Schools as levers of change in urban transformation: Practical strategies to promote the sustainability of climate action educational programs

Abstract

Schools and their environment have the potential to be an enabler for urban transformation. These spaces constitute delimited social and physical contexts where different stakeholders and levers of change interact to face local and global challenges such as climate change. In this way, climate action educational programs (CAEPs) are presented as a tool for multi-stakeholder work, which enables the promotion of collective efficacy to catalyze transformations and behavioral changes. Through the case study of Ecology at your Doorstep project (EayD), this research seeks to analyze practical strategies to counteract the challenges of the sustainability of CAEPs. This analysis is based on the Quintuple Helix Innovation Model (QHIM), the principles of collective efficacy for behavioral change, and the social innovation process. The methodology includes interviews with key stakeholders representing the five helices, as well as surveys to students and teachers involved. The main contributions are: a new analytical framework to identify critical points with the potential to be replicated in other CAEPs and social innovation initiatives; the extension of the principles of collective efficacy to the whole social innovation process and the ecosystem of actors; and practical considerations when scaling CAEPs in urban contexts.