The interplay among environmental attitudes,pro-environmental behavior,social identity,and pro-environmental institutional climate. A longitudinal study

By using a panel design in a sample of 298 undergraduate/master students at an Italian public university, the present study aimed to test longitudinally the interplay among environmental attitudes, pro-environmental behavior, social identity, and pro-environmental institutional climate. The relationships were tested with cross-lagged analysis based on two waves over a 2-month period. The cross-lagged panel analysis revealed positive cross-lagged effects of social identity on environmental attitudes and pro-environmental institutional climate perceptions on social identity. Environmental attitudes and social identity at Time 1 did not predict Time 2 pro-environmental behavior. Pro-environmental behavior at Time 1 did not predict Time 2 environmental attitudes. Pro-environmental institutional climate perceptions at Time 1 did not predict Time 2 pro-environmental behavior. Finally, social identity at Time 1 did not predict Time 2 pro-environmental institutional climate perceptions.     

Personal,professional, political: an exploration of science teacher identity development for teaching climate change

Abstract

Climate change presents societal and environmental challenges, as well as educational ones. Obstacles abound within teaching and learning climate change, related to its complex nature, the proliferation of misinformation, and its absence from many science curricula. Efforts have previously been made to study teacher content knowledge and beliefs on climate change with varying results. This study employed identity as a theoretical framework to examine aspects of climate change teaching. This study followed a reflexively iterative process that enabled the construction of a conceptual model for identity development. This model demonstrates multifaceted influences including personal, professional, and political elements, and the dynamism these elements exhibit over time. This conceptual model is best described via five trends: Personal Valuation of Nature; Experiences in Science Teaching and Learning; Teacher Instructional Support and Agency; Epistemic Evidence-based Instruction; and Civic and Social Awareness via Socioscientific Literacy. The presence and strength of enactment of each trend led to the development of four possible constructions of identity: Passionate Environmentalist, Student Interest Engager, Content First Educator, and Civic and Epistemic Skills Promoter. Most frequently teachers exhibited combinations of identities and often created a unique amalgam of multiple dimensions of identities in action.     

Beyond individual behaviour change: the role of power,knowledge and strategy in tackling climate change

Individual behaviour change is fast becoming a kind of ‘holy grail’ to tackle climate change, in environmental policy, the environmental movement and academic literature. This is contested by those who claim that social structures are the main problem and who advocate collective social action. The objective of the research presented in this paper is to better understand why environmentally concerned citizens choose one of these two types of engagement. Our focus is on the role of experiences of and/or convictions about power in shaping this choice. Within the framework of an explorative qualitative study, we engaged in in-depth interviews with 12 young environmentally concerned citizens. On this basis, five main findings are elaborated. Firstly, powerlessness is shown to be a crucial experience, whatever the respondents’ engagement. Secondly, ‘strategy scepticism’ seems to be a more important obstacle for engagement than ‘climate scepticism’. Thirdly, many respondents express significant resistance towards being ‘conditioned’ by awareness-raising campaigns. Fourthly, a ‘gap’ is observed between respondents’ analysis and their strategy proposals. Finally, we underscore another important gap between concrete and abstract levels in respondents’ discourses. All these findings disclose paradoxical aspects of the role of power in shaping the concerned citizens’ engaged choices.     

Climate Change Professional Development: Design,Implementation, and Initial Outcomes on Teacher Learning,Practice, and Student Beliefs

In this work, we present the design, implementation, and initial outcomes of the Climate Academy, a hybrid professional development program delivered through a combination of face-to-face and online interactions, intended to prepare formal and informal science teachers (grades 5–16) in teaching about climate change. The Climate Academy was designed around core elements of successful environmental professional development programs and aligned with practices advocated in benchmarked science standards. Data were collected from multiple sources including observations of professional development events, participants’ reflections on their learning, and collection of instructional units designed during the Academy. Data were also collected from a focal case study teacher in a middle school setting. Case study data included classroom observations, teacher interviews, and student beliefs toward climate change. Results indicated that the Climate Academy fostered increased learning among participants of both climate science content and pedagogical strategies for teaching about climate change. Additionally, results indicated that participants applied their new learning in the design of climate change instructional units. Finally, results from the case study indicated positive impacts on student beliefs and greater awareness about climate change. Results have implications for the design of professional development programs on climate change, a topic included for the first time in national standards.     

