From remembering to futuring: preparing children for Anthropocene
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ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
From remembering to futuring: preparing children for Anthropocene Mohsen Taheri Demneh 1
&
Zahra Heidari Darani 1
Accepted: 11 August 2020 # AESS 2020
Abstract Future generations are at risk from the effects of climate change. We have created these dangers, but our children must live with them. Mankind’s impact on the Earth’s systems, from atmospheric to oceanic, has become so extreme that they have led to a dystopian image of the future, called “the Anthropocene age,” and there are solid reasons for this image. But can we prepare children for adaptation or change only by presenting pessimistic images to them? In order to answer this question, we have examined how children tend to act to mitigate climate change, even leading social movements in order to achieve sustainable development goals. In this article, we examine children’s images of the future of the Anthropocene climate. We extracted these images from 198 students (aged 9–13) from different schools in the city of Isfahan, using the write, draw, show, and tell method. The two main themes of children’s images of the future were environmental utopian and dystopian images. The dystopian images came from children who were inactive and who did not accept any responsibility, but many of those who considered themselves to be influential in changing the future of the environment presented positive and optimistic images of the future. The research emphasizes the fact that merely understanding images of the future is not enough and that any positive change in the long-term future can be achieved only through the participation of new generations. Keywords Long-term futures . Future workshops . WDST analysis . Anthropocene . Child-led
Introduction Our image of the future often determines our current actions and plans. So, perhaps, when we think about the future or talk about the future, our children should also have a major part in the debate. We think about their future, their life, their education, and their prosperity and try to create a better future for them, but do they, as bona fide owners of the future, have a say in their preferred future (Gáspár and Laurén 2013)? Since young people will be playing a major role in the future, recognizing their images of the future is important (Araya and Kabakian 2004), but do they appreciate that they will no longer be young one day and that they will have to take
* Mohsen Taheri Demneh [email protected] Zahra Heidari Darani [email protected] 1
Futures Studies Department, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technologies, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
on larger and more influential roles? Understanding young people and children’s images of the future is really important, but more important still is the need to prepare them for altering their image of the future. In fact, they need to be clearly aware of this issue, which can have a major role in determining different futures. Young people’s images of the future are influenced by current social and political concerns, such as war, vi
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