Student Podcasts in the Anthropocene

In this article, we argue for the value of student podcasts for fostering dialogue around questions of poetry and sustainable futures in an English as a foreign language context. Our research draws on our experiences of inviting student teachers to create their own podcasts on a recently published poem about nature or the Anthropocene, or both, in our first-year literature course for those studying to become upper secondary school teachers of English in Sweden. The aim of this assignment was twofold: first, for the student teachers to analyze literature in English from an ecocritical perspective, including considerations of biodiversity, species loss, and nonhuman perspectives, and second, for student teachers to practice the kinds of student-led dialogue and discussion that are crucial for imagining more sustainable futures. We will share our experiences with using the student podcast format for the purposes of generating critical engagement with the Anthropocene.