Connected peer learning in global networks: Students’ questions about and solutions for a sustainable future

Abstract

The 21st century calls us to solve wicked problems that are related to sustainable development (SD). The complex and multi-disciplinary nature of SD requires collaboration in and between disciplines, education, and the wider local and global communities. In the present study, connected learning is used as an approach to enable international students’ participation in collective activities where people from heterogeneous backgrounds can connect and pursue varying complex and multifaceted problems together. Through qualitative content analysis of video messages, we illustrate the nature of the questions of 13–17-year-old participants in the World Summit of Students for Climate (WSSC) on SD and the types of actions they think are needed to solve these questions. The results of this study illustrate that the questions created by the students are factual, explanatory, and ethical by nature, and focus on a variety of perspectives related to SD. The actions created by the students require active agency at the individual, community and society levels. The number of different objects of the students’ questions and actions illustrates their perceptions that actions should target many different areas of SD. We conclude with discussions on the significance of creating possibilities to promote the development of necessary competencies in current education.