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Exploring the role of children and young people as agents of change in

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 Local Environment
2012, 1–17, iFirst Article

Exploring the role of children and young people as agents of change

in sustainable community development
Barry Percy-Smitha∗ and Danny Burnsb
a
Centre for Understanding Social Practice, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK;
b
Institute for Development Studies, Sussex University, IDS, Brighton, UK

In 2007, the Department for Children Schools and Families in the UK outlined the
Sustainable Schools Strategy setting out an agenda for schools and environmental
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education. While many schools made advances in their provision of learning for
sustainability, questions remained about the impact school-based Education for
Sustainable Development could have in making communities more sustainable. A
central question concerns the roles envisaged for children and youth and what forms
of (transformative) learning are needed for children to become active agents in
sustainable community development. Based on learning from an ESRC action
research project exploring the role of schools in developing sustainable communities
and drawing on international experience, this article presents a framework for
discussing the roles children and young people might take as agents of change in
sustainable community development. The article concludes by discussing the
implications for cultures of learning in schools.
Keywords: children and young people; participation; agents of change; sustainable
development; education; learning

Introduction
This article takes a critical look at the role of young people in sustainable development. In
particular, it focuses on the role of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the
extent to which approaches to ESD facilitates, or might better facilitate, the participation of
young people as agents of change. For the purpose of this article, sustainable development
can be understood as: “The need to ensure a better quality of life for all, now and into the
future, in a just and equitable manner, whilst living within the limits of supporting ecosys-
tems” (Agyeman and Evans 2004, quoted in Blay-Palmer 2011).
To achieve a more sustainable world, “learning” is seen as being key (Sterling 2001).
Underlying discourses of ESD, there seems to be an assumption that if we teach children
and young people the right skills and knowledge they will live sustainably. Yet, there
has been insufficient attention paid to the way in which children’s ESD learning influences
sustainable developments in communities. Indeed, there are a growing number of critics
who question the extent to which ESD learning “spills over” into communities. Crompton
and Thogerson (2009) for example argue that at best spill over of learning leads only to
simple and painless changes with little effect on unsustainable lifestyles. There is a question

∗
Corresponding author. Email: barry.percy-smith@uwe.ac.uk

ISSN 1354-9839 print/ISSN 1469-6711 online

# 2012 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2012.729565
http://www.tandfonline.com
 2 B. Percy-Smith and D. Burns

therefore underlying the good intentions of ESD in schools about the extent to which chil-
dren are developing the capacities for sustainable development or are simply just learning
another new body of knowledge. Indeed, Sterling cautions:

Calls to assert “education for sustainable development” or “environmental education” within

the framework of a mechanistic education paradigm can only meet with limited success, as
such forms of education for change are marginalized and accommodated by the mainstream
. . . .The real need is to change from transmissive towards transformative learning, but this
in turn requires a transformed educational paradigm. (2001, p. 11)

Vare and Scott (2007) go further by arguing that we need to think of education “as” rather than
“for” sustainable development in which learning is rooted in action within everyday life prac-
tices. This is important for, as Blewitt (2008, p. 14) observes, “[we] do not need to wait for
governments to take the lead or give permission” as sustainable development needs to come
through the “empowerment” of individuals in communities. Central to the argument in this
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article is that we need to refocus our efforts on everyday decisions and actions.
There is sufficient evidence that acknowledges the potential of children and young
people as actors of change (see, for example, Heft and Chawla 2006, Corcoran and
Osano 2009); this article contributes insights into how this might happen. In spite of
sociological theories of childhood that see children as social actors in their own right
able to make a contribution now, initiatives – in this case ESD initiatives – seem to
be geared to equipping children for future roles rather than roles they can take now.
Moreover, although ESD literature espouses the need for transformative learning and
potential opportunities for educational reform, there continues to be an emphasis on
passive, knowledge-based ESD. In spite of this general trend, there have been some
schools that have attempted to innovate approaches to ESD from which this article
draws. In addition, there is abundant evidence from across the world that points to the
extent to which children can play a more significant role as agents of change now
(e.g. Chawla 2002, Percy-Smith and Thomas 2010).
The purpose of this article is therefore to contribute to the development of thinking
about children’s role as actors of change in creating sustainable communities. The focus
is not on the extent to which children, as a result of their learning, can contribute to
solving global problems, for as Kingsnorth (2009) argues, this may be too big a task to com-
prehend. Instead, the article addresses the task of thinking about what sorts of participation
and action are needed for individuals to take on more active roles in contributing to sustain-
able community development. This article argues that young people can be a catalyst in that
process. These roles in turn are understood within developing international discourses of
children’s participation and student voice, in particular which contest naive, simplistic
and tokenistic approaches to participation based simply on “having a say”, and instead
acknowledge the importance of recognising how young people can participate as citizens
in everyday community “spaces” (Fielding 2004, Percy-Smith 2010b, Percy-Smith and
Thomas 2010), through inquiry, action and community learning (see also Taylor and
Percy-Smith 2008).
Fielding (2004) outlines a four-fold typology of student engagement in terms of:

