Welcome to CALS 502! This course seeks to develop your skills as a climate communicator, with story, land, and accessibility as key themes for this work. The course is designed around four major projects, the first of which, the Tiny Ecology, grounds your study of communication in an ongoing land-based examination and connection to a specific and local expression of the environment with which you live and interact. This project involves regular observation of what is called a “sit spot,” ideally located somewhere proximal to or even in your home as needed, as a way to understand the interacting nature and co-creation of life and its environs in real time.
Guiding principles for the course reflect an understanding that climate communication requires the perspectives and contributions of everyone, and thus need to be accessible, inclusive of multiple worldviews, and equitable. By anchoring this process in an understanding of story and storytelling as central to shaping and mobilizing change, Indigenous ways of knowing are centred as foundational elements in this process.
The structure of this 10-week long course begins with an introduction to story as method, followed by an examination of the theoretical relevance of story to climate communication, which turns on Indigenous perspectives on the ontological nature of story. From there we examine the science behind story as a communication method, to finally turn to the craft of storytelling to develop your capacity for using the power of narrative.
The learning outputs of CALS 502 will include reflections for the Tiny Ecology project, critical analysis of current climate communication in the media, and creation of your own climate communication content. This course provides a foundation for communication knowledge and skills necessary for engaging in and leading climate action, and for effectively participating in the open educational environment and orientation of the MACAL program and the climate action community more generally.
Stay Connected
- To each other via the course blog and your own WordPress blogs – be sure to set up your Feedly (more info to come). You will need to add the OPML files to your Feedly for each course.
- #RRUMACAL on twitter;