Young people’s conversations about environmental and sustainability issues in social media
Publication details
| Year: | 2017 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/13504622.2016.1149551 |
| Issued: | 2016 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 23 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Start Page: | 465 |
| End Page: | 485 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Andersson E.; Öhman J. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Environmental Education Research |
| Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
| Topics: | Learning; Social mediation; Internet usage, practices and engagement; Literacy and skills; Other |
| Sample: | A Swedish online community aimed at people between the ages of 14 and 28. The study focuses on a digital conversation (thread) called Global warming is a hoax! This thread is still in operation today. The part of the thread that has been analysed takes place between April 2009 and May 2011 and consists of 443 posts (communication units in the conversation that constitute the conversation). 67 participants are involved in the conversation, 15 of which are female and 52 male. The average age in the conversation is 17. |
| Implications For Parents About: | Other |
| Other Parent Implication: | Social media as a site for public pedagogy |
| Implications For Educators About: | Digital citizenship; Professional development; Other |
| Implications For Stakeholders About: | Researchers |
Abstract
Young people’s conversations about environmental and sustainability issues in social media and their educational implications are under-researched. Understanding young people’s meaning-making in social media and the experiences they acquire could help teachers to stage pluralistic and participatory approaches to classroom discussions about the environment and sustainability. The aim of the article is to explore the characteristics of meaning-making in young people’s conversations about environmental and sustainability issue in social media, more precisely in an online community. The study takes a public pedagogy and citizenship-as-practice approach and uses Epistemological Move Analysis. The conversation are shown to be argumentative, sophisticated, elaborative and competitive and create an educational situation in which facts about the world and moral and political values and interests are confronted and argued. The findings raise questions about pluralistic and participatory approaches and the staging of classroom conversations in environmental and sustainability education.
Outcome
"The conversation are shown to be argumentative, sophisticated, elaborative and competitive and create an educational situation in which facts about the world and moral and political values and interests are confronted and argued. The findings raise questions about pluralistic and participatory approaches and the staging of classroom conversations in environmental and sustainability education." (Authors, in Abstract)