Synopsis
In the light of the environmental problems facing humankind, some policy makers bequeath schools with responsibility for empowering students to lead environmental initiatives in their schools and communities. However, in many instances, adults monopolise decision-making around the design of these environmental education programs (EEPs). Furthermore, there is a paucity of research on the potency of school-based EEPs in enabling students to lead projects that influence others, including adults, to live in a more environmentally responsible manner.
This qualitative case study addressed these gaps by providing a group of six Year Nine students from a co-educational secondary school in regional New South Wales with environmental leadership roles in a school-based EEP. The study focused on what took place when they co-designed and introduced a negotiated Protocol into their family homes. The Protocol was a contract containing environmental goals that the family members agreed to pursue over a three-month period. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews before the use of the protocol, immediately after its implementation, and three months later, with each of the students and a total of eighteen family members from across six families.
Data from the interviews and field notes were clustered thematically and compared across each family unit. Key findings demonstrate that the Protocol successfully supported the students to lead intergenerational environmental change in their homes. Further analysis through a critical theory lens revealed that the Protocol empowered all of the students to take up environmental leadership roles in their family homes. However, their efficacy in changing the environmental behaviour of their family members was tempered by: (a) their parents’ willingness to share decision-making power; and (b) their family members’ ability to overcome (i) hegemonic consumeristic habits and (ii) a sense of powerlessness in the face of global environmental problems.
Given the limited size and scope of the study, further research should examine the effectiveness of tools such as the Protocol in other settings. Particular attention needs to be given to assessing the generalisability of the findings about the influence of hegemonic educational, familial and societal forces on the efficacy of children as intergenerational environmental change agents.
Conferring University: University of Wollongong
Year of award: 2016
Further information: Author’s stable [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1611-9092
https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1392487
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