Search Results (16)

As global environmental challenges intensify, there is an increasing need to equip younger generations with the knowledge, values, and sense of responsibility necessary for a sustainable future. This study explores how environmental citizenship education (ECE), implemented through a nature-based learning program within a Nature and Science School (NSS) in Türkiye, was experienced and interpreted by primary school pupils in relation to their development of understanding of sustainability and environmental citizenship. NSSs, integrated into the formal education system by the Turkish Ministry of National Education, offer inquiry-driven and experiential learning in natural settings. The study took place in Talat Göktepe Grove, a biodiverse site including forest and marine ecosystems, where a four-month ECE program was conducted. A holistic single-case study design was employed, drawing on pupil diaries and semi-structured interviews. A total of 88 pupils engaged in structured outdoor activities addressing biodiversity, sustainability, and the climate crisis. Initially, pupils described environmental citizenship through individual actions. Over time, their perspectives expanded to include civic participation, environmental rights, and collective responsibility. Their reflections also revealed a more nuanced understanding of sustainability, encompassing concepts such as ecosystem balance, renewable energy, and environmental justice. The study provides insight into how nature-based education may support meaning-making around environmental citizenship and sustainability in early education. Full article

Achieving climate neutrality and the provision of a route to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero or below requires a significant shift from a focus on top-down technological solutions to a more holistic, people-centred approach. The research presented here explores the role of ecological citizenship (EC) in this shift, and specifically how a socially innovative, co-designed approach to facilitating EC and the systemic changes needed for carbon neutrality could or should take place. The paper presents EC as an evolving practice that emphasises the responsibility of individuals and communities towards ecological sustainability and social equity. The study examines how various stakeholders, such as industry practitioners, third-sector organisations, and community members, communicate, understand, and implement EC practices, projects, and solutions, using a mixed-methods approach that includes roundtable talks and workshops. As such, the study emphasises the value of user-centred, co-designed proposals that enable individuals to actively participate in positive climate action. It also looks at the opportunities and challenges of incorporating EC into wider societal and legislative norms. At the municipal, regional, and national levels, we feel the results offer useful insights into how design processes, environmental programs, and participatory governance approaches may promote more sustainable, inclusive transitions and support achieving carbon neutrality. Full article

This study investigates the relationship between employees’ perceptions of organizational environmental policies (EPs) and two dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment (OCBEs), namely eco-civic engagement (ECE) and eco-initiatives (EIs). In addition, this study examines whether these relationships are sequentially mediated by the organizational and co-worker dimensions of the green work climate (GWC) scale. An online questionnaire was used to collect data from 323 employees working in three different plants of an Italian agri-food company. The results indicate that organizational GWC was related to co-worker GWC, and both dimensions sequentially mediated the relationship between EP and OCBE. Co-worker GWC emerged as a crucial factor that increased employees’ ECE and proposal of Eis. The findings highlight the relevant role of environmental policies in fostering a sustainable organizational climate. By enabling employees to engage in green behaviors and propose green initiatives, organizations can align organizational sustainability goals with employee-driven initiatives. Finally, this study provides new insights into the interplay between organizational and team climate factors and contributes to the literature on green work behaviors. Practical implications for enhancing sustainability in workplace contexts are presented. Full article

As the global environmental crisis intensifies, there has been a significant interest in behavior change games (BCGs), as a viable venue to empower players’ pro-environmentalism. This pro-environmental empowerment is well-aligned with the notion of environmental citizenship (EC), which aims at transforming citizens into “environmental agents of change”, seeking to achieve more sustainable lifestyles. Despite these arguments, studies in this area are thinly spread and fragmented across various research domains. This article is grounded on a systematic review of empirical articles on BCGs for EC covering a time span of fifteen years and published in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, in order to provide an understanding of the scope of empirical research in the field. In total, 44 articles were reviewed to shed light on their methodological underpinnings, the gaming elements and the persuasive strategies of the deployed BCGs, the EC actions facilitated by the BCGs, and the impact of BCGs on players’ EC competences. Our findings indicate that while BCGs seem to promote pro-environmental knowledge and attitudes, such an assertion is not fully warranted for pro-environmental behaviors. We reflect on our findings and provide future research directions to push forward the field of BCGs for EC. Full article

