Priorities, identity and the environment: Negotiating the early teenage years

Abstract

This study focuses on the negotiation of environmental identity by ten New Zealand students as they progressed from late primary school to junior secondary school. Interviews with these students and their parents focussed on six theoretical perspective prominent in environmental education: significant life experiences, transformative learning, environmental literacy, values, action competence and environmental identity. Thirteen major themes emerged, which are discussed in terms of two overarching findings. Firstly, the deep-seated, composite and pivotal resonances between home and school influences in effective environmental education for sustainability (EEfS) learning are described, and suggestions are made for how this can be better taken into account. Secondly, a focus on the complex negotiation of the early teenage years suggests how promoting EEfS might occur more productively in secondary schools.

‘You really see it’: environmental identity shifts through interacting with a climate change-impacted glacier landscape

“…Some participants also reported that in the year after the program, they had undertaken such activities as working at a wildlife preserve and organising an environmental club at school. This willingness to engage not only in private, personal actions but also in public actions that involve other people differs from a study on younger 13-15 year-old youth identified by their teachers as 'environmental enthusiasts,' in which the authors found that navigating the complexities of early teenage years drew the study participants more to small-scale personal actions with no social risk (Eames et al, 2018). Our finding that Girls on Ice participants had the confidence to endeavour towards social action helps confirm the hypothesis in Eames et al (2018) that promoting environmental education in secondary school rather than middle school may be more productive for encouraging larger-scale, more organised pro-environmental action.…”

How many young generations are there? – A typology of teenagers’ climate change awareness in Germany and Austria

“…It could prove effective to frame the relevance of climate change in ways so as to connect it to other issues in their daily lives. Another approach addressing this group might be to reach them through peer education, as social influence from peers has been identified as especially effective in environmental engagement (Eames, Barker, & Scarff, 2018;Ojala, 2012;Vreede, de Warner, & Pitter, 2013). Furthermore, it might be a good idea to address them in more unusual formats such as music, drama, or video games (Ojala & Lakew, 2017).…”

Childhood nature connection and constructive hope: A review of research on connecting with nature and coping with environmental loss

“…In a review of adolescents' environmental preferences drawn from urban, suburban and rural samples in the United States, Australia, Europe and Latin America, Kaplan and Kaplan (2002) suggested that the teen years may be a ‘time out’ from nature: not because teens do not appreciate nature, but because they are more strongly drawn to developed commercial and recreational attractions. Eames, Barker, and Scarff (2018) interviewed 13‐ to 15‐year‐olds in New Zealand who were leaders in Enviroschool projects when they were 9 and 10. Most of these young teens still held progressive environmental and social values, but they had new social identities to maintain.…”