. students as data source (passive respondents);

. students as active respondents;
. students as co-researchers (teacher-led dialogue and inquiry); and
. students as researchers (student-led dialogue and inquiry).
 Local Environment 3

In seeking to make sense of possibilities for students as active agents of change, we are con-
cerned here with roles young people can take which involve more than just articulating a
view. To that extent, we are concerned with Fielding’s final two categories.
The article concludes by discussing the importance of new learning approaches, spaces
for initiative and action and a culture of seeing and supporting young people as active and
competent citizens in schools and communities, as necessary conditions for young people to
participate as agents of change.
The article begins by briefly setting out the context of ESD learning in the UK and sets
this within theories of children’s participation in decision making and development processes
within and outside of schools. It then seeks to reframe the context for ESD work by critiquing
assumptions underlying current responses to the global environmental crises. The article then
discusses different ways in which children can take on a role as agents of change and finishes
by considering the implications for changes to learning needed.
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In search of transformative ESD

In England, the Sustainable Schools Strategy (DCSF 2006) set out an agenda for ESD in
schools with three objectives:

. that by 2020 schools should have ESD integrated into the curriculum,
. that schools themselves should become models of sustainability and
. that their sustainable education remit encompasses the wider community.

However, as Sterling (2001) and others (Selby 2008, Scott 2009) argue, it is insufficient to
simply treat ESD as another body of knowledge for young people to learn; instead there
needs to be a more transformative approach to learning for sustainability which develops
in young people a culture and consciousness for critical learning and action, not only as citi-
zens, but also as active agents of change in developing more sustainable futures.
However, in spite of some noteworthy progress in ESD in some schools, the goal of
transformative learning has been more difficult to achieve in practice. In part, this
appears to be the result of a highly prescribed National Curriculum (in the UK) with its
emphasis on knowledge acquisition for the future rather than learning that is usable and
useful now. But it is also the result of a culture that sees change happening through adult
professional activity rather than people – including young people – in communities.
More broadly, there are problems with the assumptions and expectations that currently
underlie approaches to ESD (which we rehearse elsewhere, Percy-Smith 2010a). By way of
summary, these concern the intentions of ESD and the assumption that through acquiring
new knowledge we can address the global situation. We argue that this is unrealistic and
instead we need to focus on what people – including young people – can do at a local
level, in essence, changing the scale of our concern from the global to everyday spaces.
This ethos of community empowerment and action is ever more important as the new
coalition government in the UK has withdrawn support for the Sustainable Schools Strategy
and quangos such as the Sustainable Development Commission that have been instrumental
in catalysing learning and action.

Children’s participation in community development and social change

Participation across the UK has tended to focus on giving young people a say in decisions.
In schools across the UK, school councils are now common place as a symbol of student
 4 B. Percy-Smith and D. Burns

voice and the main vehicle for student participation in schools. However, while some con-
tribute significantly to progressing student voice, they fall short of the idea of the demo-
cratic school in which young people routinely participate as learners, active citizens and
agents of change by exercising autonomy, self-determination and leadership (Fielding
and Moss 2011). Writers such as Fielding (2001, 2004, 2006) criticise the current emphasis
on participation for effective organisations and services and instead call for a more “radical
collegiality” in approaches to student learning and participation wherein young people
themselves can be drivers (radical agents) of, rather than just participants in, change as com-
petent community builders alongside adults (see also Checkoway and Gutierrez 2006,
Mannion 2007). Given that participation, empowerment and transformative learning are
widely acknowledged as being key to ESD (Sterling 2001, Blewitt 2008, Selby 2008,
Wals and Jickling 2009), it is surprising that little emphasis has been placed on extending
understanding of participation beyond voicing an opinion to incorporate novel forms of par-
ticipation and action-based learning which directly support the active roles of young people
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in sustainable change processes.

