Death in the curriculum
A terror management theory assessment of emotions and mortality reminders in post-secondary interdisciplinary environmental education courses
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21589321 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gabriela E Vieyra-Balboa (0009-0006-8451-0631, Royal Roads University, corresponding author), Michael-Anne Noble (0009-0005-0232-9859, Royal Roads University), E Wolfe (0000-0003-0304-8934, Royal Roads University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-19 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-23 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Science Education, Part B (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2154-8455 • E-ISSN: 2154-8463 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09500693.2026.2617916 |
| OpenAlex | W7125525921 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 46 |
Interdisciplinary Environmental Education (IEE) provides post-secondary students with the knowledge, awareness, skills, and motivation for environmental stewardship. Educators are responsible for building students’ action competence to engage in environmental/climate challenges and apply those skills to solve ecological problems. However, Terror Management Theory researchers have shown that mortality awareness – including awareness triggered by climate change – activates individuals’ deep psychological defenses. These defenses may provoke reactions and behaviours detrimental to pro-environmental objectives. To investigate the interaction between mortality salience reminders (MSRs) and emotions in post-secondary IEE curriculum, we identified every MSR in faculty interviews and curricular materials, coded all associated emotions, and consolidated them into six basic categories (Joy, Love, Awe/Surprise, Fear, Anger, Sadness). We tallied their frequency across documents to determine the emotional load (EL) of individual texts and for the whole dataset. Our analysis revealed Fear as the prevalent emotion associated with death-thought prompts and an overall negative emotional load across eight courses taught at two Canadian post-secondary institutions. We also found that while some educators did not intentionally provoke a particular affect, others deliberately instilled hope and confidence when addressing environmental issues. Our findings provide insights to strengthen local teaching practices and inform global environmental education strategies
Death education · Environmental education · Grounded theory · Higher education · Qualitative research · Science education · Terror management theory · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies
Adaptive Motivation and Emotion in Education
Of Wealth and Death
Human–Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence
A Terror Management Theory of Social Behavior
Thirty Years of Terror Management Theory
Anxiety, Worry, and Grief in a Time of Environmental and Climate Crisis
Guilty conscience
The “Anthropocene”
Environmental Identity
The Causes and Consequences of a Need for Self-Esteem
Planetary boundaries
Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change
Dead in the water
Mortality management and climate action
Emphasizing urgency of climate change is insufficient to increase policy support
Mortality Salience Motivates the Defense of Environmental Values and Increases Collective Ecoguilt
Life after death
Educating for resilience
University student and lecturer perceptions of positive emotions in learning
Between Psychoanalysis and Pedagogy
Teaching as an Immortality Project
The nature of death and the death of nature
The People Paradox
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Emotion knowledge
Two Decades of Terror Management Theory
Fear Won't Do It
Planetary Boundaries
Environmental Attitude and Environmental Knowledge
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |