NZ research offers new insights into children’s anxiety about climate change

A team of New Zealand researchers have studied children’s representations of water in three early childhood education sites close to local waterscapes – an estuary, the ocean, and a river – with the aim of understanding children’s perspectives on what was happening to these waterscapes. 

 

The study is part of an international project led by Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, but locally embedded in the unique cultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand, including Mātauranga Māori (Indigenous knowledge). 

 

Researchers across Norway, Tanzania and New Zealand spent four days at each early childhood education site, joining excursions to waterways where they walked alongside children, took photographs of their representations of water and gathered over 80 narratives for analysis. 

 

“We knew from research with older learners that many young people are worried about climate change. According to the United Nations, one in five youth feels unprepared for climate change and are asking for better education to grasp its complexity. But we didn’t really know how very young learners felt, since no one had asked, until now,” Professor E Jayne White from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha / the University of Canterbury (UC) said. 

 

“While the Sustainable Development Goals and Education for Sustainability guidelines are being implemented by teachers, there is not much research about whether this is causing our young children to worry about climate change, how they are worrying, and the consequences of such worrying.” 

 

Water, the researchers soon learned, was a source of great worry for children. They expressed concern about the quality of drinking water, whether habitats were clean enough for fish and the power of water to create changes to coastal environments.

 

“Depending on how these worries were framed by their teachers, we found that responses ranged from children feeling burdened and overwhelmed by climate change or, conversely, to activating their sense of agency about how they might respond,” Professor White said.

 

The researchers are not concerned with the fact that children have these worries – the worry may, in fact, be a powerful agent for change and action. Rather, they framed their findings within the significance of the mediating role of their educators, and specifically, about how climate change was framed in a curriculum context. 

 

The study suggests the best approach is for teachers to create a communal sense of collective powerfulness (of ‘we’), rather than imposing a set of sustainability rules to be followed.

 

“We want to empower our tamariki (children) to feel they can address the challenges that lie ahead, together. Solutions are found in relationship ‘with’ people, places and things, including water,” Professor White explained. 

 

The cultural knowledge of the Maori people could also play a key role in supporting children in this space, fellow researcher Dr Ngaroma Williams (Te Arawa | Ngāti Raukawa ki Wharepūhunga|Ngāti Awa) explained.

 

“Making connections with water through whakapapa Māori provides a positive frame for young children,” Dr Williams said. “In this project, learning about Atua was a common thread, as was Matariki. When children learn that water is the blood of Papatūānuku (Earth mother), they begin to see deeper layers of encounter and how these carry with them a sense of responsibility.” 

 

Researchers found that learning about Atua (Māori deities) – Papatūānuku, Ranginui and Tangaroa – can help young children process their worries by personifying nature, providing a foundation for children to see themselves as kaitiaki or guardians of waterscapes.

 

Results from the New Zealand arm of the study were published as Walking with children and water in ECEC: Exploring the framing effects of actions for climate change, in the International Journal of Early Childhood.