YSJ Students and Ecological Justice: expectations, anxieties and agencyPhase 1 research (July 2020)
In July 2020 we conducted seven in-depth focus groups with 23 students representing all Schools and stages of study, enquiring into their emotional responses, sense of agency, and expectations of their university education with regard to ecological justice. Simultaneously we conducted a Mentimeter study of a much larger number of students, with questions covering similar territory.
Quantitative analysis
Quantitative analysis of the Mentimeter study by Silvia Szilagyiova generated intriguing findings, for example:
- Students who recognised the need for social justice and economic equality, and who saw the link between social justice and environmental sustainability, felt more empowered to work with others for change.
- Students felt climate and environmental issues to be more relevant to their life as citizens than to their professional life.
- Students placed climate and environmental issues below mental health, gender equality and diversity in order of importance, yet over 70% believed climate change affects their wellbeing.
These could then be investigated in greater depth through qual analysis of the focus group findings. This analysis was done by two researchers (Jude Parks and Clare Cunningham). Their research focused primarily on questions around students’ sense of agency, responding to some of the tensions and contradictions above.
Outputs
Agency: qualitative analysis
Their analysis found several layers of factors which disempowered students – ranging from their frustration with the actions of others, to feeling overwhelmed by the scale of the climate problem, to their perception that as employees they would have little influence over their employers’ decisions.
Those students who did feel more empowered were those who were already connected to ecological justice issues through volunteering, activism, or educational experiences within their subject disciplines or extracurricular activities.
During focus groups, students’ views were seen to shift and deepen as they encountered other perspectives, for example exploring links between mental and physical health and climate change, or avenues for influence within their professional life which they had not previously considered. The experience of the focus groups thus pointed to the overarching value of creating opportunities within university life for students to explore their beliefs around ecological justice
Outputs
Emotional discourses
A further analysis of the data by Cath Heinemeyer focused on students’ emotional stances towards ecological justice and the corresponding desires they had from their university education. This yielded five distinct emotional discourses, within individual students often expressing more than one discourse with focus groups.