Highlighted Session: Climate Change, Society, and Youth Activism

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Paper Session

Proposal

Climate change is the greatest threat of our time (AAAS, 2009; IPCC, 2014). Not only does climate change endanger the environment and human lives, it also amplifies social, economic, and racial inequality between and within communities across generations (Chancel & Piketty, 2015; Hamman et al., 2018). Children born this decade will face the brunt of climate change when they graduate high school (IPCC, 2018). For these high school graduates, our planet will be “warmer, wetter, and more unstable than the one we inhabit today” (Klinenberg, Araos, & Hoslov, 2020: 650).

The past five years have witnessed the emergence of a global youth climate justice movement that is challenging both governments and societies to act urgently to mitigate climate change and reduce its potential impacts on the environment, society, and economy. This global movement, which was inspired by Greta Thunberg from Sweden, is coordinated through organizations such as Fridays for Future (FFF) that has successfully mobilized millions of students in the US and around the world. Coupled with this activism is growing climate concern and anxiety among youth (Hickman et. al., 2021; Kessler, 2022; Pizmony-Levy & Kessler, 2021, 2022). Moreover, children feel let down by government leaderships and adults who are unwilling to act in ways that might save our planet. What factors explain the emergence of the global youth climate justice movement? What is the role of the education sector in this movement? This panel engage these and other questions.

The panel includes four papers that together offer a comprehensive perspective on youth activism in times of climate crisis. The panel opens with two papers that interrogate the motivations for climate activism and the role of schools in shaping these motivations. Both papers draw on interviews with youth climate activists. The first paper, by Erika Kessler, compare youth activism in New York City, US and Stockholm, Sweden. The second paper, by Aya Natan and Dafna Gan, examines the case of youth activism in Israel. The third paper, by Darren Rabinowitz, analyzes the link between youth activism (including, but not limited to, climate change) and contextual factors – norms expressed in constitutions and foundational documents. This paper takes a cross-national approach using data from the 2016 International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS). The fourth paper, by Christine Torres and colleagues, explores the experiences of graduate students and high school students in a climate justice oriented partnership. Taken together, the papers make a contribution to the CIES 2023 conference by focusing on youth as an engine or catalyst of educational change and improvement.

Sub Unit

• Environmental and Sustainability Education SIG

Chair

• Oren Pizmony-Levy, Teachers College, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Youth Climate Activism in New York City and Stockholm - Erika L Kessler, Teachers College, Columbia University

• National constitutions and youth activism: Secondary Analysis of ICCS 2016 - Darren Rabinowitz, Teachers College

• Youth at the Center: From project-based learning to partnership-based learning - Christina Ann Torres, Columbia University Teachers College

• Israeli Youth Protesting Climate Change – What Motivates Them? - Dafna Gan, Kibbutzim College of education technology and the arts