How Big Is My Carbon Footprint? Understanding Young People’s Engagement with Climate Change Education

Abstract

This paper presents a new engagement model for climate change education (CCE) as a result of analysing interactive digital narratives (IDNs) created during the You and CO2 Climate Change Education Programme. Young people aged 13–15 from two schools in Wales participated in three workshops, which culminated in students producing IDNs about climate change using Twine storytelling software. An inductive, grounded-theory approach informed by Bourdieusien principles of habitus and value was used to explore students’ responses to the Programme. Stage 1 coding identified ‘Core Themes’ and located student responses along tri-axial continua showing engagement, agency, and power. Stage 2 coding combined ‘Core Themes’ to build upon Cantell et al.’s 2019 Bicycle Model of Climate Change Education to create a new ‘holistic Agentic Climate-Change Engagement’ model (h-ACE), where learners’ journeys towards full engagement with and understanding of CCE and action could be traced. Barriers to students’ engagement with and understanding of CCE were identified through Bourdieusien analysis of responses. Results show that engagement was related to children’s views on their capacity to effect change on individual, local and governmental levels. The h-ACE provides a model for adjusting CCE curricula to accommodate young people’s varying cultures and views.

Teacher Effort in Strengthening Student’s Thinking Skill and Awareness upon Environment Conservation: PLS-SEM of Climate Change Education (CCE) Study

“…CCE aims to provide basic knowledge about climate science and motivate positive action to reduce negative human environmental impacts [27,28]. Apart from this, involving students in exploring the concept of climate change encourages critical thinking about environmental problems [29]. Involving students in this can foster a deep understanding of the causes and impacts of climate change and motivate collective efforts to overcome this challenge.…”

Between Home and School: Exploring Parents’ Experiences of Educating in a Pandemic

“…Within a Jenkins-Bourdieu-based theoretical model, as described above, there is not sufficient and explicit capacity to these inter-field effects. As such, consideration of 'habitus clashes' [53], derived from Ingram's [54] interpretation and use of Bourdieu's concept of 'dialectical confrontation' [55] are useful here.…”

“…'Habitus clash' is a simple phrase used to explain the time and space within which habituses, practices and values from different (and sometimes opposing) fields intersect [53]. The intersection is then a site where a social actor must process and make sense of the clash.…”

Youth-Led Climate Change Action: Multi-Level Effects on Children, Families, and Communities

“…For example, to help address the problem, young people are often encouraged to engage in a number of 'pro-environmental' or 'environmentally-significant' behaviors primarily in the realm of everyday habits and lifestyle choices [21,22]. Specifically, young people may be invited to modify their behaviors with aims of lowering their 'carbon footprint,' that is, the equivalent pounds of CO 2 emitted into the atmosphere associated with day-to-day living [23]. Less often, children are invited to participate in collaborative, community-based action to address climate change [7,24,25].…”