Death in the Curriculum: A Terror Management Theory Assessment of Emotions and Mortality Reminders in Post-Secondary Interdisciplinary Environmental Education Courses at Selected Canadian Universities

Interdisciplinary Environmental Education (IEE) has been designed to provide students with knowledge, awareness, skills, and motivation for environmental stewardship. Educators are responsible for building their students’ action competence to engage in environmental/climate action and effectively solve ecological problems. However, Terror Management Theory (TMT) researchers have found that mortality awareness triggers deep-rooted psychological defenses that may prompt unexpected and unwanted reactions and behaviors that counter pro-environmental objectives. We aim to understand the interaction between mortality salience reminders (MSR) and emotions in the Canadian post-secondary IEE curriculum. Content analysis of faculty interviews and curricular materials revealed Fear as the prevalent emotion associated with death-thought prompts and an overall negative emotional load within eight courses taught in two post-secondary case studies. Our analysis also indicated that some educators do not intentionally provoke a particular affective climate, while others deliberately instill hope and confidence when addressing environmental issues.

Author dc:creator

• Vieyra Balboa, Gabriela, Elena

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Noble, Michael-Anne

• School of environment and sustainability

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.25316/ir-20358

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10613/28791