Children’s constructive climate change engagement: Empowering awareness,agency, and action

Abstract

This mixed-methods study examined how ten- to twelve-year-old children experienced and made sense of their growing climate change awareness through an after-school program that used participatory methods to facilitate children’s informed climate change action. The fifteen-week program combined hands-on educational activities with digital photography and culminated in youth-led action projects focused on individual (i.e. daily habits) and collaborative change (i.e. community projects). After the program, children knew significantly more about the scientific and social dimensions of climate change than before, and more than the average U.S. teen or adult. Survey and focus group analyses showed that, in addition to learning, children were inspired and motivated by their growing climate change awareness. Children felt empowered by their knowledge and eager to learn more and take action to minimize harms. Towards theorizing children’s constructive climate change engagement, the importance of informal learning environments for children’s intergenerational and political influence is discussed.     

Opportunities to learn about Europe at school. A comparative analysis among European adolescents in 21 European member states

In this article, we investigate the relationship between different learning methods and the formation of European identity among adolescents. The analysis is based on the European module of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (2009), with 70,502 respondents in 21 European member states. The results show that offering opportunities for cognitive learning is more strongly related to European identity than social learning opportunities, i.e. opportunities for interactions with citizens from other European Union member states. The occurrence of an interaction effect between cognitive and social learning strategies, however, suggests that jointly offering both learning strategies can be considered the most effective tool for the formation of a European identity. The multilevel analysis reveals the impact of a more Eurosceptic climate on the country level, suggesting that living in a Eurosceptic member state is related to a weaker European identity among adolescents. We close with some observations on how curricula can contribute to a strengthening of European identity.     

Climate change and costs: investigating students’ reasoning on nature and economic development

The tensions between environmental protection and economic growth are critical to future well-being, and it is therefore important to understand how young people conceptualize these tensions. The aim of the present study is to explore students’ solutions to the dilemma of economic development and mitigating climate change, with regard to societal responses to the challenge of climate change. The study was conducted in China’s Green Schools. Green School is an international long-term programme with the aim of increasing students’ knowledge of environmental issues, and transferring this knowledge into positive actions to affect the wider community. The data were obtained through semi-structured pre- and post-interviews with 15–16-year-old students in three groups (12 students) from Green Schools in the Beijing area. The results show that students’ discussions focused exclusively on economic growth and social welfare. Students seem to believe that environmental problems are inevitable, nature is a ‘box’ of resources, and economic development is necessary in order to sustain and even improve nature. Therefore, there is no dilemma between economic development and environmental protection. The paper ends with a discussion on research and implications for teaching climate change.     

Pedagogy and Diversity: Enrichment and Support for Social Work Instructors Engaged in Social Justice Education

The primary purpose of faculty development is to create and sustain a culture of teaching excellence. For social work faculty, an important part of teaching excellence involves incorporating core social work values such as social justice and diversity across the curriculum and developing pedagogical skills and strategies to teach these issues effectively. In this article, we present a model of a faculty development seminar that offers a facilitated space for instructors to discuss how issues of diversity, social identity, and oppression influence their teaching, the classroom environment, student interactions, and the overall campus climate.     

Theory-based assessment in environmental education: a tool for formative evaluation

This article reports on the development of a theory-informed assessment instrument for use in evaluating environmental education programs. The instrument involves coding learners’ brief reflective writing on five established educational and social psychological constructs that correspond to five important goals of environmental education: promoting learners’ perceived relevance of environmental content, sense of personal and collective responsibility for sustainability, knowledge of environmental content, readiness for environmental action, and identity exploration around environmental questions. The article describes the development of the instrument and its use for coding the reflective writing of 242 early adolescents who participated in a large-scale environmental education program.     

