Exploring and narrating futures in undergraduate climate change education: an innovative teaching approach

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to focus on an innovative undergraduate teaching intervention designed to guide students in exploring and narrating the potential futures of climate change. The intervention aimed to reduce the psychological distance associated with climate change by systematically investigating futures in real-world contexts. The study had two objectives: to examine students’ learning outcomes by analysing their visions of a carbon-neutral future towards the end of the intervention and to measure the intervention’s impact on students’ understanding of climate change and their perceived ability to contribute effectively.

Design/methodology/approach

The intervention was implemented over two consecutive semesters. Data for analysis included student narratives from the final assignment (N = 140), where they envisioned life in a carbon-neutral city, and pre-/post-instruction surveys (N = 37) assessing content knowledge and action competence.

Findings

Content analysis of student narratives revealed 12 distinct themes, encompassing infrastructural and technological advancements, lifestyle adaptations and shifts in societal attitudes towards sustainability. Statistical analysis of the survey data demonstrated significant improvements in both variables. These findings suggest that the teaching intervention effectively enhanced students’ scientific understanding of climate change, increased their self-perceived ability to take action and fostered a realistic sense of life in a sustainable future.

Originality/value

This research introduces a novel teaching intervention exploring and narrating climate change futures. Analysing personal narratives provides fresh insights into how young individuals envision sustainable living within the context of climate change, thereby contributing a unique perspective to climate change education and future studies.

Citation

Liu, S.-C. (2024), "Exploring and narrating futures in undergraduate climate change education: an innovative teaching approach", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 25 No. 9, pp. 419-436. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-08-2023-0336

Introduction

Climate change is one of the most significant global challenges that requires collective efforts from individuals, communities and governments to drastically reduce emissions. Higher education prepares most of the professionals, community leaders and policymakers for our society, and thus plays a critical role in fostering awareness, knowledge, skills and values needed for creating a sustainable future (Griebeler et al., 2022; Žalėnienė and Pereira, 2021; Cortese, 2003). As more students enrol in higher education institutions worldwide, the demand for future-proof training (generally referred to as education for the future) is increasing (Pfautsch and Gray, 2017; Lloyd et al., 2010).

Within the literature in educational research, it is well acknowledged that climate change presents both conceptual and emotional difficulties, as well as epistemological challenges, despite its potential engagement for students (Tasquier et al., 2016; Kuster and Fox, 2017; González-Gaudiano and Meira-Cartea, 2010; Bhattacharya et al., 2021; Cordero et al., 2008). There is a widespread phenomenon where both students and the public are disengaged from climate change. The reasons may be varied, including economic interests, the convenience of maintaining the status quo and optimism bias. Central to these reasons is the psychological distance, which means that climate change is often perceived as an abstract and distant issue, both geographically and temporally. It is seen as something distant, abstract and more relevant to future generations or faraway places compared to one’s own immediate life (Van Lange and Huckelba, 2021, 2018).

Maiella et al. (2020), in their systematic review study, concluded that individuals who perceive climate change as less psychologically distant tend to show more concern about climate change and stronger intentions to engage in mitigation and adaption actions. This finding is particularly relevant as it addresses a common human behaviour: people often favour interests based on “here and now” over future interests. The challenge of teaching climate change is how to make it more compelling and meaningful to motivate sustainable behaviour change (Pahl and Bauer, 2013). It is important to go beyond teaching students the what, how and why about climate change and support them in imaging a more sustainable world and becoming personally and politically involved in making it a reality (Lloyd, 2011; Julien et al., 2018; Slaughter, 2008). Some researchers also emphasise the need to cultivate a sense of “hope” in the face of often negative and even depressing evidence of worsening climate change situation. They suggest that fostering hope can be a critical component in engaging students to act for the future (Ojala, 2012a; Ojala, 2012b; Bury et al., 2020).

Following this line of thought, futures-focused pedagogies have been advocated in recent years to cultivate forward-looking mindsets for addressing complex, far-reaching issues like climate change (Pauw, 2015; Paige et al., 2019). Taiwan, like many other countries, has declared net-zero emission targets by 2050, highlighting energy, industrial, lifestyle and social transitions (Taiwan National Development Council, 2022). Helping students to explore and visualise possible futures, and especially, focusing their attention on a carbon-neutral future, is considered a meaningful way of reducing the psychological distance to climate change (Lee et al., 2020; Fletcher, 2019). It not only emphasises the need for a transition to a low-carbon society but also highlights the long-term benefits of mitigation approaches.

