Place-based civic science-collective environmental action and solidarity for eco-resilience.

BACKGROUND: Educating children and young people (CYP) from marginalized communities about environmental crises poses a unique dilemma as educators strive to prepare them to deal with the climate crisis without compounding the stressors and fear of an unlivable future many already face. We explored how place-based civic science (PBCS) can provide opportunities to engage youth in environmental understanding and action through teamwork in which youth feel that they belong to a group larger than themselves and gain a sense of hope from working with others toward shared goals. We argue that combining PCBS pedagogies of collective action and collaborative learning spaces can help to buffer against distress as CYP grapple with global environmental crises. METHODS: We drew from qualitative responses (student reflections and public presentations) of 486 6-12th graders (majority students of color) on what they learned from participating in PBCS projects. Projects involved egalitarian partnerships between adults from environmental organizations, teachers and student teams studying and acting together to mitigate problems and presenting their efforts in public venues. RESULTS: Students' qualitative responses revealed an identification with their team and its goal forged through the work, respect for their voice, belief in their capacity and confidence to take collective action and even enjoyment of working together to address community concerns. CONCLUSIONS: PBCS through collective learning/action in student teams and nonhierarchical intergenerational partnerships, and connections that CYP forge with organizations in the broader community, can help to build CYP's agency and efficacy while addressing "emotionally heavy" issues such as climate change.

The Environmental Commons in Urban Communities: The Potential of Place-Based Education.

The reflections of 205 4-12th graders (most from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds) on what they learned from participating in place-based stewardship education (PBSE) projects in their urban communities were analyzed. All projects involved hands-on collective learning/action by teams of students, teachers, and community partners in the communities where students attended school. Reflections were analyzed using an iterative process of deductive and inductive coding and identifying emergent themes. Deductive coding was informed by the authors' earlier theoretical and empirical studies on the environmental commons (EC) and the key principles outlined in Elinor Ostrom's work on effective group practices for stewarding common pool resources. Reflections were coded for up to 8 discrete references to the two elements of the environmental commons: (1) the natural resources on which life depends (awareness of nature in the urban space; nature's diversity and ecological balance; interdependence of humans with nature; healthy environments and species' well-being; students' environmental identities; and human impact and agency); and (2) collective actions to protect a community's resources (benefits and responsibilities of team work; within-group dynamics and civic skills; collective efficacy; generativity; and identification with the broader community). We found that students articulated, with varying levels of understanding, the two key EC elements. Most referred to positive human impact and one-third mentioned negative human impact. When discussing the community benefitting from their work, a majority mentioned humans; yet nearly half referred to other species or living systems; and a quarter referenced generativity, i.e., the legacy of their work for the future. Concerning the collective orientation of projects: one-third felt collective action was imperative for solving environmental issues, half expressed feelings of collective efficacy, and over one-third referenced their increased attachment and identification with a broader community (school, city, or nature). Core practices in this PBSE model parallel the elements of effective groups identified by Ostrom. We conclude with a discussion of the potential of PBSE projects in urban communities for developing young people's sense of the public realm more broadly and their stake in the natural environment and their communities.

Social Justice and the Environmental Commons.

In this chapter, we build on the scholarship on youth civic engagement by turning attention to the environmental commons as a space for political action. We begin with a definition of the term and arguments about ways that social justice is implied in it. Following that, we raise several psychological challenges to motivating action on behalf of the environmental commons and discuss the critical experiences and actions that can defy those challenges. Finally, drawing from Ostrom's empirical evidence opposing a tragedy of the commons, we discuss practices consistent with a social justice approach that nurture in younger generations an identification with and commitment to the environmental commons and discuss how this orientation would benefit human beings, democracies, and the earth.

Adolescents' theories about economic inequality: why are some people poor while others are rich?

Open-ended responses of an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 593 12- to 19-year-olds (M = 16 years old, SD = 1.59) were analyzed to explain why some people in the United States are poor and others are rich. Adolescents had more knowledge and a more complex understanding of wealth than of poverty and older adolescents had more knowledge and a more complex understanding of both. Controlling for age and demographics, adolescents had a deeper understanding of inequality if they were female, from better educated families, discussed current events in their families, and attended schools with classmates who discussed current events in their families. Higher parental education and attending schools with classmates who discussed current events with their families increased the likelihood of structural attributions for poverty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescents' theories of the commons.

Drawing from research on civic engagement and environmental commitment, we make a case for the processes inherent in how adolescents' ideas about the commons (those things that bind a polity together) develop. Engagement in the public realm with a plethora of perspectives and a goal of finding common ground is fundamental. Adolescents participate in the public realm through mini-polities (e.g., schools, community organizations). Practices in those settings can reinforce or challenge dominant political narratives. Special attention is given to the natural environment as a commons that transcends generations and to the opportunities in schools and in community partnerships that enable adolescents to realize their interdependence with nature and to author decisions about the commons.