During the last decade, many cities worldwide have implemented various green policies; in this way, they have gradually transformed into “green cities”. The emergence of green cities may provide a promising venue to address cities’ environmental degradation and citizens’ disengagement with current socio-environmental issues, thus giving rise to the notion of Environmental Citizenship (EC). Despite these assumptions, empirical research on the topic is currently emerging. In this study, we examine citizens’ engagement in green cities and its interrelatedness with EC through a systematic literature review. The selected empirical studies (n = 25) were published in peer-reviewed journals during the timespan of the last 12 years (2010–2021). In total, 31 green cities were analyzed in the 25 selected empirical studies. Thematic and frequency analysis revealed that green cities encourage citizens’ engagement with the implemented green policies, while also advancing citizens’ EC. Furthermore, correlational analysis between citizens’ engagement and the Education for Environmental Citizenship (EEC) model revealed that citizens’ engagement with the implemented green policies fosters citizens’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and behaviors, fueling the undertaking of various EC actions. Importantly, green cities have also proved successful in achieving EC’s outcomes leading to sustainability. Full article

The human food system is complex; has significant social and environmental impact; and raises questions around identity and culture. This mix of individual, collective, public, private and environmental concerns, positions Environmental Citizenship central to food system transformation. We discuss three ‘FUSILLI’ food living labs—a food waste NGO; a venue for creative experimentation of alternative food practices; and a forest-based library. These living labs use participatory research through design to place citizens at the forefront of change processes. We analyse them using the model of Education for Environmental Citizenship to consider how they foster EC and thereby sustainable food system transformation. Full article

Education for environmental citizenship (EEC) is a crucial component of the effort to promote societies that are aware of sustainable lifestyles and able and motivated to adopt them, and such education is acknowledged as a key component within the discourse around 21st-century global processes. A global trend calling for the incorporation of environmental and sustainability education in formal and nonformal educational systems is becoming increasingly prevalent. In line with this global trend, the present paper presents a course that will be conducted within the framework of the Master’s programs at Beit Berl College in cooperation with international partners (lecturers, students). The course incorporates the ENEC’s (COST action) conceptualization of EC and EEC, including the pedagogical model developed within ENEC. The course has the potential to have a wide impact on educational practice and curriculum in the field (both formal and non-formal). Full article

This work deals with the proposal of a methodology for the survey of citizens’ attitudes in relation to their citizenship in light of the economic dimensions of environmental citizenship (EC). This is especially beneficial for university students, doctoral students and young researchers. The design allows for quantitative data processing. Thus, closed questions are dominant. However, open questions may serve as an incentive to set up further research. Demographic questions (age, education, gender, residence, social status, etc.) are used to perform a contingency analysis. Relevant hypotheses will be tested with suitable statistical methods, depending on the method of sampling (random vs. intentional). How the respondents perceived the status of being a citizen shall be investigated using the semantic differential method—a pair of opposite adjectives on the value scale. The proposed pairs are: actual–outdated, active–passive, easy–hard, significant–meaningless, normal–subnormal, attractive–repulsive. The concepts of a global citizen [¹,²] and “Environmental Citizen” defined by ENEC [³] point to the citizen as a mediator of change from the local to global level. Thus follows, especially within EU countries, the verification of whether citizenship is perceived as more “regional” (country affiliation) or more as “European”. This attitude can be further related to attitudes towards EU institutions. Based on the above definitions, we propose determining the involvement of respondents in civic activities (social and environmental level, etc.). The frequency of involvement is examined at set levels from “none” (through sporadic) to “permanent”. Barry [⁴] criticized firms and public bodies for adopting the language of EC as being motivated either by compliance with corporate environmental reporting or as evidence of a commitment to the concept of CSR. Here, encouraging employees to be environmental citizens is simply an integral part of corporate systems. Barry describes such EC as a part-time occupation—something one engages in during working hours [⁵]. Thus, we include a question focused on the transfer of habits and standards of behavior from the organization to civic life (the answers use a Likert-type scale). The potential transfer of habits can be at the following levels: ethical principles, responsibility for the environment, the ways of communicating with people, and the relationship with local communities. Moreover, the cultural environment specifics could be included. The next part focuses on which entities play an important role in environmental responsibility: the state (institutions); EU institutions; businesses; individuals (their civic activities); individuals (their consumer decisions). Considering the last two items, the awareness of citizenship is surveyed with regard to: having rights, having responsibility, and having an affiliation with society. From the consumer’s position, consumer rights, responsibility (for purchasing decisions), and belonging to a group of consumers are also examined. The respondents assess the extent to which their purchasing behavior is affected by: global trends, their own discretion, personalities or institutions, media, and local influences. Full article

