Journal article
Flood Rats Falling Through Gaps: Seven Childhood Flood Mappings in the Metacrisis of Climate Change
Australian journal of environmental education, Vol.First online, pp.1-30
22/09/2026
Appears in Recent Faculty of Education Publications
Metrics
1 Record Views
Abstract
In 2022, Australia experienced one of its most devastating climate-induced crises, the unprecedented Northern Rivers floods, which saw many education settings and schools damaged, and deemed either unsalvageable, temporarily closed or significantly disrupted. The floods’ impact on children and young people and their education, from their perspectives, has been under-examined. To improve understanding of these impacts, the Floods + Me research project – an inter-university and transdisciplinary collaboration of child, youth and adult researchers – mapped child and youth experiences of life and schooling after the floods. The research took a child-centred methodology positioning children and youth as agents and knowledge producers. In this paper, we mapped the findings of this study posthumanly through an arts-based and diffractive framework thinking with the concept of the metacrisis. Through this diffractive mapping process, seven concepts emerged namely, loss and isolation, lack of clarity, place, multispecies relationships, support structures failure, silence and healing and affect and emotion. This paper provides insights into the precise ways children and youth want to be involved in climate disasters and have their voices heard and actioned through the complexities of the metacrisis.
Details
- Title
- Flood Rats Falling Through Gaps: Seven Childhood Flood Mappings in the Metacrisis of Climate Change
- Creators
- Simone Blom - Southern Cross UniversityJeanti St Clair - Southern Cross UniversityHelen Widdop Quinton - Victoria UniversityAmy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles - Southern Cross UniversityAlexandra Lasczik - Southern Cross UniversityKatie Hotko - Southern Cross UniversityLauren Rickards - La Trobe UniversityBlanche Verlie - The University of SydneyDavid Rousell - RMIT UniversityLiberty Pascua de Rivera - Southern Cross UniversityChantelle Bayes - Southern Cross UniversityLisa de Kleyn - La Trobe UniversityYaw Ofosu-Asare - RMIT University
- Publication Details
- Australian journal of environmental education, Vol.First online, pp.1-30
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press; CAMBRIDGE
- Number of pages
- 30
- Grant note
- The research presented in this article resulted from a project funded by the Southern Cross University Vice Chancellor’s Flood Recovery Scheme in 2022.
- Identifiers
- 991013403070502368
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2026.
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education; Faculty of Business, Law and Arts; Creative Arts
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article