Positive Youth Development

Abstract

This chapter examines the relationship between urban environmental education and positive youth development. It first defines positive youth development and applies it to environmental education before discussing three programs from Australia and the United States that illustrate different pedagogies for integrating positive youth development in environmental education aimed at fostering urban sustainability. The first program involves young people in participatory action research through a child-framed approach, the second develops young people's leadership capacities as peer educators, and the third facilitates youth civic engagement through local environmental action. The chapter shows that participatory action research, peer education, and youth civic engagement can lead to positive change for both urban environments and youths living within them.