In times of environmental crisis, Education for Environmental Citizenship (EEC) is argued to be of great significance in the development of secondary education students’ pro-environmentalism as environmental citizens. However, given that EEC is still emerging, there is a lack of empirical foundation on how environmental citizenship can be approached in a pedagogically sound way; as a result, empirical documented interventions in secondary education are also limited. This paper presents a case study from Cyprus, which evaluates the impact of a novel learning intervention grounded in the EEC pedagogical approach, taking into consideration the potential effect of students’ gender as well as of their past/present EC actions. The participants were fifty students (n = 50) in secondary biology education who attended the learning intervention; the students comprised 29 girls (58%) and 21 boys (42%), from two intact classrooms. Data were collected with the Environmental Citizenship Questionnaire (ECQ), which was administered before (pre-) and after (post-) the learning intervention, and were analyzed using a combination of non-parametric statistical analyses (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Mann–Whitney U test, Spearman’s Correlation and cluster analysis). Our findings indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in the students’ EC learning gains, both EC competences and EC future actions, by the end of the intervention. However, our findings also indicated that the impact of the learning intervention was related significantly to the students’ gender as well as to their past/present EC actions, as these were reported by the students prior the intervention. Overall, our findings provide empirical substantiation of the contribution of the EEC pedagogical approach to the development of secondary students’ EC. At the same time, our study also pointed out the critical roles of gender and past/present EC actions in students’ learning gains. Full article

Environmental Citizen Science (CS) initiatives have been recognized over time as a promising way to engage citizens in the investigation and management of various socio-ecological issues. In this context, it has been often hypothesized that these CS initiatives may also contribute to the education and subsequent transformation of citizens into environmentally aware and active citizens. However, the potential of CS to serve as a springboard for supporting Education for Environmental Citizenship (EEC) has not been explored yet. A systematic review was conducted, seeking to examine how citizens’ participation in environmental CS initiatives contributes to the EEC, as a venue through which citizens can undertake actions in different scales (local, national, global) to achieve environmental citizenship. A content analysis procedure was implemented on thirty-one empirical studies (n = 31) retrieved from a systematic review of the literature covering the timespan of the last two decades (2000–2020), according to the PRISMA methodology. The findings indicated that the majority of the reviewed environmental CS initiatives primarily enhanced citizens’ skills and knowledge over the competences of attitudes, values, and behaviors. In addition, it was found that CS initiatives empowered primarily citizens’ personal and responsible environmental actions, which were situated in the private sphere and at the local scale. The derived environmental outcomes were mainly related to the solution and prevention of environmental problems. Finally, correlational statistical analysis indicated that there were strong correlations between the Environmental Citizenship (EC) competences, actions and EEC outcomes and unveiled a set of keystone components; namely, components of crucial significance in the field of EC. We reflect on these findings, and we discuss directions for future research. Full article