Urban High School Students’ Critical Science Agency: Conceptual Understandings and Environmental Actions Around Climate Change

This study investigates how the enactment of a climate change curriculum supports students’ development of critical science agency, which includes students developing deep understandings of science concepts and the ability to take action at the individual and community levels. We examined the impact of a four to six week urban ecology curriculum on students from three different urban high schools in the USA. Data collection included pre and posttest written assessments from all students (n = 75) and pre and post interviews from focal students (n = 22) to examine how students’ conceptual understandings, beliefs and environmental actions changed. Our analyses showed that at the beginning of the curriculum, the majority of students believed that climate change was occurring; yet, they had limited conceptual understandings about climate change and were engaged in limited environmental actions. By the end of the curriculum, students had a significant increase in their understanding of climate change and the majority of students reported they were now engaged in actions to limit their personal impact on climate change. These findings suggest that believing a scientific theory (e.g. climate change) is not sufficient for critical science agency; rather, conceptual understandings and understandings of personal actions impact students’ choices. We recommend that future climate change curriculum focus on supporting students’ development of critical science agency by addressing common student misconceptions and by focusing on how students’ actions can have significant impacts on the environment.     

Narratives, choices, alienation, and identity: learning from an elementary science teacher

As we contemplate on teacher identity research, there is a need to place a teacher’s narratives or story-lines at the center of that work. In this forum, in response to the insightful commentary from Stephen Ritchie and Maria Iñez Mafra Goulart and Eduardo Soares, I place a greater emphasis on understanding Daisy’s narratives from an existing social identity framework. Narratives tell us intricate and complex actions that a teacher has taken both personally and professionally. Additionally, narratives help us see implicit nature of identity explicitly. Therefore, a greater focus has to be placed on interactions and utterances of a teacher to make sense of who they are and what they do as expressed by their own words (identity and action). Finally, I join with Ritchie and Goulart and Soares to advocate that identity research needs to include participants as co-researchers and co-authors as identities are very personal and complex to be fully understood by the outsiders (researchers).     

Middle and high school students’ conceptions of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies

Both scientists and policy-makers emphasize the importance of education for influencing pro-environmental behavior and minimizing the effects of climate change on biological and physical systems. Education has the potential to impact students’ system knowledge – their understanding of the variables that affect the climate system – and action knowledge – their understanding of behaviors that can impact the system. Research on climate change education has largely focused on system and action knowledge that address mitigation while overlooking equally necessary adaptive responses. This study used a pre/post-test format to identify aspects of middle and high school students’ climate system knowledge and action knowledge of both mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. Results indicate that adolescents currently conflate climate change mitigation strategies with unrelated environmental problems far less than in previous surveys. However, students demonstrated limited understanding of adaptive responses to climate change. After engaging in an instructional unit on climate change, students expressed stronger system and action knowledge, but significant misconceptions remained that conflated mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.     

Environmental learning in online social networks: adopting environmentally responsible behaviors

Online social networks are increasingly important information and communication tools for young people and for the environmental movement. Networks may provide the motivation for young adults to increase environmental behaviors by increasing their knowledge of environmental issues and of the specific actions they can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study examined an application within Facebook.com – the largest online social network in the world – that allowed users to post climate change news stories from other websites and comment on those stories. A survey revealed that users of the social networking application reported above average knowledge of climate change science and that self‐reported environmental behaviors increased during young people's involvement with the Facebook application. Focus groups indicated that peer role modeling through interaction on the site motivated pro‐environmental behaviors, that is, behavior that seeks to minimize the negative impact of one's actions on the natural and built world. Participation in a community of like‐minded users spurred many participants to learn more about climate change and do more to limit its impact.     

Qualitatively recognizing the dimensions of student environmental identity development within the classroom context

This study qualitatively explored the process of student environmental identity development (sEID) within the highly social and structured context of elementary school science. Social practice theory was used as the lens to distinguish the dimensions of sEID that were visible during a curriculum-based, in-school program focused on the issue of pollution. Student narratives, collected from small group interviews and reflective journals, were prioritized to capture the process of students in context identifying as “being for the environment.” Data collected from 35 grade six students were qualitatively coded, a network diagram was used to visualize the relationships in the data, and a research vignette was constructed. Eight dimensions were recognized as contributing to sEID; the opportunity to be an environmental actor with peers, increased awareness of environmental threat, emotional responses, self-recognition for environmental action, perceived agency, changed behavior across social contexts, social recognition for identity actions, and personal meaning. While many of these dimensions have been directly or indirectly discussed in the research on adult environmentalists, shifting the emphasis from group membership to the individual student in context led to the addition of two dimensions—personal meaning and emotional responses. Recognizing the eight dimensions of sEID is an important contribution to the literature as students engaging in environmental action as a requirement of school is distinct from the existing research. Identifying the dimensions of sEID can support the intentional design of learning sequences that foster environmental identities in school and beyond.     

