What is Functional Connectivity and why is it important?
The human brain’s relationship with stories is as long as humans’ relationship with fire. Sunlit conversations addressed practicalities or gossip, but fireside tales evoked the imagination, preserved history, settled disputes and established social customs. Stories can be described as narratives about human (or human like) agents, their relationships and their fortunes; they are “created for the purpose of engaging readers”. Le Guin describes stories as carrier bags for memories (1997), and indigenous Australians created multidimensional stories called songlines that encompassed knowledge, history and social mores that have endured for tens of thousands of years.
Narrative comprehension takes place in the Default Mode Network (DMN), an interconnected network of brain regions active when our brain is at rest. DMN is most active during REM sleep, mind wandering and reading. However during this time it also monitors and interprets sensory information from external and internal environments including pain.
Neuroscience has linked the DMN with recollection and prediction, thoughts about others, creativity, imagination and impulse, navigation and spatial cognition, emotional responses, and aesthetic experiences.
But stories are much more than entertaining storage devices. Neuroscience is now finding that reading stories increases functional connectivity (FC) between the DMN, the Salience network (SN) and the Central Executive Network (CEN). FC describes the likelihood that these different regions of the brain will become active at the same time. The DMN is responsible for random, creative, diverse and often disconnected thoughts, as well as interpreting external and internal stimuli; the SN determines which thoughts and stimuli are likely to be relevant and meaningful and therefore productive and useful; while the CEN, maintains working memory, and is responsible for controlling attention, logical judgment, and decision-making.
Not only are high levels of FC is linked to creativity, decision making, divergent thinking, concept development and academic performance and even healthy aging, but increased FC is also linked with higher levels of resilience and wellbeing in young people.
Neuroscience is providing empirical evidence from around the globe linking stories to Functional connectivity. Functional connectivity underpins self-actualisation, wellbeing, healthy aging and social adaptation. Yet many countries are diverting funds from qualified school library staff and story based resources. How can educators let this continue?
Since humans harnessed fire to extend their day beyond sundown, Stories have been shared – to explain the world, to calm our fears, to preserve ancient wisdom & to prepare us for the future.
Adolescence: A Window of Opportunity
Adolescence spans the ages from 10 to 19 and is a period of physical, cognitive and psychosocial growth marking the transition from childhood to adulthood. During adolescence peer relationships and large social groups replace adult guidance, influencing self-evaluation as teens seek their personal identity. Social skills including Theory of Mind (ToM) – imagining the world from another’s perspective – emerge in early childhood and continue to develop during adolescence alongside enhanced sensitivity to social signals, motivating behavioural choices; this is a time when teens, viewing themselves from others’ perspectives, choose to abandon performing arts and sports activities. The behavioural and emotional patterns associated with establishing personal identity can result in maladaptive responses and negative spirals during adolescence that can have lifelong effects.
The incidence of mental illness emerging during adolescence appears to be increasing in Australia and abroad. In Australia, 25% of mental illness originates during adolescence with greater numbers of teens reporting concerns about the environment, problems at school or stress, anxiety, depression and self-esteem compared to earlier surveys; in UK 16 year olds as a group record the lowest self-reported scores amongst children on life satisfaction, self-belief, and coping skills; and in USA 76% of teens regard anxiety and depression as major concern for themselves or their friends. Mental illness during adolescence can cause significant and ongoing disruption to young people’s educational outcomes. However, adolescents must view interventions as being meaningful if they are to be effective in assisting them to improve, maintain and take responsibility for their personal wellbeing.
Adolescence is considered to be a “Window of Opportunity” both for brain development, and for personal and social development. Reframing adolescence in this way suggests this period of brain plasticity and sensitivity development is also an opportunity to facilitate positive and healthy behavioural and socio-emotional changes. Adolescents are motivated to learn by material that is relevant to learning about themselves and their role in society, and learning how to navigate social relationships. Stories which engage adolescents can provide a variety of social experiences; firstly as they engage with characters within the story, secondly as they discuss elements of the story with other readers, and finally as they develop their capacity to identify and name themselves in the context of the world.
Self-actualisation & Developmental Bibliotherapy
Self-actualisation – the realisation of ones’ full potential, harmonising one’s actual-self with one’s ideal-self and one’s ought-self – is at the peak of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and is considered to be one of the most important of society’s goals, encompassing feelings of gratification, safety, belonging, and self-respect. Wellbeing, learning, and creativity are important contributors to self-actualisation, but similarly, self-actualisation is important for wellbeing, learning, and creativity. An education that encourages self-respect, self-efficacy, courage, and resilience is one which also supports the development of self-actualization in children.
Developmental Bibliotherapy was described by Rhea Rubin in 1979 as encompassing voluntary programs for children in classroom settings, usually designed and conducted by teachers and librarians, using imaginary and didactic literature in discussions which encourage reflection and insight with the aim of promoting self-actualisation and healthy development. Developmental Bibliotherapy using Young Adult (YA) fiction can help young people develop a capacity to better manage their own wellbeing by encouraging self-reflection, strengthening core confidence, promoting a growth mindset, and developing feelings of compassion, empathy, tolerance and gratitude. YA fiction which takes the reader on journeys alongside authentic, relatable, and fallible heroes, provides the lesson that even heroes make mistakes. Fiction can provide readers with opportunities to explore alternative attitudes and behaviours – alongside protagonists – in preparation for the problems that they may encounter at some stage of their lives. Developmental Bibliotherapy, which harnesses the adaptive and beneficial effects of storytelling, empowers adolescents to maintain their own wellbeing and to further self-actualisation.
