Working with Vulnerable Communities on Climate Action through Nonformal Higher Education and Peacebuilding
Salisbury University, University of Cambridge, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
Video Content
Description
Nonformal higher education provides an avenue to bypass the rigidity of hierarchical structures and prescribed norms within formal education, which offers opportunities to assist marginalized communities with climate action through peacebuilding and conflicting solving through education. Our aim is to identify the general structure and forms that nonformal higher education can take and how they can assist vulnerable populations in sustainability efforts globally. We will inspect how the inclusion of nonformal higher education, with real-life learning objectives and support, can aid students to endure hardships, such as environmental justice efforts. As nonformal higher education takes many forms, we will explore some of the many structures and pedagogical tools that instructors incorporate in the classroom to assist in competencies, community building, and knowledge acquisition. Additionally, we will explore pedagogies relevant and useful for vulnerable migrant populations, who have a lower capacity to adapt to climate change, and display how this education practice can serve as a tool of sustainability and revitalization for motivation, socialization, cross-cultural exchange, and more.
Subsequently, we will examine how nonformal higher education of climate action intertwines with conflict resolution and peace building (LCRP) initiatives as participant learners combine conflict resolution with literacy and numeracy (Carr-Hill et al., 2007). Branching from the work of Galtung, Gene Sharp, and other peacebuilding theorists, we will explore how nonformal higher education systems can harness student aspiration with peacebuilding processes to active learning. Based on practice-based experience, we will share an experience of using nonformal higher education with the United Nations. Viewers will gain a sense of what qualifies as nonformal higher education, how it correlates and works in conjunction with peacebuilding strategies, and examples of how these tools are implemented to aid vulnerable communities combatting climate change.