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

气候变化是这个时代的决定性问题，采取深远行动的必要性是毋庸置疑的。气候变化是一种代际不公，因为它将对年轻人和未出生的人产生不成比例的影响(Hansen等人，2013年)，但他们影响变化的能力很低。几项研究调查了生态焦虑的上升，特别是在年轻人中(希克曼等人，2021年)。然而，尽管气候变化无可否认是严重和令人担忧的，但关注焦虑可能会减少机构或导致瘫痪，而不是参与(Ojala，2012)。因此，支持和增强年轻人对气候变化的适应性反应至关重要。应对气候变化等风险的常见和可以理解的反应是退出威胁。我的博士研究使用定性的方法来展望参与者的声音和社会表征理论(SRT)(Moscovici，1961)作为理论框架。SRT关注的是人们如何理解抽象和复杂的问题。这种方法的价值在于它赋予了日常意义；它不关心对一个问题的理解是否符合客观现实，而是关心它在日常话语中被描述和讨论的方式。社会表征具有行动的含义，因为它们可能被构建为与他人而不是与自我一起来设置管理他们的权利和责任的情境(Joffe，1999)。我的博士研究表明，青少年分享气候变化的表现，这有助于他们退出气候变化参与。他们将气候变化描述为别人造成的问题，归咎于中国的工业化或美国的企业贪婪。他们将气候变化描述为更多地给遥远的人和地方带来的问题，并预测未来会产生更严重的影响。他们把解决气候变化的责任交给政府、科学和科学家以及老一辈人。这导致他们个人或集体行动的相关性和重要性被最小化。这篇论文的结论是，气候变化教育可以通过使气候变化更加突出个人和培养批判性思维技能来帮助青少年感觉更有力量和更灵活。它建议将气候变化纳入整个课程，而不是只关注地理和科学方面的气候变化，并比目前更早地向学生介绍这一主题。该奖学金将提供机会，探索我的博士研究对英国气候变化教育的影响。教育治理在英国被下放。威尔士正在实施新的课程，英格兰的气候教育战略草案正在审查中，这使得这一奖学金非常及时。我将宣传我的博士研究，回顾英国四个权力下放国家的气候变化教育，并撰写简短的政治简报和期刊文章。我将建立有效的网络，组织学术研讨会和利益相关者研讨会，所有这些都得到综合传播活动的支持。这些活动将为我未来的研究计划提供参考，这将帮助我建立既定的学术生涯。身处巴斯大学心理学系和政策研究所，我将能够最大限度地利用机会与政策制定者和非营利组织有效联系，而世界领先学者洛林·惠特马什教授的指导将提供专家指导，并在她广阔的网络中向学者和政策制定者介绍。

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.