Students need School Libraries
Research indicates that the presence of a caring adult who is available for authentic and meaningful conversation can make a significant difference in adolescent achievement; for some this will be a school librarian. Teacher Librarians (TLs) – so named in Australian schools to reflect their dual Teacher and Librarian qualifications – have a unique role within school communities in supporting student wellbeing. Australian TLs are respected, valued and seen as supportive by their students. The school library space is regarded by students as a welcoming and accessible space in which they have a degree of autonomy over their activities, free of academic and time pressures; a place they might visit for relaxation, for learning and exploring, or to have a chat. School libraries are recognised and valued as safe spaces as there is generally a clear code of conduct which is modelled and enforced because they are spaces where a staff member is always present. TL led reading programs are usually aimed at promoting reading for pleasure, and yet can be simultaneously guided by the themes in the curriculum and tailored to individual needs. However, while many adolescents value reading fiction as a pleasurable activity, in educational settings reading for pleasure is not often recognised as a valuable pursuit.
Therefore, while Developmental Bibliotherapy can be conducted in classrooms with generalist teachers, the participation of the TL is the key to the success of these programs in 21st century Australian schools because students perceive TLs as being more likely to know students’ reading abilities; more aware of group and individual interests; more able to generate student centred discussion about books; more knowledgeable about books written for young adults; and more likely to model reading as a pleasurable activity and to express their enjoyment in reading compared to teachers of English who students perceive as being focused on curriculum and student achievement. TLs are valued by Australian students not only as the overseer of the school library as a place of sanctuary and a personal guide toward reading choices, but also for their pastoral role in enhancing student wellbeing.
Yet Australian school libraries are being defunded, many school librarians do not have teacher qualifications, and secondary school reading programs are often undervalued, do not have timetabled allocations, or are non-existent. Research advocating for the benefits of school library programs delivered by qualified Teacher Librarians appears to be confined to the social sciences in research which is based on subjective, intuitive, anecdotal and qualitative outcomes.
In contrast, the Integrated Literature Review (ILR) provides evidence for the outcomes stated below, derived from analysis and synthesis of quantitative studies from the field of Cognitive Neuroscience. These outcomes provide empirical evidence in support of myriad existing qualitative studies and indicate the potential for Developmental Bibliotherapy programs designed and delivered by TLs to enhance learning environments and thus improve student outcomes.
Implications for Education
In summary, findings from the ILR taken together strongly suggest that Developmental Bibliotherapy programs led by TLs and which encourage reading for pleasure have the potential to:
build hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism and therefore core confidence, flexible intelligence and a growth mindset;
broaden the range of emotional experiences by facilitating vicarious learning by the actions of mirror neurons to promote mutual understanding;
reveal diverse perspectives and thus promote empathy, compassion, tolerance, and ToM;
increase classroom cohesion and communication and so creating safer learning environments leading to better educational outcomes;
demonstrate how diversity can produce different leadership and problem solving styles that might enhance productivity, creativity, divergent thinking and curiosity;
introduce language to enable self-expression, and soften barriers to communication;
validate emotions and reduce feelings of isolation, remove stigmas and stereotypes, and introduce language and concepts associated with mental illness to increase opportunities for early intervention;
promote effective communication, discussion and consensus building;
encourage reading for pleasure.
Conclusion
The importance that Australian students place on Teacher Librarians and school library spaces, and the potential for secondary school library programs to enhance wellbeing and educational outcomes are supported by abundant qualitative, anecdotal and intuitive evidence. However, books, libraries and qualified Teacher Librarians are disappearing from schools in Australia and around the world, while the incidence of mental illness in adolescents and young adults is increasing. Meanwhile, although studies using narratives as naturalistic stimuli in neuroscience are slowly but unremittingly providing a rich array of robust, objective, quantitative evidence of the mechanisms of DMN under the influence of stories, the origin and focus of these studies currently remain confined within the field of cognitive neuroscience. As noted by Jonathan Gottschall in 2013, “Researchers are not in the habit of pursuing scientific responses to literary questions”.
By examining the actions of narratives in neuroscience through an educational lens, this ILR has combined findings from diverse examples of quantitative research into an ecologically valid empirical based support for the significance of narratives in nurturing self-actualisation and adaptive behaviours that benefit educational outcomes such as creativity, insight, reward, and pleasure; relationships that, hitherto, have been difficult to prove. It is hoped that by a bridging a knowledge gap between cognitive neuroscience and existing educational research, this ILR will introducing policy makers to the importance of reading for pleasure.
This ILR has also demonstrated that viewing narratives from the perspective of DMN reveals empirical evidence to suggest a central role of narratives as catalyst for the evolution of the human DMN, characterised as an evolutionary triptych comprising the Concept Building Brain, the Storytelling Brain and the Social Brain, working together to enable Homo sapiens to overcome great challenges in the past to ensure not just the survival, but the success of the species, and just as critical to ensure the ongoing survival of the species into the future.
My contribution to Literature as a lens for climate change (in 5 parts) Young, R. L. (2022). Literature as a lens for climate change : using narratives to prepare the next generation. Lexington Books.
Bandura, Albert. 1978. “Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioral Change.” Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy 1 (4): 139–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/0146-6402(78)90002-4.
Cohen, Stanley. 2015. States of Denial : Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering. Cambridge, Uk: Polity ; Malden, Ma.
