Conference Agenda

Introduction

The current societal landscape is defined by environmental threats and social turmoil. In this wicked poly-crisis, young people, in particular, are in a difficult position. The effects of climate change and biodiversity loss are expected to increase in the future, piling up on young people. At the same time, young people are encouraged to become future agents of change, but their agency is constrained by various structures and forces (Mustalahti et al., 2023). Young people are steered towards participation via formal, adult-controlled platforms that emphasize integration into the current structures of society (Juusola et al., 2023). For young people, these formal structures and institutions may appear constraining and even non-democratic (Dupuis-Déri, 2021). Meanwhile, actions outside these structures are often unaccepted in schools and other local communities (Kettunen, 2021).

Given this landscape of (un)sustainability, this presentation asks: how does young people’s sustainability agency emerge? What are its implications for environmental education? Drawing from social cognitive theory and action competence literature, the goal is to unpack the positions and agency of young people in and for sustainability. In other words, I illustrate the depth, breadth, and contextuality of young people’s sustainability agency. This work summarizes the core findings of my dissertation, comprising four original research articles that utilize both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Theoretical framework

In recent years, despite the constraints mentioned above, young people have demonstrated their sustainability agency in many ways. Not only have we witnessed the rise of collective youth-led movements (Neas et al., 2022), but research has also identified the transformative potential of young people’s everyday activism (Skovdal & Benwell, 2021). Building on Bandura’s (2001) notion of agency, Koskela & Paloniemi (2023) defined sustainability agency as the overall desire and associated competencies to undertake actions of different modes to contribute to sustainability at various levels and scales. As people’s experiences, action contexts, and sustainability conceptions change over time, sustainability agency involves the need for continuous self-reflection and learning to adjust one’s actions (Koskela & Paloniemi, 2023).

Following the definition above, I understand sustainability agency as a combination of latent capacity and manifest actions. I approach the former using the concept of action competence, which originally describes an educational approach to foster critical, reflective, and pluralistic thinking by which learners can cope with complex sustainability issues (Mogensen & Schnack, 2010). However, Sass et al. (2020, p. 292) redefined action competence as an educational outcome to “articulate the competence of people to engage in solving sustainability issues”. Furthermore, I divide manifest actions into two categories or modes: sustainability behaviours are performed within the private sphere without challenging the current structures, while sustainability actions are usually collective and targeted at the systemic level (Oinonen & Paloniemi, 2023). Thus, the actions of young people range from behavioural modifications, such as changing one’s diet and cycling instead of driving, to social actions, such as volunteering and engaging in prominent collective movements.

Environmental degradation, resource scarcity and protracted displacement increasingly shape the educational realities of refugee-hosting regions (Dryden-Peterson 2024; Dobson et al. 2021). While these dynamics are evident globally, they are particularly pronounced in low-income countries where refugees are commonly accommodated in camps (Bose 2024). In such contexts, refugees and host communities live in close geographic proximity and depend on shared ecological systems that are under growing strain due to population pressure, deforestation, soil erosion and limited access to sustainable energy (Nakalembe et al. 2022). These environmental pressures intersect with educational inequalities, livelihood precarity and socio-political tensions, shaping everyday life and learning for both refugees and host-community learners (Bjørkhaug et al. 2025; Dryden-Peterson 2024). Despite this interdependence, education responses in refugee-hosting contexts have largely prioritised access, inclusion and system alignment, often overlooking the potential role of education in fostering environmental sustainability, collective agency and shared futures (Dryden-Peterson et al. 2019; Dobson et al. 2021; Bose 2024).

