To be able to combat climate change all societal actors need to get involved. In order to reach young people, ESD in schools is vital. Since studies show that many young people are worried and pessimistic about the global future, not least when it comes to environmental problems (Connell et al., 1999; Persson et al., 2011; Strife, 2012; Threadgold, 2012; Tucci et al., 2007), one could argue that focusing on hope about the global future should be a vital part of ESD. Thus, this study takes its starting point in the action competence approach to ESD which claims that educational efforts should aim at developing competences that are important for becoming an active democratic citizen in a global society riddled with complexity, uncertainty, and conflicting interests (Jensen & Schnack, 1997; Mogensen & Schnack, 2010). One important part is to help students to envision alternative futures and educate about “the language of possibility” (Mogensen & Schnack, 2010, p. 71).  In this regard, there is a close relation between action competence and hope.

Researchers, however, disagree on if hope concerning climate change is related to environmental engagement, or if it is rather associated with unrealistic optimism and inactivity (see Gifford, 2011, Hicks, 2014; Lueck, 2007).Taking into account these mixed views about hope in relation to climate change Ojala (2012a) argued that it is important to consider the different sources that hope could be based on, since they are probably more or less constructive seen from the perspective of environmental engagement. Two different hope dimensions were identified: “constructive hope,” which was positively related to pro-environmental engagement, and “hope based on denial of the seriousness of climate change,” which instead was negatively related to engagement (Ojala, 2012a, 2012b). How education about these issues is related to hope was, however, not taken into account in this study.

Why could education have an impact on hope? In order to understand this one can turn to theoretical accounts that perceive hope as a way to cope with difficulties and that see coping as a social processes (Folkman, 2009). Most studies on how young people’s coping is influenced by other persons have focused on parents (Eisenberg et al., 1998). However, some studies on younger children show that teachers also can influence children’s coping (Cekaite, 2013; Fried, 2011). Teachers create emotion norms in the classroom, for example by indicating which way is the right way to regulate emotions, which emotions are proper to express, and whose emotions are worth taking seriously and whose are not. Taking these studies into account, one can imagine that teachers perhaps also influence their students’ emotion regulation concerning climate change, including ways of evoking hope, by how they react to emotional displays by their students and by how they talk and act concerning these issues (modeling).

The first aim of this study is to investigate if it is possible to replicate the results from the study in which hope concerning climate change fell into two sub-scales: “constructive hope” and “hope based on denial” (Ojala, 2012a).

The second aim is to explore if these two hope dimensions have any significant relations to how young people perceive that ESD is conducted in their school. Three aspects will be in focus: (1) teacher-induced emotion norms: both perceived reactions to negative emotions and a positive or negative focus when discussing societal issues (modeling); (2) the future dimension in school; and (3) discussing pathways to sustainable development.

The third aim is to investigate if the results concerning hope and environmental engagement identified in the study by Ojala (2012a) can be replicated and extended to political engagement.

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