Abstract
Scientists and sustainability scholars continue to make urgent calls for rapid societal transformation to sustainability. Science education is a key venue for this transformation. In this manuscript, we argue that by positioning children as critical actors for sustainability in science education contexts, they may begin to reimagine what science means to them and to society. This multi-site, mixed-methods study examined how children’s climate change learning and action influenced their science engagement along cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions. For fifteen weeks, ten- to twelve-year-olds participated in an after-school program that combined on-site interactive educational activities (e.g., greenhouse gas tag) with off-site digital photography (i.e., photovoice process), and culminated in youth-led climate action in family and community settings. Participants were 55 children (M = 11.1 years), the majority from groups underrepresented in science (52.7% girls; 43.6% youth of color; 61.8% low-income). Combined survey and focus group analyses showed that, after the program, science became more relevant to children’s lives, and their attitudes towards science (i.e., in school, careers, and in society) improved significantly. Children explained that understanding the scientific and social dimensions of climate change expanded their views of science: Who does it, how, and why—that it is more than scientists inside laboratories. Perhaps most notably, the urgency of climate change solutions made science more interesting and important to children, and many reported greater confidence, participation, and achievement in school science. The vast majority of the children (88.5%) reported that the program helped them to like science more, and following the program, more than half (52.7%) aspired to a STEM career. Lastly, more than a third (37%) reported improved grades in school science, which many attributed to their program participation. Towards strengthening children’s science engagement, the importance of climate change learning and action—particularly place-based, participatory, and action-focused pedagogies—are discussed.
Highlights
Promoting children’s science engagement is often framed as a means to address the world’s most pressing problems over the decades to come [1]
Of the children who reported that SCA helped them to like science more, most said it was because: (1) SCA was fun and they learned science could be fun; (2) they learned new things in SCA; and (3) they gained a better understanding of the applicability of science to real-world problems
Several children reported that their participation in SCA had a positive impacDt uonrinthgeifrocauchsiegvroemupesn,tsienvsecrhaol oclhsilcdiernecne.reFpoorrstoedmeth, datoitnhgeibrepttaerrtiicnipsachtiooonl iwnaSsCaAttrihbaudtead ptoosthiteivire einmjopyamcteonnt othfeSiCr aAc.hTieevne-ymeeanr-toilndsLcehxoioslasicdie, n“Iceli.kFeodr.s.o.mleea,rdnoininggablletttheirs isntusffchaonodl wplaussaIt’tmribauhteeaddtointhmeyir celansjos”y.mOetnhteorsf aStCtrAib.uTteend-ytheeairr-oimldpLroevxei dsasicdh,o“oIlliskceiedn...ce pleearrfnoirnmgaanlclethtoisasntuefnfhaanndcepdluisnIte’mresathienasdciiennmcey, wclhaiscsh”.thOeythgearsineadttrtihbruotuegdhtShCeiAr .improved school science performance to an enhanced interest in science, which they gained through SCA
Summary
Promoting children’s science engagement is often framed as a means to address the world’s most pressing problems over the decades to come [1]. By shoring up children’s science interest and achievement today, young people may go on to become leaders and agents of change in addressing the major scientific and technological challenges of tomorrow [2,3]. Current global crises—including climate change and biodiversity loss—demand rapid societal transformation towards social and ecological sustainability beginning not in the abstract future when today’s children have reached adulthood [4]. Climate change is already wreaking havoc on a global scale in the form of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events and causing unprecedented environmental, societal, and economic disruption [5]. Reimagining the very purpose of science education—beyond honing the “potential” of young people to take decisive action in the future—has become a necessity
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