Eckersley, Richard. 2008. “‘Nihilism, Fundamentalism, or Activism: Three Responses to Fears of the Apocalypse’ by Eckersley, Richard – the Futurist, Vol. 42, Issue 1, January-February 2008 | Online Research Library: Questia.” The Futurist 42 (1). https://www.richardeckersley.com.au/attachments/Futurist_Apocalypse_2008.pdf.
Gold, Joseph. 2001. Read for Your Life : Literature as a Life Support System. Markham, Ont.: Fitzhenry And Whiteside.
Kelly, Claire M, Johanna M Mithen, Julie A Fischer, Betty A Kitchener, Anthony F Jorm, Adrian Lowe, and Chris Scanlan. 2011. “Youth Mental Health First Aid: A Description of the Program and an Initial Evaluation.” International Journal of Mental Health Systems 5 (1): 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-4458-5-4.
Konrath, S. H., E. H. O’Brien, and C. Hsing. 2010. “Changes in Dispositional Empathy in American College Students over Time: A Meta-Analysis.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 15 (2): 180–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868310377395.
Kringelbach, Morten L., and Kent C. Berridge. 2009. “Towards a Functional Neuroanatomy of Pleasure and Happiness.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 13 (11): 479–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2009.08.006.
O’Brien, Karen, Elin Selboe, and Bronwyn M. Hayward. 2018. “Exploring Youth Activism on Climate Change: Dutiful, Disruptive, and Dangerous Dissent.” Ecology and Society 23 (3). https://doi.org/10.5751/es-10287-230342.
Oades, Lindsay G., Aaron Jarden, Hanchao Hou, Corina Ozturk, Paige Williams, Gavin R. Slemp, and Lanxi Huang. 2021. “Wellbeing Literacy: A Capability Model for Wellbeing Science and Practice.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (2): 719. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020719.
Rubin, Rhea J. 1979. “Uses of Bibliotherapy in Response to the 1970s.” Library Trends 28 (2): 239–52. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ212852.
Stajkovic, Alexander D. 2006. “Development of a Core Confidence-Higher Order Construct.” Journal of Applied Psychology 91 (6): 1208–24. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.6.1208.
Stark, Eloise A., Peter Vuust, and Morten L. Kringelbach. 2018. “Chapter 7 – Music, Dance, and Other Art Forms: New Insights into the Links between Hedonia (Pleasure) and Eudaimonia (Well-Being).” Edited by Julia F. Christensen and Antoni Gomila. ScienceDirect. Elsevier. January 1, 2018. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079612318300190.
Wiessner, Polly W. 2014. “Embers of Society: Firelight Talk among the Ju/’Hoansi Bushmen.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111 (39): 14027–35. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1404212111.
When some of the earliest imagery created by humans depicts their interactions with their environment, it is astounding to think that Eco-fiction as a genre was identified and defined merely a few decades ago.
Simply put, Eco-fiction portrays aspects of the natural environment and non-human life as an evolving entity with agency in its relationship between and interaction with human characters.
Jim Dwyer in his preface to his book “Where the Wild Books Are: A field guide to Eco-fiction” quotes from Buell’s The Environmental Imagination (1995) when he writes:
“My criteria for determining whether a given work is eco-fiction closely parallel Lawrence Buell’s: 1. The nonhuman environment is present not merely as a framing device but as a presence that begins to suggest that human history is implicated in natural history. 2. The human interest is not understood to be the only legitimate interest. 3. Human accountability to the environment is part of the text’s ethical orientation. 4. Some sense of the environment as a process rather than as a constant or a given is at least implicit in the text” [2]
This criteria for eco-fiction could easily be satisfied in prehistoric cave art and in the dreamtime stories of first nations people who represent the landscape in songlines, and weave the behavior of animals into creation stories. Many readers will recall favorite stories from their childhood described by this genre – stories that warned us of the fragility of life, reinforcing our duty to respect and protect nature while invoking an empathetic attachment to anthropomorphized plants, animals and ethereal beings. Some may also remember stories that warned us of the dangers in harming non-human life, from Moby Dick to The Day of the Triffids.
And yet Dwyer seems to marvel that the first use of the term Eco-fiction may have been the in the title of John Stadler’s 1971 anthology.
Many have pointed out that Eco-Fiction can be considered as a supergenre. Elements of eco-fiction can be found in most, if not all genres, from mystery to romance, history to science fiction. Few readers would fail to recognise the elements of eco-fiction in Tolkein’s battle of Helm’s Deep between the Ents, symbolising the erstwhile peaceloving forest, and the Orcs, symbolising the destructive and polluting extraction industries. Eco-fiction is clearly represented in the non-human perspective described in T. H. White’s Once and Future King. And one cannot miss the fight against ecocide[3] foremost in The Word for World is Forest by Ursula Le Guin.
More recently eco-fiction has overlapped with Cli-Fi to highlight not only how ecocide is both an accelerant for the effects of climate change and current mass extinction event, but is also an immoral act based on an assumption that the environment is to be exploited to serve an economy that feeds on progress.
As Nina Munteanu[4] puts it “we are finally ready to see and portray the environment as an interesting character with agency”.
Gregers Anderson identifies five elements present in Cli-Fi (Climate Fiction): Social Breakdown, Judgement, Conspiracy, Loss of Wilderness and The Sphere. Of these, Judgement (where recompense is administered by the natural world, and the environment evokes feelings of the uncanny, unfamiliar and uncontrollable) and the Loss of Wilderness (where the end of nature, with its peace and tranquillity, is akin to the eviction from paradise) are the typical outcomes of eco-fiction in contemporary Cli-Fi.
