Exploring the role of children and young people as agents of change in sustainable community development

Abstract

In 2007, the Department for Children Schools and Families in the UK outlined the Sustainable Schools Strategy setting out an agenda for schools and environmental education. While many schools made advances in their provision of learning for sustainability, questions remained about the impact school-based Education for Sustainable Development could have in making communities more sustainable. A central question concerns the roles envisaged for children and youth and what forms of (transformative) learning are needed for children to become active agents in sustainable community development. Based on learning from an ESRC action research project exploring the role of schools in developing sustainable communities and drawing on international experience, this article presents a framework for discussing the roles children and young people might take as agents of change in sustainable community development. The article concludes by discussing the implications for cultures of learning in schools.

Keywords:

• children and young people
• participation
• agents of change
• sustainable development
• education
• learning

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge funding for the research that this paper is based on from the ESRC and the Housing and Communities Academy as part of the Skills and Knowledge for sustainable communities research programme RES-182-25-0038. The author would especially like to thank the schools, young people and agency partners involved with this research. Thanks also to the special issue editors for their helpful comments.

Notes

See also Sterling (2001, pp. 84–85), Corcoran and Osano (2009) and Bentley (1998) for further discussion of these ideas.