Abstract
Communication between children and adults can play a significant role in evolving understandings of climate change. The Manchester Environmental Education Network (MEEN) is committed to facilitating intergenerational communication around climate change in conjunction with primary and secondary schools in the North West of England, UK. MEEN and academics at the University of Manchester have come together to gain insights into the intergenerational communication that can evolve the understandings that children and adults need to address climate-change related issues. We wish, particularly to understand whether the children-led, knowledge-based approach that MEEN uses on some projects is an effective way of achieving this aim. As a means of exploring this question, the paper uses ‘vignettes’, evocative episodes that act as prompts for analysing the dynamics of the projects. It also draws on a growing body of literature around intergenerational relations relating it specifically to climate change communication (e.g. Mannion 2016; Blanchet-Cohen and Reilly 2016; Wyness 2013). Our explorations of the vignettes have led us to the view that ‘reciprocally responsive’ intergenerational communications is pivotal to negotiating understandings of climate change and how to act in the face of it.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Blanchet-Cohen N, Reilly RC (2016) Immigrant children promoting environmental care: enhancing learning, agency and integration through culturally-responsive environmental education. Environ Educ Res 1–20
Blanchet-Cohen N, Reilly RC (2013) Teachers’ perspectives on environmental education in multicultural contexts: Towards culturally-responsive environmental education. Teach Teach Educ 36:12–22
Blanchet-Cohen N, Ragan D, Amsden J (2003) Children becoming social actors: Using visual maps to understand children’s views of environmental change. Child Youth Environ 13(2):278–299
Damerell P, Howe C, Milner-Gulland EJ (2013) Child-orientated environmental education influences adult knowledge and household behaviour. Environ Res Lett 8(1):015016
Duvall J, Zint M (2007) A review of research on the effectiveness of environmental education in promoting intergenerational learning. J Environ Educ 38(4):14–24
Fernández-Llamazares Á, Díaz-Reviriego I, Luz AC, Cabeza M, Pyhälä A, Reyes-García V (2015) Rapid ecosystem change challenges the adaptive capacity of local environmental knowledge. Glob Environ Change 31:272–284
Grover S (2004) Why won’t they listen to us? On giving power and voice to children participating in social research. Childhood 11(1):81–93
Gruenewald DA (2003a) The best of both worlds: a critical pedagogy of place. Educ Res 32(4):3–12
Gruenewald DA (2003b) Foundations of place: a multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. Am Educ Res J 40(3):619–654
Istead L, Shapiro B (2014) Recognizing the child as knowledgeable other: Intergenerational learning research to consider child-to-adult influence on parent and family eco-knowledge. J Res Child Educ 28(1):115–127
Liebel M (2007) Paternalism, participation and children’s protagonism. Child Youth Environ 17(2):56–73
Manchester Environmental Education Network (n.d.) Carbon literacy for schools. Retrieved from http://www.meen.org.uk/carbon-literacy-for-schools
Mannion G (2016) Intergenerational education and learning: we are in a new place. In: Punch S, Vanderbeck RM (eds) Families, intergenerationality, and peer group relations, 5, geographies of children and young people, 1–21. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-4585-92-7_5-1
Mannion G (2012) Intergenerational education: the significance of reciprocity and place. J Intergener Relatsh 10(4):386–399
Mannion G, Adey C (2011) Place-based education is an intergenerational practice. Child Youth Environ 21(1):35–58
Mitchell IK, Ling C, Krusekopf C, Kerr S (2015) Pathways toward whole community transformation: a case study on the role of school engagement and environmental education. Environ Dev Sustain 17(2):279–298
Percy-Smith B, Burns D (2013) Exploring the role of children and young people as agents of change in sustainable community development. Local Environ 18(3):323–339
Smith GA (2007) Place-based education: breaking through the constraining regularities of public school. Environ Educ Res 13(2):189–207
Sterling S (2001) Sustainable education: re-visioning learning and change. Green Books, Totnes
Sterling S (2011) Transformative learning and sustainability: sketching the conceptual ground. Learn Teach High Educ 5(11):17–33
Singer MH (1998) Perception and identity in intercultural communication. ME Intercultural Press, Yarmouth
Taft JK (2014) “Adults talk too much”: intergenerational dialogue and power in the Peruvian movement of working children. Childhood 22(4):460–473
Tanner T (2010) Shifting the narrative: child-led responses to climate change and disasters in El Salvador and the Philippines. Child Soc 24(4):339–351
UNICEF (2007) Climate change and children. United Nation’s Children Fund, New York. Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Climate_Change_and_Children.pdf
Vaughan C, Gack J, Solorazano H, Ray R (2003) The effect of environmental education on schoolchildren, their parents, and community members: a study of intergenerational and intercommunity learning. J Environ Educ 34(3):12–21
Wyness M (2013) Children’s participation and intergenerational dialogue: bringing adults back into the analysis. Childhood 20(4):429–442
Wyness L (2015) “Talking of citizenship…” Exploring the contribution an intergenerational, participatory learning project can make to the promotion of active citizenship in sustainable communities. Local Environ 20(3):277–297
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brown, S.A., Lock, R. (2018). Enhancing Intergenerational Communication Around Climate Change. In: Leal Filho, W., Manolas, E., Azul, A., Azeiteiro, U., McGhie, H. (eds) Handbook of Climate Change Communication: Vol. 3. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70479-1_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70479-1_24
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70478-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70479-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)