For about two years, the climate youth activism initiative Fridays for Future has addressed climate emergency, receiving considerable attention because of their consistent protests every week in many different locations worldwide. Based on empirical studies in Austria and Portugal, this paper investigates the motivations of students to participate in the movement and the solutions proposed by young activists to fight against climate emergency. Moreover, we discuss the integration of climate change activism into ESD (education for sustainable development) and transformative learning processes, and how this enables environmental citizenship. The results of the studies reveal that emotions and feelings of solidarity and collective aims are motives to participate in the strikes. The young activists sometimes propose innovative and sometimes radical solutions to climate emergency. Both demonstrations and exhibitions as forms of bottom-up climate activism initiatives contribute to engagement in political dialogue and scientific knowledge transfer. They can be seen as “triggers of change” for transformative learning. Full article

Environmental Citizenship (EC) is a promising aim for science education. EC enables people not only to responsibly make decisions on sustainability issues—such as use of renewable energy sources—but also to take action individually and collectively. However, studies show that education for EC is challenging. Because our understanding of EC practice remains limited, an in-depth, qualitative view would help us better understand how to support science teachers during EC education. This study aims to describe current EC education practices. What do secondary science teachers think sustainability and citizenship entail? What are their experiences (both positive and negative) with education for EC? A total of 41 Dutch science teachers were interviewed in an individual, face-to-face setting. Analysis of the coded transcripts shows that most teachers see the added value of EC but struggle to fully implement it in their teaching. They think the curriculum is unsuitable to reach EC, and they see activities such as guiding discussions and opinion forming as challenging. Furthermore, science teachers’ interpretation of citizenship education remains narrow, thus making it unlikely that their lessons are successful in fostering EC. Improving EC education therefore may be supported by explicit representation in the curriculum and teacher professional development directed at its implementation. Full article

Civic agency is acknowledged as a key driver/catalyst for social transformation toward sustainability. Recent environmental citizenship education (EEC) models advocate a transformative approach for addressing environmental unsustainability (addressing underlying structural causes) and the identification of the development of change agents, as both the means for deep social transformation toward sustainability and the outcome of EEC. Given the paucity of studies looking into the psychological attributes of sustainability change agents, this work aims to deepen the theoretical understanding of the motivations that drive individuals to act as change agents and the type and extent of the change that they aspire to effect, with a view to developing competent environmental citizens. To this end, this conceptual work applies Schwartz’s theory of universal values to construct a three-level framework of environmental citizenship (EC) (individual-level, community-level, and socially-transformative-level). Each level reflects an increasing level of change agency that is driven by distinct motivational values and competences. The framework shares affinities with qualitative change agency typologies in the literature but claims that these different qualitative types reflect expanding ‘levels-of-concern’ and an increasing extent of change, as expressed in the EC framework. The paper then discusses curricular implications for the design of meaningful EEC deriving from the framework: Effective EEC entails developing change agency by adapting learning to the EC-level of the learners and the educational organization. The proposed EC/change agency framework provides a scaffold for such curricular adaptation. Full article

During recent decades, education for sustainable development (ESD) has been under the scope of the international community, but research in ESD for early childhood education (ECE) is still scarce. This article proposes a procedural framework for the implementation of teacher professional development opportunities in the area. During the first phase, we undertook a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles on ESD for ECE (n = 30). After an expert committee revision of the articles reviewed, three cornerstones (scientific action-integrated, community-based and value-oriented scopes) and three sets of suitable pedagogical approaches (art-based, outdoor-based and project-problem-based) were identified. The review was enhanced by an unsystematic review of articles (n = 26) that specifically referred to the cornerstones and approaches. Finally, a double-blind expert coding and categorization of the articles (n = 56) was performed in order to validate the results. Focusing on guidelines and approaches, different examples found in the literature are presented. This review offers a useful framework to understand and practice ESD in ECE. Unlike previous reviews, it has a practical scope to foster innovative teacher professional development opportunities, inspire teachers and inform policy makers. We conclude with some common challenges and the needs for educational systems to foster science-based citizenship education towards sustainable development in a practical way, fostering agency from an early stage to transform local context, creating global awareness of the environmental, social and economic challenges of the 21st century. Full article