CEP Divisional Webinar: Being flamingos and trees: creative methods as inclusive responses to natural environments and climate change
About this Webinar
Date: 4 September 2025
Time:
- SAST 12:00 – 13:00
Platform: Teams
Research about landscapes, climate change and environmental issues often largely excludes marginalised groups and creative expressions of what spaces mean to people. This presentation draws on research projects which encompassed artists and researchers working with a range of different groups, to explore their relationships with nature and other species. In the first project discussed, the use of artistic approaches opened up alternative means of engaging with local landscapes that many participants had never visited before, despite being near to where they lived. Artists facilitated expressive responses through multimodal and multisensory activities, and participants offered their own unique interpretations through making, playing and imagining.
Incorporating a multispecies approach in the projects challenged human dominance and encouraged a repositioning of perspectives to include animals and plants, and potentially rivers, rocks and so on, as having their own stake in the natural environment. Participants together decentred the human perspective by imagining ‘being’ other animals and plants; and embraced non-standard uses of language and literacy to codify and communicate affective responses.
This presentation also introduces a project in which schoolchildren have been partnered with children in other parts of the world, to explore their experiences and understandings of climate change. Children from South Pacific Islands, Norway, Pakistan and the UK have created stories and pictures to share with one another – and with you. The discussion will consider the potential for, and limitations of, such methods as inclusive and hopeful responses to environmental crises.
See the link below to join!
Professor Candice Satchwell is Professor of Literacies and Education at the University of Lancashire, UK, where she is Co-Director of the Institute of Creativity, Communities and Culture, and Co-Director of the Centre for Children and Young People’s Participation. Her research over several decades has included the uses of literacy in education and in everyday life amongst children, young people, homeless adults and marginalised communities. She regularly uses creative activities and stories as both methods and outputs in her research, and is committed to amplifying voices of children and young people, learning from their experiences, and understanding their concerns about climate change and environmental issues. Relevant publications include:
- Satchwell, C. (2024). Being Flamingos and Trees: Marginalized Groups Respond to Landscapes Using Inclusive Multimodal Literacies and Arts. Qualitative Inquiry, 31(6), 562-573. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004241254085 (Original work published 2025)
- Satchwell, C., Walley, B., Dodding, J., Lagi, M.D. (2024). Conversations across international divides: children learning through empathy about climate change, Geographical Research, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12638
- Satchwell, C., Mills, B., Parkinson, C., Herring, L., & Parathian, H. (2024). Creative approaches to landscape research: Using multisensory and multispecies research perspectives with marginalised groups. Landscape Research, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2024.2336544