Adolescents' representations of climate change: Considering implications for climate change secondary education in the UK

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Climate change is the defining issue of the age and the need for far-reaching action is unequivocal. Climate change isan intergenerational injustice because it will have a disproportionate impact on the young and unborn (Hansen et al.,2013), yet they have minimal ability to effect change. Several studies have examined the rise of eco-anxiety,particularly amongst young people (Hickman et al., 2021). However, whilst climate change is undeniably serious andalarming, focusing on anxiety may reduce agency or induce paralysis rather than engagement (Ojala, 2012). It istherefore vital to support and empower young people to foster adaptive responses to climate change.A common and understandable response to risks such as climate change is to withdraw from the threat. My doctoralresearch used qualitative methods to foreground participant voices and Social Representation Theory (SRT)(Moscovici, 1961) as a theoretical framework. SRT is concerned with how people make sense of abstract and complexissues. The value of the approach is that it privileges everyday meaning; it is not concerned with whetherunderstandings of an issue are aligned with objective reality, but rather, with the ways it is depicted and discussed ineveryday discourse. Social representations have implications for action because they may be constructed to situatethreats and responsibility for managing them with others rather than with the self (Joffe, 1999). My doctoral researchshows that adolescents share representations of climate change that facilitate their withdrawal from climate changeengagement. They present climate change as a problem caused by others, by blaming industrialisation in China orcorporate greed in America. They depict climate change as more of a problem for distant peoples and places andproject more serious impacts into the future. They place responsibility for resolving climate change with governments,science and scientists, and older generations. This leads to a minimisation of the relevance and importance of theirown actions, individual or collective. The thesis concludes that climate change education could help adolescents feelmore empowered and agentic, by making climate change more personally salient and fostering the development ofcritical thinking skills. It suggests incorporating climate change across the whole curriculum rather than focusing onlyon the scientific aspects of it in Geography and Science and introducing the topic to pupils earlier than is currently thecase.The fellowship will provide the opportunity to explore the implications of my doctoral research for climate changeeducation in the UK. Educational governance is devolved in the UK. A new curriculum is being implemented inWales and a draft strategy for climate education in England is under review, making this fellowship very timely. I willdisseminate my doctoral research, review climate change education in four devolved nations of the UK and produce apolicy brief and journal article. I will establish effective networks and organise an academic symposium andstakeholder seminar, all supported by integrated communications campaigns. These activities will inform a future research proposal that will help me to build an established academic career. Being situated in both the Department ofPsychology and the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Bath will enable me to maximise opportunities toeffectively connect with policy makers and non-profits, while the mentorship of Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh - aworld-leading scholar - will provide expert guidance, and introductions to academics and policymakers in herexpansive network.