Research Topic Title: Adolescents’ representations of climate change: Considering implications for climate change secondary education in the UK
My doctoral research explored how adolescents in the UK understand climate change and whether and how they relate it to themselves and their lives in the UK. Drawing on several qualitative studies, I found that participants viewed climate change as a real and human-caused threat that has grave implications for the health and wellbeing of the planet and its occupants. However, they frequently placed the more serious impacts of climate change at a spatial and temporal distance and saw little need to consider the implications of their own or their family’s climate-related behaviours and practices. They blamed other countries, older generations, and the government for causing climate change and placed the responsibility for resolving it with governments. Over the course of the fellowship, I will consider the implications of my research for climate change secondary education in the UK and develop networks with academics, policymakers, and practitioners. I will examine how solutions to and responsibility for resolving climate change are presented to pupils at secondary schools, by reviewing secondary curricula specifications and material in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. I will also consider the broader context, by reviewing how these issues are presented in the net zero strategies of the UK nations.
Mentor/s: Prof. Lorraine Whitmarsh
Publications
Lee, K., O’Neill, S., Blackwood, L., & Barnett, J. (2022). Perspectives of UK adolescents on the youth climate strikes. Nature Climate Change, 12, 528-531.
Lee, K., & Barnett, J. (2022). Adolescents’ Representations of Climate change: Exploring the Self-other Thema in a Focus Group Study. Environmental Communication, DOI:10.1080/17524032.2021.2023202
Lee, K. (2021). Climate change education: Which facts matter? IPR blog, 18 November 2021. Retrieved from: https://blogs.bath.ac.uk/iprblog/2021/11/18/climate-change-education-which-facts-matter/
Lee, K., & Barnett, J. (2020). ‘Will polar bears melt?’ A qualitative analysis of children’s questions about climate change. Public Understanding of Science, 29(8).
Lee, K., Gjersoe, N., O’Neill, S., & Barnett, J. (2020). Youth perceptions of climate change: A narrative synthesis. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 11, e641.
Lee, K., Vasileiou, K., & Barnett, J. (2017). ‘Lonely within the mother’: An exploratory study of first-time mothers’ experiences of loneliness. Journal of Health Psychology, 24, 1334-1344.
Contact Details as applicable
E-mail: kl614@bath.ac.uk
Twitter: @dktee