Beyond the school gates within community and local environmental contexts, there is
also a significant body of evidence highlighting the role of young people as change agents
(see, for example, Hart 1997, Adams and Ingham 1998, Freeman 1999, Chawla 2002,
Checkoway and Gutierrez 2006, Corcoran and Osano 2009). Chawla (2002) draws together
projects from eight cities worldwide that came together as part of the UNESCO Growing
Up In Cities (GUIC) programme to engage young people in participatory action research
to evaluate and improve their local environments. The GUIC project provides an
example of how participatory action research can be used to engage young people as
active agents in a process of learning for change, bringing together research with action
in ways that can signal new approaches to ESD in schools. Heft and Chawla (2006)
argue that children are particularly suited to social and environmental learning and care
as a result of the way they reflexively engage with place while being and doing in the
environment in the course of their use of local places, resulting in high levels of environ-
mental competence. Yet, much of this engagement occurs in “worlds apart” from adults.
A key challenge is how to acknowledge and support children as social change agents in
relation to wider adult society.

An action research project exploring the impact of school-based learning for

sustainability
This article comes out of a year-long project funded by ESRC/HCA as one of 11 projects on
the Skills and Knowledge for Sustainable Communities programme to explore the role of
schools in bringing about sustainable communities; in particular, whether and how learning
in schools could spill over into action and change in communities. We were particularly
interested in exploring:

. what forms of learning for Sustainable Development are most likely to initiate action
and change in communities;
. what role young people could take; and
. the capacity for developing the role of schools beyond the immediate preoccupation
with educating children.

The project worked with six schools (three primary, three secondary), representing a
mix in terms of rural/urban and levels of social and economic well-being. NGO partners
 Local Environment 5

(ECO schools, Peace Child International and WWF) who acted as advisory partners on the
project were instrumental in selecting schools. We purposely chose schools that were
already committed to the ecoschools agenda because we wanted to learn from good prac-
tice. We used an action research approach involving four half-day inquiry-based workshops
in each school which involved young people in cycles of learning, action and reflection.
Typically, the research involved working with a group of approximately 25 young
people in each school. In selecting young people to volunteer in this project, we asked
schools for a mix of those who were active in ecoschool initiatives as well as those that
were not. In parallel, we organised inquiry groups of parents and local community
members, supported children in conducting home-based surveys and undertook a variety
of informal and reflective conversations with ESD leads, heads and school staff. In addition,
we organised two workshops with partner schools, NGOs and key players in the field where
insights from work with children were played back to support further sense making and
inform practice developments. Research inquiries with young people typically involved
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using activities and visual material to engage young people in thinking about the issues,
considering different responses and ideas for action, then in subsequent sessions reflecting
on what happened on taking those actions. Young people then undertook research in their
own school, analysed and drew conclusions from the findings and then identified measures
they could put in place within the school, e.g. to educate others about being more sustain-
able. This provided young people with the opportunity to develop a critical perspective,
become active researchers and engage in action. Within the parameters of the overarching
objectives and research questions, the inquiries differed between schools according to age
of students and extent to which the young people felt inclined to “own” the process. In
essence, the researchers provided a space to explore the aims of the project, within which
young people had the opportunity to “steer” the focus of their own inquiries with the
researcher acting as facilitator. In the secondary schools, there was a higher propensity
for young people to shape the focus of the inquiries and subsequent action, compared
with the primary schools where activities were used to “scaffold” children’s exploration
and articulation of ideas. Equally, in between the inquiries, secondary school students
were more predisposed to developing their own focus for action, whereas in the
primary schools, actions were decided together with the researcher. These included, for
example, suggesting the children decide on something they would like to discuss with
their parents and/or do as a result of their in school inquiries. These included, for
example, exploring whether they could start growing their own vegetables or extending
their inquiries in discussion with family members around specific issues such as where
they buy food. The underlying ethos of the approach in each context was to engage
young people in a process of critical inquiry as a way of exploring together how to maxi-
mise the impact from learning for sustainable development, but also to explore possibi-
lities for children’s agency in taking actions to contribute to sustainable development.
These inquiries were undertaken by the researchers independently of school activities
and were not assessed or accountable to the teacher in any way. Both researchers have
an explicit commitment to radical education and supporting children’s creative learning
and action; this research was therefore unrestricted by mainstream education or policy
agenda.

Children as active learners and agents of change

As part of the inquiries undertaken in this project, we encouraged young people to be
action focused by thinking about the roles and actions they could take. While some of
 6 B. Percy-Smith and D. Burns

the ideas for action young people identified were followed through, others were not due
to the time and resource constraints of the project. However, taken together, the inquiries
provide insights into how young people conceive of their own potential for active roles in
their communities.
Here we discuss four key ways in which young people can take on roles as active agents
of change in sustainable development.