Two recent studies[5][6] found that reading Cli-fi raises awareness and consciousness, increases knowledge, changes psychological distance (spacial and temporal), stimulates real world conversations[7], and invokes emotions with a sense that readers “eyes have been opened” and they have heard a “call to action”. The vivid imagery in these novels convert vague and abstract scientific concepts into something more concrete and recognisable than is possible by simply reading scientific reports and statistics. In Cli-Fi protagonists lamenting the action or inaction of previous generations from a possible future earth remind us of our responsibilities to future generations. It is likely that Eco-fiction influences readers in the same way.
Eco-fiction can also serve as a way for children to engage with nature, regardless of their opportunities to engage with nature outside of the classroom, informing and teaching readers about the fragility, interconnectedness and importance of the natural environment, the vulnerability of ecosystems and the threats of human impact. Eco-fiction also offers readers the opportunity to engage with various forms and values of knowledge[8] and information, including ancient wisdom and first nations stories that encourage observation and wonder.
A special aspect of YA Cli-Fi and Eco-fiction is that young fictional protagonists are speaking directly to their teen readers. When a character says “They knew. They didn’t think about the future did they? They never thought about us”[9] there is an almost tangible connection and an implicit demand to “assume responsibility via action”[10].
It must also be noted that while responsible and trusted authors of fiction written for Young Adults must always leave their readers with hope, these young readers should always have access to a trusted adult with whom they can discuss any concerns. [11] But, as mentioned earlier, titles in this genre are more likely to stimulate the conversations that can mitigate anxiety through action. In situations where young readers are able to discuss novels which convey hopeful messages, Eco-fiction and Cli-fi can lead to a “heightened interest in environmental issues and a motivation to effect change.”[12]
This essay is not an attempt to expand on the genre of Eco-Fiction, but rather to highlight how Eco-Fiction forces us to change our perception of the environment as a static literary prop – an entity that is “out there” – to an awareness and understanding of the earth’s ecosystems that are living, evolving and an essential aspect of life on this unique planet. Eco-fiction invokes the simulation heuristic – helping readers to imagine possible futures and consequences of inaction on climate change.
The following titles are highly recommended as a starting point for senior secondary and adult readers.
[1] I have used this spelling of Eco-fiction to mirror that used by John Stadler in his anthology of the same name containing a selection of short stories including: A sound of thunder by R. Bradbury, The turtle by J. Steinbeck. The conversation of Eiros and Charmion by E.A. Poe, The fair young willowy tree by A.E. Coppard, A mother’s tale, by J. Agee, The law by R.M. Coates, The birds by D. du Maurier, A stay at the ocean by R. Wilson, Jr., The supremacy of Uruguay by E.B. White, Look how the fish live by J.F. Powers, Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by K. Vonnegut, Jr., The white heron by S.O. Jewett, The Mary Celeste move by F. Herbert, The toys of peace by Saki (H.H. Munro), The subliminal man by J.G. Ballard, It’s such a beautiful day by I. Asimov, The hummingbird that lived through winter by W. Saroyan.
[2] Jim Dwyer. Where the Wild Books Are : A Field Guide to Ecofiction. University of Nevada Press, 2010.
[3] Ecocide has not been accepted as an internationally punishable crime by the United Nations. The only international recognition of ecocide is in the Rome Statute as a war crime where it is a crime to “Intentionally launch an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated”.
Despite repeated attempts to recognise ecocide as a threat to peace, in particular by Scottish Lawyer Polly Higgins in 2010 and more recently by Vanuatu and the Maldives in 2019, ecocide is not a crime in peacetime. Ecocide can be defined as “The extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystems of a given territory, whether by human agency or by any other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished”. This definition includes damage caused by individuals, corporations and/or the State. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocide
[5] Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew. “The Influence of Climate FictionAn Empirical Survey of Readers.” Environmental Humanities, vol. 10, no. 2, 2018, pp. 473–500, read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/10/2/473/136689/The-Influence-of-Climate-FictionAn-Empirical, 10.1215/22011919-7156848.
[6] Lindgren Leavenworth, Maria, and Annika Manni. “Climate Fiction and Young Learners’ Thoughts—a Dialogue between Literature and Education.” Environmental Education Research, vol. 27, no. 5, 7 Dec. 2020, pp. 727–742, 10.1080/13504622.2020.1856345. Accessed 6 Nov. 2021.
[7] In both studies the potential for stimulating discussions was noted and suggested for further study.
[11] Adult readers in the study reported feeling “inspired”, “motivated” and forced to “reignite concerns they had let go idle” but also “angry”, “incredibly sad”, “helpless” and “guilty”. Many reported a realisation that climate change was a “slow moving violence” that also encompassed widespread social, cultural and political repercussions.
A team at Melbourne University is proposing a Capability Model for Wellbeing Literacy. This model attributes an agency, intention and freedom of choice (a capability) to enhance and maintain the wellbeing of ourselves, others and the wider world, made possible by way of multimodal forms of language. The team’s 2021 paper entitled “Wellbeing Literacy: A Capability Model for Wellbeing Science and Practice” (Oades et al. 2021) adds further weight to the assertion that reading enhances wellbeing.
The Melbourne University team defines wellbeing literacy as the “capability to comprehend and compose wellbeing language, (across contexts) with the intention of using such language to maintain or improve the wellbeing of oneself, others or the world”.
The article refers to language as a “resource that people use actively to construct their psychological and social realities”. Wellbeing literacy relies on being able to recognise and interpret the language of wellbeing. But as our capacity to use language expands, so does our capacity to recognise, interpret and articulate our wellbeing insights and experiences. Not only do we become agents in our own wellbeing, but we are able to make conscious choices that influence our own wellbeing and that of others, and we recognise that our state of wellbeing is a personal choice and we have the freedom to make those choices.
