Sociocultural anchors for incorporating sustainability in youth movements: Comparison among secular, religious, and ultraorthodox movements

Abstract

In Israel, youth movements (YMs) comprise a main agent for nonformal education of youth and a youth-engagement framework in which civic engagement can be expanded to address environmental challenges. A major source of sociocultural diversity among YMs is their religious identity, based on the categorizations of secular, religious, and ultraorthodox. We compared, among these groups, the environmental literacy (EL) characteristics of “young-guides” and YM-leaders’ perspectives of sustainability in relation to their YM. Differences among groups were found in the young-guides’ EL: members of secular YMs demonstrated greater EL and openness to including pro-environmental activities within their YM. “Judaism as a platform for addressing sustainability” emerged as a major theme from leaders’ interviews. Implications for meaningful incorporation of sustainability and EE within the groups are discussed.

Keywords:

• Environmental citizenship
• environmental literacy
• multicultural environmental education
• nonformal environmental education
• youth groups

Notes

1 For a review of the theoretical framework for environmental literacy, the readers are referred to Goldman et al., 2017.

2 Halacha—The Jewish Law; the collective body of Jewish religious precepts (based on the biblical commandments and later writings) which direct the religious observance and daily life and conduct of Jews.

3 Mitzva—In Judaism, a worthy deed.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Ministry of Environmental Protection [Grant number 8-202]. The authors extend their gratitude to the Research Authority of Beit Berl College for its assistance in conducting this study.