Leaders and activists in community-based projects and campaigns

Young people’s participation is more meaningful and effective if they have initiated, and
therefore own, the ideas and projects themselves (Percy-Smith 2009). So often participation
opportunities are prescribed by adults, with little acknowledgement that young people are
often creative and dynamic in generating their own ideas for action; although we also argue
that adults have a duty to provide spaces and opportunities for young people’s participation.
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Either way we are concerned here with young people taking on leadership roles in commu-
nity-based learning and action as individuals and groups (Davies and Badham 2007, Wool-
combe 2007, Percy-Smith 2009) rather than young people’s participation in informing adult
leadership which is so often the case. This shift is crucial for the development of young
people’s participation in moving beyond the relatively benign and passive, though impor-
tant, act of expressing a view, to becoming active participants in decisions and actions in
response to issues at hand. This shift also ensures that power and decision making are
not controlled by adults for the purposes of the adult agenda, instead it acknowledges
that young people themselves can initiate and act on decisions according to their own
agenda. The idea of young people as leaders in participation can be understood in three
ways:
initiating an idea and acting on it (autonomous action)

taking a leadership role in a project or initiative regardless of who has initiated the idea and. . .

having a lead or controlling influence over decisions or proceedings (Percy-Smith 2009).

Action can take the form of projects, campaigns, research, community and peer education
or simply directly making changes or taking action in their communities. Developing and
implementing ideas and schemes, for example, producing guides to encourage more sus-
tainable shopping behaviours (see the case study below), finding ways of improving
travel to school and exploring how to reduce energy consumption are all ways that
young people have taken a lead as active agents of change in their communities. Many
of the ideas young people have emerge quite spontaneously according to their interests
in the course of their everyday interactions and experiences.

Case study 1: Exploring possibilities for change through a school no-energy day
This idea was initiated, organised and run by young people – with adult support
during this research. It involved the whole school actively engaging in a learning
experience about what living sustainably really means in practice. The initiative
started with one of the students initiating an email survey of school staff asking
them what they thought of a “no-energy day”. She had 21 replies. Many were posi-
tive, some expressed opposition and concern and others raised issues to think about
while remaining supportive, with many offering constructive suggestions to get
around barriers.
 Local Environment 7

I think its a great idea! The obvious problem would be the lack of computers – [. . .] but
if people were given plenty of warning [. . .] we could get around it. Perhaps there
would need to be certain exceptions eg. office staff – but all the classrooms could be
electricity free . . . if teachers can’t plan a lesson without computers then pupils should
offer to help.

I think this idea could be very educational for ALL the people at the school. It will need
to be carefully thought through as to which day we choose to do this but with everyone’s
help and advanced planning it will work.

The survey process was itself an insightful piece of action-based learning. Issues raised
by teachers served as a powerful aid to further inquiry and planning, raising lots of
helpful questions. Young people’s response to almost every concern raised was to
think of a constructive solution, and then discuss how to communicate this back to
the teachers. For example, “we should try to involve the catering team, and ensure
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that they only make cold food on that day, and salads”. And to other issues: the
Design and Technology department could use hand tools; registration could be done
by hand; bells could be rung manually.
As issues were raised and responded to, teachers and students both developed
a sense of collaboration and ownership in the process. Young people talked about
the people that were already supporting them and how they could help to
mobilise that support. The process activated a different sort of relationship
between pupil and teachers, where young people are respected for taking
action, but also whereby both teachers and students learned together through dia-
logue and negotiation.
The school management team supported the no energy day and it went ahead on 26
June 2008. Assemblies were held to explain the importance of supporting the day. On
the day, changes were put in place. The food technology class was making cold wraps,
the textile class was teaching “basic skills” of tacking and sewing instead of using
machines and English students were writing ECO poems.
The day was extremely successful. The main reasons for this were the determination
of one of the students to drive the process; the commitment and ability of young people
to offer alternative solutions every time a negative response was presented and to
demonstrate and communicate these; the consistent support from one teacher who
ensured that everything happened; and the preparedness of the school to challenge
assumptions (for example, that lights had to be on in corridors to ensure health and
safety or that hot food had to be provided at lunchtime).
The thinking of students about how to generate action was quite sophisticated:

We need to drip feed teachers so they use the ideas from now [to] “get them to put sustainable
stuff in their lessons”

They decided to have a “battle of the bands” to ensure that information about the day
was disseminated to a captive audience.

