What prompts young people to take positive action to promote sustainable development?
Investigating why a small group of Swedes in their mid-twenties devoted much of their time and energy into making the world a better place for themselves and for others, including future generations, Ellen Almers identified a series of motivating factors – social as well as emotional. She also discovered that their knowledge of action strategies generally stemmed from experience acquired outside the classroom, in informal and semi-formal settings. Ellen Almers believes schools have a potentially significant role to play in encouraging more young people to take action for sustainable development. ‘Education could be a useful facilitator, enabling more young people to dare and want to take the first step towards engagement in groups and organisations,’ says Ellen Almers.