Environmental education in transition: A critical review of recent research on climate change and energy education

Abstract

The transition from centralized energy systems based on fossil fuels to renewable-based systems is a macro-level societal shift necessitated by climate change. This review of recent environmental education (EE) research identifies gaps and opportunities for promoting environmental action in this new context. We found that environmental educators and researchers are currently focused on researching and promoting energy conservation behavior with an emphasis on children and youth. We also found an emerging research focus on energy transitions at the regional and national levels. We recommend that environmental educators and researchers adopt a vision and strategy for climate change and energy education that more explicitly addresses the role of collective action, multiactor networks, and sociotechnical innovation in shaping energy transition processes.     

Environmental education and the health professions: framing climate change as a health issue

The likelihood of adverse health impacts from climate change is high. Actions to reduce emissions, however, not only mitigate climate change but often have more immediate health co-benefits. One substantial co-benefit is gained through reductions of the high health costs of pollution from fossil fuel power stations, particularly coal. Evidence indicates that the combustion of coal for electricity is responsible for over 200,000 deaths globally per year. Reducing such deaths is a health co-benefit of greenhouse mitigation actions that promote renewable energy or energy efficiency. Together, health co-benefits of mitigation and the health risks of climate change strengthen the calls from climate action networks for cleaner energy production and for other initiatives to reduce greenhouse emissions. The purpose of this scholarly review is to highlight the value of reframing climate change as a health issue to environmental movements and to environmental education and environmental education research. The purpose is also to highlight the potential for further collaboration between formal and informal environmental educators/researchers and the health professions. Health professionals and health educators would bring new voices for climate action to public and policy discourse as well as facilitate mitigation in their organisations and communities.     

Interpersonal Social Work Skills for Community Practice,by Donna Hardina

The social work profession has struggled with an uncertain identity since its beginning. The split between clinical practitioners and those who engage primarily in social action and social policy analysis is particularly diversive. The author proposes that "Community Education" could be an integrative framework for the profession. Direct practice could shift from an obsolescent allegiance to a therapeutic model, to a less stigmatizing educational model which could include psychodynamic practice. Those professionals concerned with macro-issues can be conceptualized as educating the community regarding their clients' needs. Such a change of identity would have implications for professional training.     

Promoting pro-environmental behaviour in a community in Singapore – from raising awareness to behavioural change

Abstract

Despite heightened awareness about climate change, individuals remain rather indifferent to the issue. The reasons being that many public education programmes rely essentially on information dissemination and do not help individuals understand the given information. The authors believe that there is potential of environmental education for understanding and promoting pro-environmental behaviour. The proposed transformative education for climate change (TrEC) programme focuses on three elements (knowledge, skills and values) to help individuals understand environmental issues and to empower them to take pro-environmental action. This mixed method study was conducted in collaboration with various government agencies and 173 residents in a housing estate in Singapore. The findings suggest that with better understanding (knowledge) about the climate change issue, individuals can make informed decisions (attitude) and be encouraged to adopt pro-environmental behaviour (action).     

Tapping Into the Power of School Climate to Prevent Bullying: One Application of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports

Preventing bullying requires a comprehensive approach that includes a focus on school climate. We review the climate features shown to reduce bullying, then illustrate how School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) applies these principles in practice. SWPBIS, grounded in multiple theories—behaviorism, social learning theory, prevention science, and systems change—is designed to build a positive school climate by defining and consistently reinforcing positive behavioral norms. SWPBIS focuses on teaching and acknowledging positive behavior and addressing environmental conditions that exacerbate problem behavior. This positive approach changes behavior without the negative interactions associated with punitive discipline while establishing school climates that promote protective factors and mitigate risk factors. Schools implementing SWPBIS have reported less bullying and student victimization, fewer problem behaviors, and increased feelings of safety.