Environmental Sustainability Education (ESE) offers a critical framework for addressing these intertwined challenges by linking ecological understanding with social justice, participation and shared responsibility (Tryggvason et al. 2022). Drawing on Freirean critical pedagogy and ecopedagogical perspectives (Misiaszek 2023; Jones 2023), this study understands ESE as a dialogical and problem-posing process through which learners critically engage with environmental challenges while examining the social, political and economic conditions that shape their educational experiences (Jones 2023; Tryggvason et al. 2022). Rather than framing sustainability as a matter of individual behaviour change or technical environmental management, this approach foregrounds collective learning, critical consciousness and action-oriented competences (Ardoin et al. 2023). In contexts of forced displacement, such an orientation is particularly important, as environmental challenges are deeply entangled with questions of power, inequality, belonging and access to resources (Dryden-Peterson 2024; Dobson et al. 2021).

This study explores the role of ESE in fostering sustainability competences, pro environmental action and social cohesion among refugee and host community learners living in protracted co-settlement contexts in Uganda. While supranational policy makers in the education field such as UNESCO increasingly underscore learning for environmental sustainability, there remains limited empirical research examining how sustainability oriented education is conceptualised (Oe et al. 2022), enacted and experienced within shared refugees-hosts educational spaces. In particular, little is known about how such education operates in contexts of displacement and structural inequality and how it can supports learners’ critical awareness and agency, collective action and negotiated forms of belonging. Conceptually grounded in Freirean critical pedagogy and ecopedagogy, the study positions ESE as both a pedagogical and social process through which learners critically engage with shared environmental challenges, interrogate power relations and construct collective sustainability imaginaries within contexts of protracted displacement settlements (Dryden-Peterson 2024).

Adopting a qualitative case study approach, the research draws on in-depth engagement with approximately 20 participants, including refugee and host-community learners and teachers. This sample size enables an depth and contextual sensitivity required to explore complex pedagogical processes and lived experiences in a resource-constrained and socially diverse research setting, while prioritising analytical rather than statistical generalisation. Through participatory and dialogical ecopedagogical practices, the study examines how learners develop sustainability knowledge, critical-system thinking, collaborative-participatory problem solving and collective agency and how co-learning processes can constitutes a possibility for sustainable co-existence. The research hope to broaden debates on inclusion, educational purpose and sustainability in contexts of forced displacement, while also critically illuminating the structural constraints and tensions that shape educational practice under conditions of scarcity and structural inequality.

This paper addresses a central challenge in sustainability education: the gap between environmental awareness and environmental action among students. Despite students knowing about the climate crisis and sustainability, they often fail to translate this knowledge into meaningful behavioral change. While campaigns targeting sustainability have increased, individual carbon footprints remain high, demonstrating that knowledge alone is insufficient to drive behavioral change. A worrying discrepancy remains between environmental awareness and behavioral change. The research question guiding this study is: Why do students from different educational levels (Vocational, Applied Sciences, and University) fail to commit to sustainability, despite being aware of the climate crisis?

The theoretical framework integrates insights from environmental psychology and critical pedagogy. Concepts such as cognitive dissonance, eco-anxiety, tokenism, comfort, and responsibility shifting are used to explain why awareness does not automatically result in action. The study employs a mixed-methods approach to identify the cognitive and structural barriers preventing students from acting. The research population included students from three distinct educational levels within the Dutch education system: Vocational, Applied Sciences, and University. This allows for a comparative analysis of how educational background and pedagogical orientations influence sustainability mindsets. Data was collected through a quantitative survey (N=69) using a 5-point Likert scale, followed by semi-structured interviews (N=7) to triangulate findings and provide qualitative depth.

The results reveal that the primary barrier to action is not climate skepticism, but a profound feeling of powerlessness. The data shows a common belief that personal sacrifice is meaningless if others do not act too. However, the study also identifies differences in how this inaction manifests across different educational contexts.

