Young People’s Hopes And Fears For The Future Environment: A Study In Three Countries - Austria, Germany And New Zealand

Author(s):

Kathrin Otrel-CassUlrike UnterbrunerPaul Keown Chris Eames

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

15. Research Partnerships in Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

15 SES 08, Case Studies (part 3)

Paper Session. Continued from 15 SES 05 B

Time:

2009-09-30

08:30-10:00

Room:

JUR, HS 16

Chair:

Miranda Pilo

Contribution

Young people in today’s developed countries have to deal with issues like global and local environmental concerns, the impact of technology and heightened expectations of taking responsibility and action on these issues. Despite calls for the inclusion of students’ voices into educational practices and policies, this practice remains an exception, especially for the adolescent age group (Hicks & Holden 2007, Cook-Sather, 2002, Fien, 2000). Listening to young people’s views of the future opens opportunities in particular for educators concerned with environmental education (Unterbruner, 1991, 1999, Hicks & Holden, 2007, Rauch, 2002, Keown, 2000). It is critical that young people are educated for a sustainable future, and to be given the tools that will enable them to make informed decisions about the environment for that future. A key aspect of this education is students’ ability to envision a sustainable future (Jensen & Schnack, 1997), and to make explicit their values and attitudes towards the environment. This paper reports on a project that builds on studies conducted between 1989 and 1990 in Austria (Unterbruner, 1991), and in 1995 in Switzerland (Hirsch-Hadorn et al, 1996) that examined the hopes and fears of students for their future natural and social environments. The current study, conducted in Austria, Germany and New Zealand, looked at those hopes and fears for today’s students and examined differences across time and between the three countries.

Method

This project applied an interpretative methodology with instruments used in the earlier studies updated with current issues for students to consider. The methods involved guided fantasy stories combined with drawings, student discussions and a questionnaire (Unterbruner, 1991). In Europe, student discussions were held as a class, whereas in New Zealand students used cellphones to individually record their thoughts, as a way of connecting with teenage technology. This study employed a cross-cultural approach to assess and compare attitudes and reflections (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000). The combination of quantitative and qualitative data provided a level of validation (Yencken, 2000). The study was conducted in 2008 and involved 450 students between the ages of 13 to 17 years in Austria, 230 in Germany and 300 in New Zealand.

Expected Outcomes

The outcomes of the three studies showed that young people’s overall feeling about the future in all three countries was pessimistic (ca. 40%), followed by those who were optimistic (ca. 30%) and the ambivalent group (ca. 25%). Optimistic personal views were frequently associated with a green or intact natural environment, and pessimistic views with a damaged or destroyed environment. Differences in the outcomes in each country are being examined for possible alliances to cultural differences between the students of this study as well as a comparison with the earlier studies conducted in the 1990s. Implications for environmental education from this study suggest that these visions of the future, some of which are associated with strong emotions, should be acknowledged and integrated into classroom teaching and learning approaches and that opportunities for teacher and student interactions could provide a forum for mutual learning about what is important to future generations.

References

Cohen, L., Manion, L. & K. Morrison (2000). Research methods in education. Fifth Edition. London: Routledge. Cook-Sather, A. (2002). Authorizing Students’ Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change in Education. Educational Researcher, 31(4), 3-14. Hicks, D. & C. Holden (2007). Remembering the future: What do children think? Environmental Education Research, 13(4), 501 – 512. Hirsch Hadorn, G., Klaedtke, A., Arnold, J., Rigendinger, L. & K. Werner (1996). Die Welt in 20 Jahren - eine qualitativ-deskriptive Studie bei Jugendlichen in der Schweiz. Bildungsforschung und Bildungspraxis 18(3), 392-430. Fien, J. (2000). Synthesis: A cross-cultural reflection. In: Fien, J. Yencken, D. & Sykes, H. (Eds.). Young people and the environment: an Asia-pacific perspective. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 151-171. Jensen, B. B., & Schnack, K. (1997). The action competence approach in environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 3(2), 163-179. Keown, P. (2000). Aotearoa – New Zealand. In: Fien, J. Yencken, D. & Sykes, H. (Eds.). Young people and the environment: an Asia-pacific perspective. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, Rauch, F. (2002). The Potential of Education for Sustainable Development for Reform in Schools. Environmental Education Research,8(1), 43-51. Unterbruner, U. ( 1991). Umweltangst – Umwelterziehung: Vorschläge zur Bewältigung der Ängste Jugendlicher vor Umweltzerstörung. Linz: Veritas. Unterbruner, U. (1999). Umweltängste Jugendlicher und daraus resultierende Konsequen¬zen für die Umweltbildung. In: Kaufmann-Hayos, R., Künzli, C. (Ed.): "... man kann ja nicht einfach aussteigen." Kinder und Jugendliche zwischen Umweltangst und Konsumlust. vdf-Hochschulverlag an der ETH Zürich, 153-174. Yencken, D. (2000). Young people and the environment: a cross-cultural study. In: Fien, J. Yencken, D. & Sykes, H. (Eds.). Young people and the environment: an Asia-pacific perspective. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1-8.

Author Information

Kathrin Otrel-Cass

University of Waikato

Centre for Science &Technology Education Research (CSTER)

Hamilton

162

Ulrike Unterbruner

Department for Science Education and Teacher Training, Universität Salzburg, Austria

Paul Keown

University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

Chris Eames