Energy literacy and agency of New Zealand children

Abstract

The development of energy literacy (knowledge, attitudes, and intended behaviour) and agency of New Zealand children (age 9-10) were investigated through thematic and exploratory statistical analyses of interviews (October 2011-April 2012) with 26 children, their parents and teachers, focus groups and photo elicitation. The children knew that electricity costs money and saw it as a finite resource. Half could name an energy source but few knew of any associated environmental issues. Most of the children had a positive attitude towards saving electricity, but did not intend to save energy to a further extent (low intended behaviour) and were not influencing their families to conserve energy (low agency). The children were learning about energy informally from a variety of sources, and acquired their attitudes mostly from talking to their parents. The results highlight the need for energy education for citizenship at school and conversations about energy both there and at home.

Kids and Kilowatts: Socialisation, energy efficiency, and electricity consumption in New Zealand

“…Finally, many of the children discussed their electricity saving behaviours without relating them to energy consumption at all. This may indicate a general lack of concern in this regard, as seen in teenagers [8], possibly owing to a low level of awareness about the consequences of energy use beyond its cost [13] (see discussion Section 4.3).…”

“…Habits are automatic and relatively fixed behaviours [39], and an important part of the children's socialisation process into saving electricity. Although only a small proportion of the children's electricity saving behaviours were habitual, 13 most of them had acquired at least one habit by the time of the interview (Supplementary Table 3). As explained by several participants, the establishment of habits followed naturally from prolonged engagement in a particular behaviour: "I remember [to turn off the heat pump].…”

“…consistently and autonomously). 13 A habit in this study is considered to exist only when a particular behaviour was performed consistently and autonomously (i.e. without parental interference), regardless of the underlying rationale.…”

“…Most of the families had at some point discussed energy savings at home, focusing in particular on the financial cost of power and, much less frequently, on environmental concerns and energy security [13]. More than half of the children were proactive in asking questions, with over a third of the participants recalling specific examples related to energy consumption and production.…”

“…However, engaging in environmental practices, such as conserving electricity, is not always a conscious decision based on knowledge and corresponding attitudes [6,12]. Instead, energy saving practices tend to be the product of poorly understood "repetitive, unconscious, routine aspects of household energy consumption" [3, p. 449], as well asin the case of children−learning processes guided by parents [13].…”