According to the Capability Model, language provides people with the capability to convert wellbeing opportunities into wellbeing experiences and achievements. This article also recognises that with more language opportunities comes more choices, greater freedom of choice and a broader interpretation of concept of wellbeing. Language can also reframe experiences to enhance wellbeing – an aspect of the written word as well known to poets as it is to journalists.
It is easy to see how reading supports this model: as protagonists use language to support their own wellbeing and demonstrate agency in their own choices we might start to recognise and realise our own values, agency and potential. Through the narrative we are able to find insights into our wellbeing experiences and achievements.
In the Capability Model wellbeing literacy becomes a recognisable aspect of Developmental Bibliotherapy, both dynamic and very personal, and closely connected to agency and the “freedom to choose what wellbeing means to a person and [the] choice in how that is maximised via language and knowledge.”
Ultimately, maintaining our wellbeing is a personal endeavour, related to our goals, values, relationships and past experiences. However, as language expands our capability of experiencing wellbeing, fiction provides language in context and offers a myriad of opportunities to learn the language of wellbeing and the freedom to discover, trial and explore our own unique versions of wellbeing.
Bibliography Oades, Lindsay G., Aaron Jarden, Hanchao Hou, Corina Ozturk, Paige Williams, Gavin R. Slemp, and Lanxi Huang. 2021. “Wellbeing Literacy: A Capability Model for Wellbeing Science and Practice.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18 (2): 719. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020719.
Armstrong, A. K., Krasny, M. E., & Schuldt, J. P. (2018). Communicating climate change : a guide for educators. Comstock Publishing Associates, An Imprint Of Cornell University Press.
Callison, C. (2015). How climate change comes to matter : the communal life of facts. Duke University Press.
Haydn Washington, & Cook, J. (2011). Climate change denial : heads in the sand. Earthscan.
Hayes, K., Blashki, G., Wiseman, J., Burke, S., & Reifels, L. (2018). Climate change and mental health: risks, impacts and priority actions. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0210-6
Hornsey, M. J., Harris, E. A., Bain, P. G., & Fielding, K. S. (2016). Meta-analyses of the determinants and outcomes of belief in climate change. Nature Climate Change, 6(6), 622–626. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2943
O’Brien, K., Selboe, E., & Hayward, B. M. (2018). Exploring youth activism on climate change: dutiful, disruptive, and dangerous dissent. Ecology and Society, 23(3). https://doi.org/10.5751/es-10287-230342
Stevenson, K., & Peterson, N. (2015). Motivating Action through Fostering Climate Change Hope and Concern and Avoiding Despair among Adolescents. Sustainability, 8(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8010006
Swim, J., Clayton, S., Doherty, T., Gifford, R., Howard, G., Reser, J., Stern, P., & Weber, E. (2010). Psychology and Global Climate Change: Addressing a Multi-faceted Phenomenon and Set of Challenges A Report by the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change Members. https://www.apa.org/science/about/publications/climate-change.pdf
Van Boven, L., Ehret, P. J., & Sherman, D. K. (2018). Psychological Barriers to Bipartisan Public Support for Climate Policy. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(4), 492–507. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617748966
The Default Mode Network (DMN) is that part of the brain most active during REM sleep, while daydreaming and while reading stories.
The DMN is associated with task-unrelated thinking, sometimes called Spontaneous or Stimulus-Independent thought, and has been described as “The brain running in neutral” activated “precisely when we detach ourselves from what’s going on around us” (Noë, 2017).
“Spontaneous thought allows individuals to construct and simulate alternative scenarios, mentally-organize their plans, and prepare for what may lie ahead … and facilitate the organization and structuring of daily events.” (Andrews-Hanna, 2011 )
The Sentinel
But, while the DMN can be thought of as the parts of the brain that are not engaged with processing sensory information or attending to external stimuli (one reason why the study of DMN is difficult), research also supports a “sentinel hypothesis” in which the DMN concurrently monitors the external environment for upcoming stimuli or other significant, unpredictable events; precisely the situation in which we respond to an unexpected event “without thinking” – far from being in a “world of our own” our DMN has been monitoring our external world and is already engaged sufficiently with our memories to react instantaneously.
Eudaimonia, Wellbeing and Pleasure
The findings that the DMN is activated when we are directing our attention inwards may be the reason that the DMN has been linked with the development of Eudaimonia, described by Aristotle as ‘doing and living well’. Vessel (2019) also linked the DMN to the perception of beauty related to aesthetics, including an inner feeling of pleasure associated with music, artworks, landscapes and architecture, perhaps because these activities are often linked with pleasant memories. It is not surprising then to learn that many of the key regions of the pleasure system are part of the Default Mode Network.
Defining Ourselves
The DMN is in a constant performance/feedback/revision loop as it continually stores, reviews and applies learned information, consolidating our recent experiences, and enabling us to make sense of the chaotic and disconnected events that we encounter daily.
Our DMN is active whenever we are thinking about ourselves or others, when we are remembering the past or using our past experiences to plan for the future, when we are interacting in social contexts and finding our place in the world, and when we are using our self knowledge to make choices, explore our creativity and test our boundaries.
DMN is Responsible for:
All the processes that make us who we are as individuals and as members of the society we inhabit…
FORMING Personal Narratives and Autobiographical Memories –
Understanding and accepting our emotional responses, and assimilating facts and events about ourselves into our understanding and knowledge of our personal traits, and our strengths and weaknesses.
