Educating for hope and action competence: a study of secondary school students and teachers in England

Young people and educators in the UK have called for changes in the education system to better prepare learners for a future shaped by climate change and our collective response to the climate crisis. This research explored both reported climate education practices and future outlooks through a questionnaire completed by 16–18-year-old secondary school students (n = 512) and teachers (n = 69) in England. The research participants had mixed emotions about the future, and rated negative future scenarios as more likely than positive scenarios. This is the first study in the UK to directly measure climate hope and action competence using recently developed and validated questionnaires, finding a strong positive correlation between hope and action competence. Replicating previous research, the reported teacher practices that best predicted student-reported hope were 1) accepting negative emotions and 2) maintaining a positive outlook, which was further explored through the model of emotionally-mediated education for climate action. In this study, a complicated picture emerges in which hope and anxiety coexist, and both have a relationship with students’ reported environmental action.