Investigating education and youth environmental activism

Supervisor: Dr Lynda Dunlop

A) Rationale for the project

In recent years, young people have been at the forefront of climate activism, with demands for climate and intergenerational justice made by movements such as the School Strikes 4 Climate movement. This activism has included social media campaigning, legal injunctions and peaceful protest to draw attention to the climate emergency, its origins in extraction and consumption of fossil fuels, and the local - and differential, depending on who you are and where you live - impacts of climate change. However, the extent to which education builds capacity for, or is supportive of, environmental activism is questionable.

The project will investigate systems, policies and practices linking activism and education and develop our understanding of young people’s educational experiences in support of environmental activism.

B) References that should be read (if you do not have access to these, please email lynda.dunlop@york.ac.uk)

Banaji, S. (2008). The trouble with civic: a snapshot of young people's civic and political engagements in twenty-first-century democracies, Journal of Youth Studies,11(5), 543-560, https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260802283008

Dunlop, L., Atkinson, L., Stubbs, J. E., & Diepen, M. T. V. (2020). The role of schools and teachers in nurturing and responding to climate crisis activism. Children's Geographies, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2020.1828827

Dunlop, L., Atkinson, L., & Turkenburg-van Diepen, M. (2021). “It’s our future.” Youth and fracking justice in England. Local Environment, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2020.1867837

Farthing, R. (2010) The politics of youthful antipolitics: representing the ‘issue’ of youth participation in politics, Journal of Youth Studies, 13(2), 181-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676260903233696

Kwon, S. (2019). The politics of global youth participation. Journal of Youth Studies,22(7), 926-940. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2018.1559282

O'Brien, K., Selboe, E., & Hayward, B. (2018). Exploring youth activism on climate change: Dutiful, disruptive, and dangerous dissent. Ecology and Society, 23(3). doi:10.2307/26799169

Pilkington, H., & Pollock, G. (2015). ‘Politics are bollocks’: Youth, politics and activism in
contemporary Europe. The Sociological Review, 63, 1-35. https://doi.org/10.1111%2F1467-954X.12260

Renström, E.A. Julia Aspernäs & Hanna Bäck (2020) The young protester: the impact of belongingness needs on political engagement, Journal of Youth Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2020.1768229.

Reis, P. (2020). Environmental citizenship and youth activism. In Conceptualizing environmental citizenship for 21st century education (pp. 139-148). Springer, Cham. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/39551/2020_Book_ConceptualizingEnvironmentalCi.pdf?sequence=1#page=146

Soler-i-Martí, R. (2015). Youth political involvement update: measuring the role of cause-oriented political interest in young people's activism, Journal of Youth Studies,18(3), 396-416, https://10.1080/13676261.2014.963538

UN (United Nations) (1989). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/

Weinberg, J., & Flinders, M. (2018). Learning for democracy: The politics and practice of citizenship education. British Educational Research Journal, 44(4), 573-592. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3446

Zummo, L., Gargroetzi, E., & Garcia, A. (2020). Youth voice on climate change: Using factor analysis to understand the intersection of science, politics, and emotion. Environmental Education Research, 26(8), 1207-1226. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1771288

C) Research aims / questions

The aim of this project is to explore the role of education in enabling youth environmental activism and will involve working with young people, educators and activists. Candidates are free to determine their own research questions relevant to their context of interest.

D) Methods

The methods you use will be determined by your research questions, reading and supervision. Your approach will probably be qualitative, and the methods you use might include interviews, focus groups, deliberative dialogue and document analysis.