Abstract
This chapter shares the findings of a study that investigated how youth, nationally recognized as eco-civic leaders in Canada, perceive their agency and capacity to effect change. It explored the notion of “student agency” as it relates to the emergent trend around environmental action learning within the field of environmental education (EE) and civics education. Two key findings are examined: (1) the suggestion that a critical gap exists between student agency as interpreted in present school practices and scholarly and policy perspectives on EE and (2) the learning conditions that participating youth identified as critical in developing student agency, including the importance of youth–adult relationships. Our collective understanding and praxis of environmental action learning need to focus on the development (process) of students as active citizens, in the sense of collaborative civic actors aimed at socio-ecological change, not simply as “good stewards.”
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Glithero, L. (2018). Educating for Student Agency: Perspectives from Young Eco-civic Leaders in Canada. In: Reis, G., Scott, J. (eds) International Perspectives on the Theory and Practice of Environmental Education: A Reader. Environmental Discourses in Science Education, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67732-3_6
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