The Uses of Hopelessness: A Response to Røkenes and Jornet

ABSTRACT In this response to Røkenes and Jornet as part of the special issue Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education , we celebrate the contributions they make as they analyze Norwegian teenagers grappling with hope and hopelessness as part of a disciplinary unit on environmental sustainability. We discuss various ways of treating hope and hopelessness as emotional configurations and sensemaking tools. We draw on alternate theorizations of hope, including hope as a discipline, active hope, and critical hope, to argue for politicized understandings of hopelessness as an often‐necessary part of climate education. We argue that if hope is a learning target for science education, critical science educators must teach and practice social movement repertoires that build power, giving young people a taste of meaningful social action and embedding them in politicized relations of solidarity.