Voting for Change: an International Study of Students' Willingness to Support Measures to Ameliorate Climate Change

Title
Voting for Change: an International Study of Students' Willingness to Support Measures to Ameliorate Climate Change
Publication Date
2021-06
Author(s)
Skamp, Keith
Boyes, Eddie
Stanisstreet, Martin
Rodriguez, Manuel
Malandrakis, George
Fortner, Rosanne
Kilinc, Ahmet
Taylor, Neil
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8438-319X
Email: ntaylor6@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:ntaylor6
Choker, Kiran
Shweta, Dua
Ambusaidi, Abdullah
Cheong, Irene
Kim, Mijung
Yoon, Hye-Gyoung
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Place of publication
Netherlands
DOI
10.1007/s11165-019-09864-2
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/27650
Abstract
Voting for various pro-environmental governmental policies is an indirect, but potentially effective, action that citizens can take to reduce global warming (GW) and climate change. Supporting further environmental education is an additional action. This study reports students’ beliefs about the effectiveness of these indirect actions in reducing GW and their willingness to support such actions (e.g. increased taxes). Students’ responses (n > 12,000 grades 6 to 10 from 11 countries) to a specially designed questionnaire are reported. Links between their beliefs and their willingness to act were quantified using a range of novel derived indices. Significant disparities between beliefs and willingness to act were found across the various countries. The focus of this paper is the derived index, the Natural Willingness to Act (NWA). Interpretations are proffered for the reported differences between countries. The extents of students’ concern and self-reported knowledge about global warming strongly correlate with NWA values, as do their cultural orientations, and other contextual factors (e.g. governmental trust). Pedagogical implications and ways forward are suggested.
Link
Citation
Research in Science Education, 51(3), p. 861-887
ISSN
1573-1898
0157-244X
Start page
861
End page
887

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