DEVELOPING Theory of Mind –
Understanding diversity in viewpoints and opinions, developing Empathy and Moral Reasoning, learning to interpret Social cues and examine Stereotypes, and then learning to modify our behaviour to suit different social situations
Managing Memories –
Creating memories and then enabling us to recall and apply these memories, access intrinsic understanding, imagine possible futures, comprehend narratives, and respond without thinking in unexpected situations.
APPLYING Insight & Intuition –
Responsible for the Aha moments, lateral thinking, creativity and confidence in problem solving, Spontaneous Thought and automatic responses that protect us in Sentinel mode, and
DEVELOPING a Growth Mindset through Vicarious Learning –
Building efficacy, hope, optimism, emotional resilience and curiosity, interpreting simulations & making predictions, finding pathways, overcoming obstacles, through the actions of others
HELPING to Making Sense of the World –
Assimilating and interpreting narratives, creating order from chaos, identifying patterns and logical thought processes, analysing and synthesising the day’s events.
Stories and the Default Mode Network
When we read, our DMN is helping us imagine journeys with heroes and villians, define our values and our goals, helping us visualize different perspectives and pathways, supporting our capacity to simulate hypothetical scenes, spaces and mental states; we must access our memories in order to understand the story we’re reading and visualise the scenes within the novel. Our DMN is active when we respond to the word ‘Dog’, associating that one word with the memories and emotions linked to a multitude of interactions with dogs, all invoked by the present instance of a dog within the pages of a novel.
It is the correlation between Reading Fiction and the activation of the Default Mode Network, with its positive links to eudaimonic states and wellbeing, aesthetics, social responsibility, and the self awareness that necessitates the welfare of the self in future endeavours, that presents the most compelling case for Developmental Bibliotherapy in schools.
References
Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2011). The Brain’s Default Network and Its Adaptive Role in Internal Mentation. The Neuroscientist, 18(3), 251–270. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858411403316
Stark, E. A., Vuust, P., & Kringelbach, M. L. (2018, January 1). Chapter 7 – Music, dance, and other art forms: New insights into the links between hedonia (pleasure) and eudaimonia (well-being) (J. F. Christensen & A. Gomila (eds.)). ScienceDirect; Elsevier. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079612318300190
Vessel, E. A., Isik, A. I., Belfi, A. M., Stahl, J. L., & Starr, G. G. (2019). The default-mode network represents aesthetic appeal that generalizes across visual domains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(38), 19155–19164. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1902650116
Eco-Anxiety and Solastalgia are common responses to the distress caused by the effects of climate change – responses likely to be significantly intensified by the Australian summer of 2020. Young People and First Nations People are most severely affected.
On National TV, a young woman tearfully shares her conviction that motherhood in the near future is unsafe, unethical and a bad choice for the planet, while a young teenage protester asks for a curriculum that includes Climate Science, Media Literacy and Political Engagement.
At a “Schools Strike for Climate” rally a year 10 student talks about her fears for the future, her traumas framed by past experiences, and then, in blending pleas with demands, she calls on those in power to take action on Climate Change, care for the environment, listen to the Science and Tell the Truth.
But young people’s concerns are dismissed and they are told to study hard so they can fix the climate when they graduate. Understandably, they are increasingly becoming either extremely concerned about climate change or in denial.
“What if the problems we are causing in the natural environment are linked to the problems going on inside our heads?” asks Matt Haig (2019).
Eco-anxiety – an Appropriate Response
Eco-anxiety, the chronic fear of environmental doom, is an appropriate and reasonable response to the existential threat of climate change. With symptoms similar to other anxiety disorders, Eco-anxiety differs in that the threat posed by climate change is real so the fear is rational. Some refer to it a Pre-traumatic stress disorder – a fear of the future.
Anxiety is a common emotion, a protective mechanism. But “all anxiety contains a kernel of good news” said Rollo May observing that we would have no anxiety if we could not envision a future; anxiety contains an element of hope. In the face of the existential threat that is climate change, eco-anxiety is an appropriate response.
Understanding the “fight, flight or freeze” responses to anxiety helps to explain the varied and often polarised responses to Climate Change. For many, eco-anxiety is akin to the despair felt by Cassandra, whose gift of prophesy was frustrated by the curse of not being believed; they watch as the science is ignored in favour of populist alternatives that exacerbate the accelerating ecological destruction and make the scientific predictions even more likely. Some consider the subject too distressing or too difficult to understand, or refuse to acknowledge either that climate change exists or that it is anthropogenic. Some are overwhelmed.
However, only the fight response is considered to be the adaptive and healthy response to climate change, or, as the 350.org email informs me “Action is the antidote to despair”.
The Need for Stories
Advances in scientific knowledge have shown little or no correlation with changes in environmental attitudes or behaviour in relation to climate change. Science is bracketed out as complex, experimental and elite; knowledge is not transferring to power in tackling climate change. The lay person can feel shut out and inferior.
Stories can give a boarder audience a better sense of what is happening, framing responses and to making the science real and personal. Stories engage the emotions and reduce stress, opening the pathways to learning. Stories use metaphor and analogy to enable us to see ourselves and others from diverse perspectives, and to help us identify our values and build empathy. Stories can serve a didactic function, educating us through the voices of knowledgeable authors.
And stories have the power to motivate and inspire us by nurturing self-efficacy, optimism and resilience, which generate the hope and creative energy to act.
What is Cli-Fi?