I wouldn’t come to a talk but they can’t leave if we do it between songs

In this way, the day not only demonstrated the capacity of young people as agents of
change but in undertaking the day, it opened up a powerful opportunity for transforma-
tive learning for sustainability for all. Young people’s own reflections on the process
 8 B. Percy-Smith and D. Burns

clearly illustrate the energy that is brought to the process when sense making is com-
bined with action:

I found it good because we have our first step now up until our next meeting we have things to do

Very interesting and very useful. Planned out, I can actually see it working and be like we have
some sort of purpose something we can see

We discussed the theory now we are getting to the act

We are more passionate. We can see what we are doing. It’s fantastic.

What was interesting from this research is that many exciting examples of child and youth-
led development projects became evident. Yet, it was also clear that many of these may not
have arisen if a space had not been created by this research project or through the work of
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ESD practitioners and school staff. This is not to say these adults should not be providing
these opportunities, rather that if the learning and action of young people is to become a way
of being, opportunities for participation and leadership need to be a natural part of their
everyday experiences. This reflects what Pells (2010) sees as a challenge in terms of
“lived participation” rather than “invited or performed participation”. If young people are
to become effective actors of social change in sustainable development, their creativity,
energy and entrepreneurial inclinations need to be allowed expression as a matter of
course. Adults therefore need to ensure spaces exist within the social and cultural make
up of schools for young people to be creative, exercise agency and take on leadership roles.

Community researchers
One of the ways in which young people can take action is through community-based
research. As projects such as the GUIC project (Chawla 2002) or the Child Reporters of
Orissa (Acharya 2010) demonstrate, research provides a context for children to engage
in action in their communities. In some of the schools we worked with on this project,
class-based learning was sometimes followed up with “extended” project-based learning
beyond the classroom in the wider community.

Case study 2: Encouraging sustainable shopping habits

In one of the secondary schools, students engaged in inquiry into how people could
shop more sustainably. Their aim was to help the town become a “sustainable food
zone”. To do this, they realised they needed to identify the patterns of sustainable shop-
ping, what affects people’s shopping habits and ways of changing people’s habits. The
students undertook a survey into food and shopping habits in the local town. This gave
students an opportunity to engage in learning from real issues. They found that most
people used supermarkets, but many wanted to use local shops more and buy local
produce, but often did not because of cost and availability. They decided that if more
independent local shops selling local produce could be encouraged, these would con-
tribute to a more sustainable town by supporting local business, bringing the commu-
nity together and helping people to shop more sustainably. But the students also
found that many did not use or know about some local shops. In response to issues
raised by the food survey, students felt that if they provided information about the
issues and what is available, then this would encourage people to shop more sustain-
ably. The result was a Sustainable Food Guide put together by students. The guide
 Local Environment 9

was well received and while not bringing about wholescale sustainability did support
some incremental changes to shopping habits.

While young people and the public at large may have little direct influence on food
supply, they can indirectly influence the economics of food production and retail through
changes in demand patterns. Raising awareness and providing information can help to
encourage changes in behaviour, and young people can play a key role in that process.
What was particularly valuable about this example was that this research was initiated and
conducted by young people rather than young people being used as researchers by adults.

Young people as “peer educators”

So often in education, learning is seen as a one-way process with adults as the teachers and
young people as learners. Yet, there is a significant body of evidence which acknowledges
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the value of peer-to-peer learning (Bailey et al. 1992, Harrison 1998, Shier 2010). Child-to-
child is an approach to health promotion in communities which actively involves young
people in promoting good health for themselves, their families and communities. The approach
links school and community through a six-step process which brings together research plan-
ning, action and evaluation in one process. Shier’s example of the promotoros/as in Nicaragua
provides an example of how young people can learn and gradually develop the capacities for
peer education within their communities. One of the NGO partners in this project – Peace Child
International – similarly has an established peer education programme.

Case study 3: Be the Change Challenge “Ambassadors of Change” project

Peace Child International is an NGO specialising in empowering young people to
engage in youth-led community-based action projects and sustainable lifestyle pro-
grammes to improve environments and contribute to a more sustainable world. One
of its projects is Be The Change Challenge in which young people are empowered to
put into practice sustainable practices in their own lives and communities through “life-
style contracts”. As part of this initiative, there is a BTCC Ambassadors of Change pro-
gramme which trains and supports secondary school students already involved in BTCC
to extend the principles and practices of the programme to their peers and younger stu-
dents through workshops, games and presentations. Comments from young people who
had been involved in BTCC said that it had helped or encouraged them to take action.

By acting as peer educators, young people are taking responsibility for leadership roles
in catalysing the spread of learning and action among other young people. This role is
neither a research role nor a form of direct action, but rather involves young people in build-
ing community capacity by empowering others to also become learners and agents of
change, in a similar vein to child-to-child approaches or the promotoros/as in Nicaragua.

