Shifting frames or participation? How young people’s understandings of sustainability interact with their agency

Abstract

A core idea of sustainability education is to support young people’s agency, will, and capacity to participate in society and take meaningful action for sustainability. However, sustainability can be understood in different ways, which affects how young people’s agency emerges. To study this, we co-created a sustainability-themed, multidisciplinary course at two schools in Finland, in which 13-18-year-olds participated in urban and regional planning. We asked how young people define and apply their frames of sustainability while participating in urban and regional planning. We demonstrate how the frames are associated with different types of action and how young people may shift from one frame to another in a participatory process. We conclude that adult-created participation structures do not necessarily align with young people’s perceptions of sustainability and agency and encourage research to explore the different patterns of sustainability thinking and agency of youth.