Cli-Fi (Climate Fiction) novels are usually set in the present or the very near future with effects of climate change as a backdrop and a plot in which catastrophic events unfold amidst social and environmental upheaval. Young Adult (YA) Cli-Fi features teenage protagonists with absent or unhelpful adults and settings that are remain on a local level. The authors of YA Cli-Fi present readers with unsettling worlds, explore ways that families and relationships will be affected, the nature of heroes and villains, and how we might co-exist with the environment that we have callously disrupted.
Many Cli-Fi novels present readers with unsettling worlds where interpersonal trust has disappeared, where institutions that have previously been able to help have collapsed, where animals and plants have acquired new, monstrous properties and where even nature and the weather cannot be trusted. In these worlds, where we do not know how to distinguish good and bad, we are challenged to reflect on what is important to us, what our values are, what we need to preserve and what we are prepared to sacrifice.
In a version of Cli-Fi called ‘Solar punk’ writers opt to imagine a better, fairer world through their work. One Solar Punk writer, Sarena Ulibarri, acknowledges that “any near-future science fiction that does not engage with climate change is fantasy”.
In their didactic role, authors of YA Cli-Fi explain scientific terms and concepts, explore individual and government responses and address other unknowns for their readers, providing their readers with knowledge and empowerment and a positive perspective. By harnessing the emotions authors compel readers to recognise and act to foster change. In Cli-Fi we find heroes dealing with the impacts of climate change, adapting to the aftermath of natural disasters, and pressuring governments and corporations to act. We see alternative scenarios developed; what does martial law look like, what would you do to protect your family, or a bottle of water? Various and volatile combinations of fear, anxiety, confusion and anger, exist in Cli-Fi, and always with a message of hope.
Danish Cli-Fi researcher Gregers Andersen says (2020) “Cli-Fi plays a very significant role in helping people manage eco-anxiety. Climate fiction helps us to think about the future, gives us the opportunity to reflect on what it’s like to live in a climate collapsed world and make us realize the importance of changing to a more climate friendly way of life.”
Driven to Act
In the classroom, Cli-Fi has the potential to raise awareness in a non-threatening and non-personal way, motivating debate and inspiring action, and so potentially alleviating anxiety. Cli-Fi adheres to scientific accuracy, introducing concepts and language such as feed-back loops, tipping points, permafrost, gyres and gulf-streams that beget curiosity and discussion, and encourage research and investigation. Educators must ensure that climate change education cultivates hope and one way to do that is by empowering young people to be agents for change.
Cli-Fi can encourage us to focus our energies outwards. As we seek and connect with like-minded people, we feel less isolated, and we recognise our eco-anxiety as justified and valid. Within our new communities we can explore solutions, share problems and ideas, engage our imaginations, and learn ways to adjust to the future that is presenting itself; in the process we become less concerned with our own personal anxieties, begin to see the potential in action as an antidote for our anxiety and the possibilities in harnessing our energies for the greater good.
We find something worth fighting for; we are validated and empowered, unified and supported, and part of a global movement, huge and historical, that has come together to make the world a better place.
Paul Hawken describes this “Blessed Unrest” as “the greatest social movement in history … made up of environmental, social justice, and indigenous organisations, research institutes, community development agencies, village and citizen based organizations, corporations, networks, faith based groups, trusts, and foundations … from different economic sectors, cultures, regions, and cohorts … a global, classless, diverse and embedded movement spreading worldwide.” (from Eckersley 2007)
Eckersley identified three responses to fear of the apocalypse; Nihilism, Fundamentalism or Activism identifying “Activism: Where Hope Rules”, as the only adaptive response to the threats posed by Climate Change. Hope, formally defined as an awareness of strategies or pathways to achieve goals and the motivation to effectively pursue those pathways, has been identified as a strong predictor of recovery from anxiety disorders.
As sensations of hope inspires climate change action, and in turn, climate action generated by one’s peers can generates hope, people transform their anxiety into action as part of a united social mass of individuals who want to see a brighter future.
Driven to Adapt
But Cli-Fi has another purpose, and that is to show us our possible futures. When we read dystopian and science fiction novels, we explore other worlds with scant regard to how those worlds evolved. Cli-Fi fills in those gaps, forcing us to confront our grief and perhaps motivating us to fight harder to save those things we care about, to drive change, join rebellion and embrace activism. Cli-Fi introduces us to messages of survival; extreme weather, preppers, martial law, medical realities and societal and ecological systems collapse can all be explored in Cli-Fi.
Supportive fiction, by definition, nurtures Hope, Resilience, Self-efficacy and Optimism. But along the way we also explore and experience community, collaboration, empathy, laughter, relationships, values, alternative pathways and perspectives, validation, insight, catharsis, new information, new skills, universality, self-knowledge, self-acceptance, growth, healing, resolution, trust, alternative endings, escape, immersion, and a reframing. Good Cli-Fi can offer all of these.
Cli-Fi can help us adapt to a rapidly changing world by teaching us skills to build emotional resilience. Cli-Fi shows us that life goes on, allows us to live through our fears, disrupts our stuck thoughts and stimulates our imagination. Cli-Fi empowers us through information and understanding, knowledge and diversity and presents us with opportunities to reframe and possibly rewrite our futures. Cli-fi challenges us to accept that climate change is a fundamental part of being alive and allows us space to process the complicated feelings we have surrounding climate change. Writing original Cli-Fi can further help to process climate grief and build emotional resilience.