Young people as community educators

The assumption underlying ESD is that young people need to be educated with the skills
and knowledge to live sustainably. Yet, while many adults have at least some knowledge
and awareness of sustainability issues, there is no general provision of ESD for adults.
In this research, one of the questions young people considered was: How do communities
learn how to become more sustainable? In response to this question, young people saw that
they could potentially play a role in educating others in the community.
 10 B. Percy-Smith and D. Burns

We can educate adults, organise events with adults invited and talk to them about what we have
learnt. (15-year-old girl)

Some saw this happening through information and awareness raising, for example, by
putting up posters around the community. Others suggested they could go out to community
groups and organisations and give talks to adults about what they are learning, why it is impor-
tant and what people can do to live more sustainably. Some of children’s responses included:

We could hold a workshop about sustainability and then teach adults in the community

Presentations from young people who know how to become sustainable

A celebration event to publicise our good work to help others learn from it

Need to use our thinking and listening skills to help others learn
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School radio station and website

Go round in groups and tell people how to reduce, recycle and reuse

Give advice and remind people to be more sustainable

We could do a video on why you could be more sustainable. We could have a big meeting in the
village hall and project it.

Design a poster to go on local notice boards

Door knocking to spread the message

It was not possible to trial and evaluate all these suggestions in this project; however, the
significance of these responses is not to come up with any grand solutions but to illustrate
children’s creativity, dynamism and propensity for action as community educators. The
rationale is simply that if young people are benefiting from ESD, and if change depends
on wider community learning, then young people could (and indeed express a desire to)
play a role in acting on their learning by educating others. In reflecting on possible roles
for young people in a wider process of sustainable community education and development,
adults similarly recognised the potential role young people can play as community educa-
tors and learning together. In response to the question of how young people could take more
of a role, one teacher suggested:

Allowing the young people to share what they have learnt, model good practice and lead
change projects and community learning initiatives outside of school . . . projects and activities
which involve and share learning with people in the community. (Teacher)

However, rather than see this as a one-way process, adults also suggested the value of interge-
nerational co-learning. Intergenerational learning and participation have been similarly argued
for elsewhere (Cockburn 1998, Fielding 2004, Percy-Smith 2006, Mannion 2007). Mannion,
for example, argues the need to see children’s participation as an intergenerational process in
which “going spatial” means “going relational”, with the negotiation of power between young
people and adults a central feature of spaces for children’s participation characterised as a social
learning process involving a “struggle for recognition” (see also Percy-Smith 2006, Fitzgerald
et al. 2010). An interesting example of this was a discussion of energy use and consumerism by
 Local Environment 11

young people in one school. They recognised that they needed to use less energy and buy less
commodities (televisions for example), but they did not think that they would have the disci-
pline to enforce this upon themselves. They thought that what was needed was for them to
educate their parents, which would enable their parents to enforce the behaviours that they
thought was needed but which they did not have the self-discipline to apply. This is a sophis-
ticated understanding of power and roles and theories of change.
The value of intergenerational learning goes beyond transmission of knowledge, instead
it provides a context for collaborative inquiry and development of ideas for future projects
(child- as well as adult- and jointly initiated) in the community in ways that acknowledge
and use the skills and experience that both adults and young people can bring (Percy-Smith
2006). At a superficial level, we can see this in terms of the mutual exchange of expertise
between young people and adults, for example, older citizens sharing their experiences of
how they lived more sustainably during the second world war, while young people share the
benefits of their skills and learning through school. Yet, this functional exchange while of
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some importance is not of most value here. The real value of intergenerational activity is in
the deeper levels of learning and interaction between young people and adults.

The more people talk about sustainable development the more people get involved. (16-year-
old boy)

The exchange of different values and perspectives in dialogue is a powerful learning oppor-
tunity and at the same time can contribute to a sense of community solidarity, collective
efficacy, mutual valuing and respect, which can in turn help to build social capital and
create a basis for understanding and trust from which young people’s roles as active com-
munity participants can be developed. As Herrera (2006) states: “Socialisation processes
are becoming more bidirectional with youth playing a more intensified role in teaching
and socialising the older generation to adapt to new technology and cultural patterns associ-
ated with globalisation” (in Osano and Corcoran 2009, p. 29).
The roles set out here for young people as agents of change are resonant with thinking and
practice in discourses of children’s participation, active citizenship and student voice (Fielding
2004, Percy-Smith and Thomas 2010). In particular, they are resonant with the principles and
practices of the child-to-child approach or the GUIC project widely used and acclaimed in
development (Johnson et al. 1998, Chawla 2002). However, they are not wholly supported
or promoted by current approaches to learning in most schools. If the realisation of children’s
participation in developing more sustainable communities as active change agents is to be
achieved, then there needs to be a different approach to learning in schools.

