CLIMATE CHANGE: HOPE’S ROLE IN PRO-ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIORS
As climate change becomes an increasingly recognized serious issue, the need for environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) for young people and in schools is also becoming increasingly relevant. Traditional environmental education has aimed to help students better understand causes, impacts, and solutions to environmental issues and to inspire critical thinking around ethical issues, conflicts, and uncertainties. Recent research has identified that such education also involves consideration of emotions because of the gravity of the topics involved. Hope is one of these important emotional aspects, however research on hope has revealed mixed views …show more content…
The factor analysis confirmed that the hope questions were measuring a construct of hope within the two sub-scales. Next the author examined how the hope sub-scales related to environmental engagement with correlation analyses. The results confirmed that the more constructive one’s hope is, the more likely they are to engage in pro-environmental behavior and vote for a sustainability focused political party. Conversely, hope based on denial was significantly correlated with engaging less in pro-environmental behavior and voting for a political party that works toward a sustainable future. Additionally, the correlations showed that students with more constructive hope had more self-efficacy, viewed teachers as being more accepting of their negative emotions in relation to climate change issues, and had more “solution-oriented styles”. Students with hope based on denial again were associated with opposite results: less-efficacy, feelings of dismissal by teachers, and a negative …show more content…
Teachers and educators should take these emotions seriously, use these opportunities as ‘teachable moments,’ and communicate about such issues in a solution-oriented way to promote constructive hope in their students. Additionally, the authors highlight the importance of training teachers and educators for “emotional awareness” in order to better address these issues within the
As climate change becomes an increasingly recognized serious issue, the need for environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) for young people and in schools is also becoming increasingly relevant. Traditional environmental education has aimed to help students better understand causes, impacts, and solutions to environmental issues and to inspire critical thinking around ethical issues, conflicts, and uncertainties. Recent research has identified that such education also involves consideration of emotions because of the gravity of the topics involved. Hope is one of these important emotional aspects, however research on hope has revealed mixed views …show more content…
The factor analysis confirmed that the hope questions were measuring a construct of hope within the two sub-scales. Next the author examined how the hope sub-scales related to environmental engagement with correlation analyses. The results confirmed that the more constructive one’s hope is, the more likely they are to engage in pro-environmental behavior and vote for a sustainability focused political party. Conversely, hope based on denial was significantly correlated with engaging less in pro-environmental behavior and voting for a political party that works toward a sustainable future. Additionally, the correlations showed that students with more constructive hope had more self-efficacy, viewed teachers as being more accepting of their negative emotions in relation to climate change issues, and had more “solution-oriented styles”. Students with hope based on denial again were associated with opposite results: less-efficacy, feelings of dismissal by teachers, and a negative …show more content…
Teachers and educators should take these emotions seriously, use these opportunities as ‘teachable moments,’ and communicate about such issues in a solution-oriented way to promote constructive hope in their students. Additionally, the authors highlight the importance of training teachers and educators for “emotional awareness” in order to better address these issues within the