Environmental Awareness and Environmental Behavior – Challenges and Design Potential of Generation Z with Special Consideration of Waldorf Educational Socialization

Environmental Awareness and Environmental Behavior – Challenges and Design Potential of Generation Z with Special Consideration of Waldorf Educational Socialization

The current Shell Youth Study attests that for the “Youth 2019,” environmental and climate protection, compared to earlier cohorts, has moved into focus as an issue of personal concern for adolescents (Shell, 2019, 15). Fridays for Future is understood as a movement

“whose core demand is that the goals set at the Paris Climate Summit at the end of 2015 for the global reduction of CO2 emissions be met in order to limit the resulting global warming to a maximum increase of 1.5 degrees” (Sommer et al., 2019, 2).

There are indications that this group of adolescents is characterized by an increased willingness to take responsibility for issues oriented toward the common good and to advocate for their implementation. This can be understood as an expression of a value orientation in the tension between autonomy and community.

It can be assumed that dealing with questions of sustainable lifestyles leads to reactions of varying intensity among young people. These can serve both as a starting point for motivation to acquire knowledge and for the development of attitudes and mindsets, as well as for actual behavior in practice. At the same time, there is reason to assume that the level of knowledge, attitude/mindset, and behavior influence how carefree or how burdensome engagement with questions of sustainable lifestyles is experienced.

The research project addresses the overarching question of how adolescents of Generation Z relate to sustainability issues at the levels of knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. In addition, it examines the conditions and circumstances under which adolescents join this movement and which internal processes are relevant in doing so. Another important focus of the planned study concerns influences that are perceived by the adolescents themselves, as well as by teachers, in the formation of the adolescents’ attitudes and behaviors.

Do Waldorf students exhibit particular attitudes, coping strategies, and patterns of action?

The concept of Waldorf education is based on an ecological and holistic approach to life. For example, the shared mission statement of the German Waldorf schools states: “Value orientation, the development of social skills, and the strengthening of personal responsibility are important educational and teaching goals” (Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen, 2009). Against the background outlined above, the planned research project focuses primarily on the school socialization of students, with Waldorf educational socialization being of particular interest.

Researchers: Prof. Dr. Janne Fengler, Prof. Dr. Stefanie Greubel, Prof. Dr. Jost Schieren, Laura Brüggen

You can find insights into current research findings from January 2025 here.

Sources:

Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen (2009): Common Mission Statement of German Waldorf Schools. Available online at: <https://www.waldorfschule.de/fileadmin/downloads/Leitbild.pdf, last accessed on 11.08.21.

Shell (2019): 18th Shell Youth Study – Youth 2019 – A Generation Speaks Up. Shell.de. Available online at: <https://www.shell.de/about-us/shell-youth-study/_jcr_content/par/toptasks.stream/1570810209742/9ff5b72cc4a915b9a6e7a7a7b6fdc653cebd4576/shell-youth-study-2019-flyer-de.pdf, last accessed on 11.08.21.

Sommer, M.; Rucht, D.; Haunss, S.; Zajak, S. (2019): Fridays for Future. Profile, Emergence, and Perspectives of the Protest Movement in Germany. ipb working paper 2/2019. Available online at https://www.otto-brenner-stiftung.de/fileadmin/user_data/stif-tung/02_Wissenschaftsportal/03_Publikationen/2019_ipb_FridaysForFuture.pdf, last accessed on 08.02.2021.