To succeed at transforming the social order, we must be able to recognize and facilitate the
process of democratic self-development in the young and to build educational and institutional
settings in which their evolving characters and identities can flourish. (Jim Block 2008)

Challenges to young people taking on roles as agents of change

Three factors had a particularly strong influence on whether young people were able to act
on their learning.

The extent to which young people had developed a sense of agency

For young people to develop a sense of agency, they need to develop a critical conscious-
ness and a sense of their own capabilities. This is more likely to come through young people
 12 B. Percy-Smith and D. Burns

constructing their own learning, having space to articulate their own talents and creativity
and have opportunities to put into practice ideas and action, rather than being passive con-
sumers of education.
Deuchar (2007) develops an interesting “alternative” thesis of education for empower-
ment and citizenship in terms of a re-interpretation of “enterprise education” as an attempt
to reconcile the dual policy goals of enterprise and citizenship education, and involving a
renewed focus on values and democracy in education. She argues for an emphasis on indi-
vidual enterprise characterised by dispositions and capabilities people have and develop as
active citizens. Deuchar argues that this view of enterprise is not about producing business
people of tomorrow, nor does it play to the communitarian inclinations of Blairite philos-
ophy, rather it is about unleashing the potential of individuals to exercise their abilities
and take an active role and exercise a sense of empowerment as architects of their own
life and community.
Reflecting on trends in young people’s participation in majority and minority world
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countries, Williams et al. (2010) note that adults in western countries are reluctant to let
go and trust young people unlike in many majority world countries. They argue instead
for an interpretation of participation based on self-determination and the ability to make
choices and decisions in one’s own life. In the context of environmental sustainability,
this means environmental competence (Heft and Chawla 2006) and social efficacy.
In talking about people being empowered as architects of their own lives, we are by
implication concerned with a process of learning which is action-focused. Through the
act of looking at the world and one’s own position in relation to it, the learner becomes
aware of his/her own possibilities for action, as Freire’s (1970) theory of conscientisation
stated. Through reflection and inquiry, for example, through action research processes,
the individual is able to build skills and understanding which can open up choices for
alternative action and build capacity for self-determination and empowerment. By situating
learning within the context of experience and self-awareness, reflection and inquiry natu-
rally follow as learners seek to understand their place in the world. Inquiry at individual,
social and systemic levels gives rise to a holistic focus as people relate local realities to
wider social, economic and environmental systems. Through person-centred, inquiry-
based learning and reflection, individuals and communities can develop a sense of empow-
erment over their lives and strategies to fulfil that goal. However, generating new thinking is
a creative process requiring space for new ideas and visions to germinate, take root and
blossom. Developing new possibilities for action therefore is necessarily an experimental,
reflective and emergent process of learning.

Opportunities for young people to take the initiative and engage in action within and
outside of the school
There is a growing realisation of the need for “new democratic spaces” and opportunities
for participation to create a more engaged and empowered citizenry (Gaventa 2007).
This needs to extend to young people as well as adults. It is insufficient for young
people to simply learn about sustainability and possibilities for change without having
the opportunity to take on roles and engage in community learning and action (De
Winter 1997)

We need enough time created for open-ended investigation and links to the creative curriculum
. . . Young people instigating action research to explore and solve their own issues is a positive
step . . . and empowers them to take action. (ESD coordinator)
 Local Environment 13

There are many potential “opportunity spaces” that already exist in schools for young
people to get involved in action. In some cases, these may not be realised and in others,
opportunities for action may be blocked or not encouraged as a result of adult perceptions
of children’s abilities to, for example, give talks to local community members.
It is essential that if, as is the case with ESD, the underlying rationale is to equip young
people with the necessary skills and knowledge to live more sustainably, then as Bentley
(1998) argues, it is important that the effectiveness of that education is reflected in the pro-
pensity for young people to use that learning practically outside of the classroom. For Field-
ing (2004), this necessitates focusing attention on the conditions for student engagement in
particular

spaces and practise within and between . . . organisations that nurture dialogue, not as exotic or
special features of otherwise quite different institutions, but as integral practices of human
learning and daily encounter (p. 211).
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In essence, what Fielding is arguing for, and which we echo here, is the development of
schools as person-centred learning communities characterised by cultures of participation
and dialogue in which students can engage actively in “leading or initiating, rather than
just responsive roles” (Fielding 2004, p. 202). One of the interesting ideas to emerge
from this work was the idea of developing schools as intergenerational sustainable commu-
nity learning and development centres much in the same way as the Urban Studies centres
of the 1970s did (Ward and Fyson 1976; see also Warburton et al. 2008, who develop a
framework for community learning and action).

