Climate Change in Secondary Education: The Social Representation of Portuguese Students
Abstract
Various United Nations agencies emphasize the crucial role of education in addressing the climate challenge, as it plays a key function in promoting a nuanced understanding of the issue, facilitating the adoption of adaptation and mitigation measures. This study focuses on unraveling how secondary education students in Portugal (N = 141) conceptualize climate change and it examines the potential impact of education on shaping their perceptions, utilizing the free association technique. The findings reveal that students perceive climate change as a global environmental concern, closely tied to meteorological phenomena, with identified risks and threats predominantly affecting the biosphere. The students’ academic background appears to influence specific aspects of their representation, and the analysis identifies social, cultural, and political factors at play that shape their perspectives.
Keywords
Climate emergency, Secondary education, Climate change, Social representation, Socioscientific issuesReferences
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