct contestation to settler colonialism and its drive to eliminate Indigenous life and Indigenous claims to land." (Wildcat, MacDonald, Irlbacher-Fox & Coulthard, 2014, p. 3)

More resources here: https://www.concordia.ca/library/guides/indigenous-fac-res/land-as-pedagogy---land-education.html

Can also be referred to as ‘student-centred’ learning or pedagogy. This educational approach prioritizes the needs and interests of the learner and encourages them to take a more active role in the learning process through interactive, experiential and collaboration.  

According to the Cambridge University Dictionary (2024), a polycrisis is a “a time of great disagreement, confusion, or suffering that is caused by many different problems happening at the same time so that they together have a very big effect”. Mark et al. (2023, p.1) define a polycrisis as a “state in which multiple, macroregional, ecologically embedded, and inexorably interconnected systems face high – and advancing – risk across socioeconomic, political, and other dimensions”.

The ability to stay present to your internal environment at the same time as engaging with your external environment. (Giangrande et al.,2019, p. 6). 

A sustainability-inclusive course incorporates a unit or module on sustainability or a sustainability challenge, includes one or more sustainability-focused activities, or integrates sustainability challenges, issues, and concepts throughout the course.