Adult recognition of young people’s competence and provision of support to take on

active roles
Adult support for children’s action in turn requires challenging limiting mindsets about
what children can do. However, seeking to change culturally entrenched social construc-
tions of childhood as in some way lacking competence might be more easily undertaken
experientially by children being supported in taking action, thus demonstrating their abil-
ities (Schusler et al. 2009). The implications are for the development through experience
of new social relations between adults and children in communities and schools.

Implications for education and learning

When we think about how these ideas translate into strategies for education, the concern is
not with new sets of policy targets and initiatives to force through the existing education
system (although that may be a way to start). Instead, we need to respond to these issues
in terms of a different way of thinking about how and where we construct learning as
part of our everyday life experiences in ways that are in direct relation with our lived
realities.
This means challenging the overriding ethos of education focusing on the acquisition of
skills and knowledge as future capital to plug into social and economic systems. Instead to
foster education for human flourishing now – person centred, human scale education, loca-
lised, experiential, critical, creative, empowering and action focused (Percy-Smith 2010a).
This needs to involve learning beyond school settings in the context of everyday life (learn-
ing in, and on, action) – in communities, neighbourhoods, organisations and involving all
members of a populace, not just young people and those who need to go back to college to
 14 B. Percy-Smith and D. Burns

retrain or pursue CPD. The implications of all these in terms of how we might be thinking
about new approaches to learning1 include developing a focus on:

. developing schools as multigenerational person-centred learning communities;

. increasing the role of learning beyond the classroom;
. rooting learning in local lives – including fostering higher levels of experience and
connections with nature;
. placing emphasis on empowerment and personal development, including raising
levels of confidence and esteem through helping young people realise and articulate
their talents and abilities within and in contribution to the community;
. switching emphasis from learning subjects to a more holistic education making sense
of experiences and interactions between individuals and the world around them;
. encouraging project work which extends beyond the school gates and involves com-
munity members more broadly;
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. intergenerational learning projects where young and old can learn together;
. giving children more responsibility – developing agency, enterprise and self-
determination;
. encouraging critical reflexivity through experiential and inquiry-based learning;
. placing greater emphasis on experimentation and developing creativity.

Conclusions
We have presented in this article a rationale for young people taking on more active and
central roles in sustainable learning and development processes in school and community.
In a sense, we are arguing for greater autonomy for young people to act in self-determining
ways without the restrictions of adults. We are not, however, arguing that young people
should be simply left on their own to get on with it, nor that adults should be without a
role. Indeed adults have a crucial role to play with young people as resources providing
support and facilitation and as co-learners.
Central to promoting the increasing role of young people as agents of change in com-
munities is the provision of spaces which are not always controlled by adults or defined by
the adult agenda but which also provide opportunities for young people to take action in
response to issues they feel passionate about. At the same time, the propensity to
become active citizens needs to be developed through practice at a young age as Hart
(1992) argues.
Action research provides a credible strategy for bringing all these learning objectives
together in one approach. Through this research, young people were able to readily
realise their abilities for engaging in deeper level inquiry-based learning and take action
within their schools, homes and communities. We contend that ESD is more effective if
supported by “whole school approaches” rather than one-off learning events as others
(Shallcross 2006) have similarly argued.
The difference that action research makes here as a strategy for ESD learning is that
rather than just learn new information which they may or may not respond to in future beha-
viours and decisions, through experiential learning, critical inquiry and opening up spaces
for action, young people are motivated to act on what they feel about what they have learnt.
In essence, through reflection on the issues in the action research process, (some) young
people get touched or affected by their learning such that they want to do something
about it.
 Local Environment 15

Finally, as always, the constraints of funding and time in this research meant that there
was not always time to try out ideas and learn from them. There is therefore a need for
further (action) research to explore further the value of some of the ideas put forward in
this article for how young people might play more of a role as agents of change in sustain-
able community development.

Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge funding for the research that this paper is based on from the
ESRC and the Housing and Communities Academy as part of the Skills and Knowledge for sustain-
able communities research programme RES-182-25-0038. The author would especially like to thank
the schools, young people and agency partners involved with this research. Thanks also to the special
issue editors for their helpful comments.
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Note
1. See also Sterling (2001, pp. 84 –85), Corcoran and Osano (2009) and Bentley (1998) for further
discussion of these ideas.

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