This research identifies a specific paradox: the belief that individual action is futile in the face of global environmental challenges. University students demonstrated the highest levels of eco-anxiety and theoretical awareness but paradoxically reported deep feelings of paralysis. Their inaction is driven by an over-exposure to the scale of the problem without accompanying practical skills, leading to a reliance on the government to fix the problem. Conversely, Vocational and Applied Sciences students exhibited a form of distancing, arguing that environmental issues are either the responsibility of future generations or will be solved by technological innovation rather than behavioral change. In particular, Vocational students highlighted the unaffordability of sustainable choices as a major barrier.

The findings suggest that current educational models are effectively transferring factual knowledge, leading to awareness, but failing to create agency. The study concludes that this knowledge-action gap is sustained by a pedagogical focus on the severity of the crisis rather than the importance of individual influence. These findings have significant implications for educational policy, suggesting that without addressing the psychological barrier of personal insignificance, action may never happen.

While empirically grounded in the Netherlands, the study has strong European and international relevance. The paradox of inaction reflects broader dynamics present across European education systems, where sustainability is increasingly integrated into curricula yet struggles to generate behavioral change. By focusing on students’ perceived lack of impact, this research contributes to international debates on how education can move beyond awareness-raising towards empowering learners as active participants in collective sustainability transitions.

Climate change, one of the most critical issues of our time, has transcended being merely an environmental problem and has become a multi-dimensional crisis involving ethics, politics, and education. To respond to the urgent needs created by this crisis, climate change education must be redesigned with an inclusive, holistic, flexible, and locally sensitive approach (Lautensach et al., 2025). Indeed, the need for radical change and action, long emphasized by the scientific community, has reached a critical point today (Lackner et al., 2025). In this transformation process, teachers are undoubtedly the key actors who will both guide strategic design and ensure the development of action-oriented individuals (Tang, 2025). However, the effective transfer of complex scientific and social strategies into the classroom environment primarily depends on the academic qualifications and pedagogical preparation levels of the teachers who will manage these processes (Moshou & Drinia, 2023).

Despite the critical role of teachers, the current literature points to a fundamental structural gap regarding the effectiveness of educational processes. Studies show that individuals' theoretical knowledge (literacy) about climate change does not always translate into concrete actions or behavioral intentions; a disconnect, defined in the literature as the knowledge-action gap, exists at this point (Knutti, 2019). There is increasing evidence that the emotional connection individuals form with climate change influences their climate actions, making it necessary to investigate the emotional mechanisms in the process of literacy evolving into behavioral intentions. This highlights the growing importance of holistic models that address cognitive, affective, and behavioral components in climate pedagogy (Olsen et al., 2024). In this context, the research. This study aims to examine, through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the direct impact of pre-service teachers' environmental literacy on their behavioral intentions to mitigate climate change, and how this relationship is indirectly shaped through hope, one of the ecological emotions.

Theoretical background

The theoretical basis of this study is the Head–Heart–Hand (HHH) model developed by Sipos, Battisti, and Grimm (2008). This model represents a holistic approach that simultaneously addresses individuals' cognitive learning processes (Head), their capacity for affective connection and meaning-making (Heart), and their ability to translate these acquisitions into action (Hand). The HHH model conceptualizes learning not merely as a process limited to information acquisition, but as a transformative learning process in which information is internalized through emotions and gains meaning through action (Olsen et al., 2024). In this respect, the model aligns with theoretical views that, particularly in complex and multifaceted problem areas involving uncertainty, emotional burden, and ethical responsibility, such as climate change, learning should be evaluated not only in terms of cognitive components but also in terms of emotional and behavioral components (Tsevreni et al., 2025).

In this context, the environmental literacy construct examined in the study corresponds to the cognitive dimension (Head) of the HHH model; the ecological hope variable corresponds to the affective dimension (Heart); and the behavioral intention to mitigate climate change corresponds to the action-oriented dimension (Hand). The study aims to test the structural validity of the HHH model in a sample of prospective teachers by examining the direct and indirect relationships between these three constructs. The SEM analyses to be conducted within this scope are expected to contribute to the empirical foundations of the model and to highlight the need to address the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of climate change education holistically.