In this contribution I discuss how the findings of Sund and Öhman’s (2014) study resonate with the work of the AHRC Pathways to Understanding the Changing Climate project. In the Pathways Project we carried out an interdisciplinary, cross cultural ethnographic research study of children’s perceptions and articulations of place and whether change featured in that (Irvine et al. forthcoming; Lee et al. 2016. Our study adopted a transactional approach to research design as it is described and employed by the SMED group in that our data was gathered in the moment of the communicative acts. Also, we were consistently responsive to the context in which we were working; adapting and refining the research design in accordance with the needs and affordance of the specific situation. Furthermore, the data that we gathered in one aspect of the study involved setting up virtual interchanges between children in vulnerable parts of the UK and elsewhere in the world including Mongolia, Alaska and Mexico. These interchanges represent ethical situations in Dewey’s sense of the concept because participants do not have recourse to the habits they would normally use when meeting new people. Thus these situations and the reflections on them in interview necessitate children to morally reason how to respond and thus they disrupt their usual ethical tendencies and create situations in which both continuity and change as outlined by Öhman and Östman (2007) come into play. In this contribution I reflect on the way in which these situations played out and the significance of this for how humans adapt to and mitigate for changing climates as they happen (Dewey, 2011).

Dewey, J. (2011). Democracy and Education. Milton Keynes, UK. Simon and Brown. Irvine, R & E Lee (under review). Over and under: children navigating terrain in the East Anglian fenlands (for inclusion in safe spaces themed special issue of Children’s Geographies). Lee, E., R. Irvine, B. Bodenhorn, A. Dorj (2016). Changing climates, different cultures: school curricula and children’s perceptions, Environmental Education, 112 (Summer), 23–25. Öhman, J., & Östman, L. (2007). Continuity and change in moral meaning-making: A transactional approach. Journal of Moral Education, 36, 151–168. Sund, L. & Johan Öhman (2014): Swedish teachers’ ethical reflections on a study visit to Central America, Journal of Moral Education, 43(3), 316–331.