Introduction

Young people are taking increasingly public and overtly political action in response to environmental concerns. There is a need for schools to support young people in navigating current environmental challenges, however, the capacity for schools to do this is inconsistent and often inadequate. Research is needed to understand how we can better support schools and young people in confidently responding to contemporary and evolving environmental issues. This presentation explores how environmental citizen science can contribute to lived eco-citizenship in young people while they are in formal schooling. A major finding is that environmental citizen science experiences offer opportunities to connect pupils with scientific research practices in a way that offers authentic citizenship opportunities not ordinarily available in schools. The research took a qualitative, in-depth, multi-method, case study approach, exploring the experiences of school-based participants (n=74, pupils, teachers and scientists) across three different school-based citizen science projects, and a small number of pupils who had no citizen science experience in schools as comparison.

Theoretical Framing

The capability approach (Nussbaum, 2011, Sen, 1993, Robeyns, 2017) offers an alternative to considering ‘environmental action’ as a key end goal. Instead, taking a processual approach to the identification of a suite of eco-citizenship ‘capabilities’ that can be brought into being as ‘functionings’ should the pupils involved feel compelled to do so. Robeyns (2017) describes three ‘conversion factors’, or “the factors which determine the degree to which a person can transform a resource into a functioning” (ibid. P.45), ‘personal’ or internal to the person, ‘social’ or stemming from the society, and ‘environmental’, the physical or built environment. In this analysis, the ways in which the citizen science experience can be considered to provide the different types of ‘conversion factor’ will be identified and the opportunities and constraints of these explored.

Hayward (2012) suggests that young people have different experiences of environmental citizenship than adults. Emphasising the everyday experiences that young people may have, at home, in school or with their friends, rather than ‘adult’ experiences like voting or environmentally conscious consumerism, offers a way of realistically understanding eco-citizenship in young people. Kallio, Wood and Hakli (2020) describe lived citizenship in a way that explores the reality of citizenship in everyday situations rather than relying on the formal, legal status of citizenship. This analysis draws upon that conception, placing the embodied experiences and acts of eco-citizenship in the daily life of young people at its core. The concept of lived citizenship (Kallio, Wood and Hakli (2020) offers an approach to considering the citizenship related experiences of young people as part of the mundane, everyday experience of formal schooling. Situating the citizen science experience within this conception also acknowledges the non-voluntary nature of the young people’s participation in the experience.

Findings

Across the responses from participants in citizen science projects (and non) in this research, for these pupils who all participate in environmental or scientific subjects through their formal school experience, the nature of the citizen science experience did not inspire a radical change for them. Environmental, social and personal conversion factors were, however, recognised and reported in my observations of the pupils engaged in the citizen science activities, and in their reflections and responses. These include, physical and sensory encounters, working with others, and caring for the environment. While the short-term, single encounter with citizen science, as experienced here, could not be shown to move the pupils towards more public actions such as campaigning and protest, the nurturing of eco-citizenship capabilities can begin with relational, sensory and affective experiences. Environmental citizen science affords young people opportunities that offer a springboard towards authentic eco-citizenship actions and dispositions.

Pupil participants in different citizen science projects over the duration of this research, and two additional classes of pupils who had not participated in any citizen science in school (n=74), were asked to respond to five statements selected from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Evaluation Research, ‘Self-Efficacy for environmental action’ evaluation tool. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Evaluation Research survey instruments were selected as they were designed specifically for use with citizen science experiences rather than environmental education more broadly. Selection of the self-efficacy survey related to its explicit definition as “a person’s beliefs about his/her capabilities” (Phillips et al, 2018), which builds a picture of the confidence that the young people in this study may have to actually enact eco-citizenship capabilities. Furthermore, self-efficacy is seen (by Berkowitz et al, 2005) as an essential component of environmental citizenship, the authors define self-efficacy as “having the capacity to learn and act with respect to personal values and interests in the environment” (ibid. p. 230). The surveys were completed after the citizen science fieldwork day, typically around 2/3 weeks, and in the case of the non-citizen science participants, as part of Advanced Higher Biology/Geography classes (it is expected that these pupils would have some environmental awareness as part of their course of study). It is acknowledged that there are many factors that contribute to the self-efficacy of young people throughout their school experience, as such it is not assumed that any differences in the self-efficacy responses are solely related to the citizen science experience, or lack thereof. The responses were collated in Microsoft Excel, and changed into a percentage to mitigate for the differing participants numbers in each category (MICCI = 19, OPAL = 21, SFL = 9, NONE = 25). The self-efficacy tool (Phillips et al, 2018) was used to generate an overall ‘score’ for each individual or group involved, however for this research it is also useful to look at the responses to each statement in relation to the development of eco-citizenship capabilities. In addition to the survey responses, situational maps (Clarke et al, 2018) generated by participant observation, fieldnotes and pupil focus groups of the citizen science partipants were considered in relation to the four dimensions of lived citizenship (Kallio, Wood and Hakli, 2020). These maps enabled the experiential responses of pupils during and after the citizen science experience to be analysed alongside their survey responses.

Across the four dimensions described in Kallio, Wood and Hakli’s (2020) conception of lived citizenship, the spatial, the intersubjective, the performed and the affective, findings will be presented in relation to the experiences of the young people involved: In the spatial dimension, the environmental conversion factors identified for pupils were: physical and sensory experiences, authentic practices in place, and opportunities to reflect and situate themselves as active response-makers to global and local environmental concerns. In the intersubjective dimension, the social conversion factors identified for pupils were: peer interaction and communication, and intergenerational relationships, providing a relational context for young people to explore environmental concerns. In the performed dimension, personal and social conversion factors were identified for pupils: • The personal conversion factors were: making a contribution, and personal environmental actions. The adults expressed greater value in relation to the ‘contribution’ component of the citizen science experience than the pupils. For pupils, participation in their respective projects resulted in an increased awareness of citizen science as a way to take positive action for the environment. • A social conversion factor of involvement in public actions, such as campaigning and protest, was also identified. My participants described a general reluctance to engage in overtly political acts, this suggests that their environmental citizen science experiences did not directly support this type of eco-citizenship action. In the affective dimension, the personal conversion factors identified for pupils were: actively caring for a place, and alleviating environmental concerns or anxieties through participation in collective action. These led to feelings of hope and empowerment in relation to environmental issues for the pupils involved. This research suggests that schools can provide a vital context for young people to encounter and engage with citizen science practices and that these experiences can lead to the development of important eco-citizenship capabilities.

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