Titre : « Let’s Be Heard »: Children’s Climate Activism in a Local Forest 

Auteurs : Clementina Rios
, Alison Laurie Neilson
, Isabel Menezes,  

Revue : Educations 

Numéro : Issue 1 

Volume : 7 

Date : 2024/03/14 

DOI : 10.21494/ISTE.OP.2024.1123 

ISSN : 2632-590X 

Résumé : This work aims to understand the conditions of emergence of an ecological consciousness by studying the potential of participatory devices in children’s activism, seeking to understand how these devices problematize and how they address the environmental issues of the local forest in Portugal. The pedagogical activity described here involved twenty-two ten-year-old children, enrolled in the fourth year of the first cycle of primary education, for three consecutive months, in moments of interactive participation and in a logic of action-reflection. Based on a community-based approach, the children studied the local forest and were involved in a process of exploring problems and finding solutions to problems they identified as relevant. Data were collected using various devices: logbooks, drawings and projects developed by children; photographs, process videos and the investigator’s field notes containing recordings of joint discussions with children and informal conversations with families; semi-structured interviews with teachers. The analysis shows that children play the role of environmental agents with militant practices, for example collective actions they have developed in the forest. There was also a call for partnerships in the community to address local environmental issues and to organize a community event to be heard. Learning in forests has not only made children aware of the impact of the dominant anthropocentric vision on sustainability but has also motivated them to implement their environmental activism. 

Éditeur : ISTE OpenScience