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Ilkka Ratinen is an associate professor in sustainability and outdoor education at the University of Lapland. He graduated from the University of Joensuu with a Ph.D in physical geography in 2005 and from the University of Jyväskylä with a Ph.D in science education in 2016.
Humanity is living in a climate emergency where climate change should be significantly mitigated; additionally, greater efforts should be made to adapt to it. To date, relatively little research has been carried out on young people’s skills in terms of them mitigating and, in particular, adapting to the changes caused by climate change. The complex climate change issues of mitigation and adaptation are conceptually difficult for children because climate change is not directly evidenced in their daily lives. This study focuses on looking at mitigation and adaptation from the perspective of children. Meaning-making coping strategies enable the maintenance of constructive hope regarding climate change. In the present study, elementary and secondary students (n = 950) responded to an online questionnaire. Statistical methods were used to gather data on how students’ general knowledge of climate change and their mitigation and adaptation knowledge predicted their constructive hope regarding climate change. This study reveals that the students had a relatively high level of constructive hope and that general climate change knowledge predicted students’ constructive hope well.
Ilkka Ratinen. Students’ Knowledge of Climate Change, Mitigation and Adaptation in the Context of Constructive Hope. Education Sciences 2021, 11, 103 .
AMA StyleIlkka Ratinen. Students’ Knowledge of Climate Change, Mitigation and Adaptation in the Context of Constructive Hope. Education Sciences. 2021; 11 (3):103.
Chicago/Turabian StyleIlkka Ratinen. 2021. "Students’ Knowledge of Climate Change, Mitigation and Adaptation in the Context of Constructive Hope." Education Sciences 11, no. 3: 103.
Climate change is a global concern, and the need to address it is urgent. Therefore, climate change education has been developed in recent years. Meaning making, coping strategies, and solution-oriented climate education tasks enable and maintain hope for positive results with regard to climate change. However, there is still uncertainty as to how students’ knowledge of climate change mitigation measures affects their attitudes. In the present study, elementary and secondary students in Finland (n = 950) responded to an online questionnaire. A principal component analysis, a hierarchical regression analysis, a correlation coefficients, a t-test, and a Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance were used for the analysis to understand what kind of hope students had towards climate change and how their knowledge and optimism regarding climate change affected their hope. The data revealed that the students had a relatively high constructive hope rather than denial hope when it comes to climate change. Additionally, this hope was not built on a minimisation of climate change. The results indicated that the significant predictors for climate change mitigation were gender, climate change knowledge, and constructive hope. A typology of student positions with regard to climate change is introduced as conclusions.
Ilkka Ratinen; Satu Uusiautti. Finnish Students’ Knowledge of Climate Change Mitigation and Its Connection to Hope. Sustainability 2020, 12, 2181 .
AMA StyleIlkka Ratinen, Satu Uusiautti. Finnish Students’ Knowledge of Climate Change Mitigation and Its Connection to Hope. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (6):2181.
Chicago/Turabian StyleIlkka Ratinen; Satu Uusiautti. 2020. "Finnish Students’ Knowledge of Climate Change Mitigation and Its Connection to Hope." Sustainability 12, no. 6: 2181.