By inhabiting a warming planet within the pages of a Cli-Fi novel we will be better prepared to confront and respond appropriately to the unsettling and distressing realities of climate change; we will be better able to adjust to the realisation that our environment is changing rapidly and unpredictably; we will be more flexible and adaptable and able to identify the values and relationships most important to us; we will develop the emotional resilience to face the sadness and injustice accompanying climate change with courage and determination; we will identify our personal strengths and unique qualities; and we will learn that adaptation is not just coping, not just resilience, not just transformation but also the capacity to form meaningful connections with others.
Teaching Climate Change Without Creating Despair or Entrenching Denial
Is climate change education appropriate for children? Are we doom mongering? Even though the likelihood is that climate change will reach crisis point in their lifetimes, is this knowledge too great a burden for the young people in our care?
How do we raise a generation to look forward to the future with hope when all around them swirls a message of apparent hopelessness? How do we prepare today’s children for a world defined by trauma without inflicting further trauma ourselves? Where do we draw the line between responsible education and undue alarmism?
“Kids are terrified, anxious and depressed about climate change. Whose fault is that?” asks Jason Plautz (2020)
The link between Climate Change and the mental health of young adults is very real. A 2019 poll of USA teens found that Climate Change made 57% of them afraid and 52% of them angry, while just 29% said they felt optimistic.
The high school student thinks about climate change every day, she reads about how ecosystems are on the brink of collapse and listens in despair as her teachers and parents tell her that it’s up to her generation to fix things. She wonders if she will have children.
The second grader is scared about the planet but says it feels good to be surrounded by some many people (at the School Strike for Climate) who care, since he sometimes feels as if nobody else is worried. His parents are proud that their child is aware, but concerned that he could become overwhelmed by predictions that seem to be growing ever more disturbing.
And a sixth grade teacher wonders if he is violating his mandated responsibility to speak up about signs of abuse and neglect if he does not speak up forcefully about climate change and the institutions that prop up the “fictional story that you can care for kids in our country while neglecting or ignoring the climate”.
Psychiatrist Lise Susteren, expert for the plaintiffs in the Juliana vs United States Youth Climate Lawsuit (2018) is left with a sense of shame after interviewing children about their fears for nature and their worries about their future families.
Young people translate inaction by the older generations as telling them we don’t care about their future. By failing to address Climate Change in a meaningful way we are failing our young people and they know it.
Teachers have a responsibility to inform themselves about climate change so they can help young people work towards solutions and move away from rigid thinking, calm their fears about the future, and give them a sense of hope and optimism. Teachers must be prepared to empower their students by means of age appropriate knowledge, to nurture their sense of agency in their own lives, to help them recognize that the worst of climate change is not a fait accompli, to show them that solutions exist and that some progress can be made, and to encourage them to take action, be that at a personal level or as part of a larger group, as a way to process and alleviate climate change concerns.
Activism is a burden, but they should be encouraged to participate in some type of action, primarily because action is the best antidote for eco-anxiety but also to show them that they have agency in their future, and that their future is still being written.
Teachers, and parents, walk a tightrope between being honest and being comforting, between empowering young people with hope and weighing them down with the responsibility of saving the world.
Parents, also, must prepare their children to be ready to make good choices and be part of the society they will inhabit as adults. As one parent says, “It’s a disservice to our children if we don’t reach them about life’s dangers and how to protect themselves, even as we pray it will never be necessary.”
Activism or Despair?
Young people are both more susceptible to environmental-related trauma and less emotionally equipped to cope with the potential impacts. In the face of a disaster they are more likely to be affected by eroded social networks as communications fail, and more likely to be overwhelmed by grief, frustration, guilt, helplessness and anxiety in the aftermath.
Some young people must be asking “Am I sick or is the world sick?“ They might wonder “Am I the only one paralysed by eco-anxiety?” Some young people may be so overwhelmed that they retreat into avoidance and denial.
Some adults might say that it is the rhetoric surrounding climate change that is creating anxiety in young people. But children and adolescents will register our concerns via overheard conversations, news items, popular films that generate questions among their peers, or by experiencing the effects of wild weather and natural disasters unfolding around them.
They want a curriculum that prepares them for the uncertainties of a warming planet, with reliable information about the facts and the magnitude of the threat of climate change in honest, open and frank discussions with trusted and informed adults, whether in the classroom or around the dinner table, in ways they can understand.
Young people want their emotions and concerns acknowledged; they want to be able to make informed choices, and they want to feel empowered to make their own choices; to access and be able to influence policy makers; and they want to join with peers who think along the same lines.
Young people’s anxiety is fuelled by the inaction of adults even as it drives their activism. Scientist Owen Gaffney says that Eco-anxiety is the right response to the scale of the Climate Change. Yet according to marine biologist Tim Gordon “there’s a huge amount we can still do to protect what’s left and make a meaningful difference.” Young people need to receive this message.
The Role of Cli-Fi
“All great literature is subversive if not downright revolutionary” says John Marsden. “It’s important for novelists to challenge false thinking, to question, to blaze trails.”
All literature influences and models the world for readers, defining, describing and explaining the world, and challenging and shaping our values through the actions and voices of heroes and villians.
Scott Westerfeld argues that his work is not designed to manipulate the political preferences of adolescents, but rather to provide them with a forum to discuss issues and strategies for political activism and social change.
In the novel “I am David” Anne Holm’s protagonist says “Can’t you understand that children have a right to know everything that’s true? If there’s danger you have to recognize it or else you can’t take care of yourself.”
And so, in the style of G. K. Chesterton we might say …
Cli-Fi does not exist to tell children that Climate Change is real. Children already know Climate Change is real. Cli-Fi exists to tell children that Climate Change must be confronted.
Read For Life 