Moreover, involving students in futures-focused discussions can enhance their motivation and commitment to addressing climate change by connecting their personal experiences and thoughts to real-world consequences and instilling a sense of responsibility (Costanza and Kubiszewski, 2014). By contemplating carbon-neutral scenarios, they can learn to identify potential factors/drivers and derive creative, innovative solutions (Inayatullah, 2008; Ott, 2023). Ultimately, fostering intellectual curiosity about a carbon-neutral future among university students, regardless of their field of study, is crucial to cultivating a forward-thinking mindset that will guide sustainable development and inspire future generations to engage in climate action.

This study is focused on an undergraduate teaching module that systematically guided students to explore and narrate futures of climate change. This module has been designed, implemented and revised over multiple semesters. The research questions (RQs) that guided the study are:

RQ1.

What are university students’ visions of a carbon neutral future as a result of exploring and narrating futures?

RQ2.

How does this futures-focused learning influence students’ scientific understanding of and self-perceived action competence about climate change?

RQ1 aims to explore university students’ visions of carbon-neutral futures through self-generated narratives in their final assignment, focusing on how they perceive the potential transformations in urban environments, technology and lifestyle choices that can lead to a more sustainable world. By investigating students’ perspectives, the author seeks to better understand their expectations and aspirations and identify the strengths and challenges of this teaching innovation for supporting student development as active agents of change in the face of climate challenges. RQ2 aims to examine the effectiveness of this futures-focused approach on students’ content knowledge (focused on system knowledge) and self-perceived action competence. By connecting the present with futures, the author expects that students will be more engaged in learning about climate change, and therefore will reach a higher level of systemic understanding and action competence at the end of the teaching module.

Futures in climate change education

Compared to many other college-level topics, effective communication is essential to successfully teaching climate science. This is particularly true, given that students often continue to hold insufficient or erroneous ideas and undesirable perceptions on this topic even after formal instruction (Wachholz et al., 2014; Kirk et al., 2014; Lambert et al., 2012). These studies indicate that university students generally feel detached and unengaged with the topic and possess a limited understanding of climate change. Pfautsch and Gray (2017) analysed benchmark data from Australia and revealed that the predominant emotions among university students were fear, sadness and anger, coupled with a lack of self-awareness regarding effective actions to mitigate global warming. Notably, although recognising the importance of mitigative actions, more than half of the students (N = 123) did not believe they could personally contribute to the process. Similar results were found in a recent study with Taiwanese university students; while recognising the urgency of climate change issues, many students were pessimistic about making positive changes for the climate future, and thus showed disengagement in climate action. Moreover, even after one-semester climate change instruction, their action-related perceptions remained low (Li and Liu, 2022).

Climate change is characterised by “future” instead of “now”. Many consequences of climate change and other long-term environmental changes only become visible in the future, and thus people perceive these issues as distant or of little relevance to their lives. The benefits of communicating environmental changes through future scenarios has been researched by a number of communication psychologists. Future scenarios are representations of plausible future worlds. Developing and presenting future scenarios can help learners connect the learning of climate change to their life worlds and serve as a vehicle for a more imaginative and coherent conversation about the future (Lloyd, 2011; Paige and Lloyd, 2016; Hoffman et al., 2021; Doyle, 2020; Hicks, 2012). This approach has a great potential to reduce superficial understanding of, and psychological distance to, climate change (Winterbottom et al., 2008; Negrete and Lartigue, 2010; Morris et al., 2019; Lee et al., 2020), mainly for its immersion and perspective-taking effect (Pahl and Bauer, 2013). According to Trope and Liberman (Trope et al., 2007; Trope and Liberman, 2000; Trope and Liberman, 2010), when individuals were exposed to a concrete, vivid representation of a future event, they are likely to perceive that event as temporally closer. Moreover, Hershfield (2011) suggested that the degree to which an individual can imagine the future self is correlated with the degree to which they will engage in far-sighted behaviour, such as saving for the future.

Scientists often use future scenarios to portray future events or phenomena based on the best contemporary assumptions about possible changes. Climate scientists, especially, have been using this method to make predictions (IPCC, 2013; IPCC, 2014; IPCC, 2022a; IPCC, 2022b). However, future scenarios derived by climate scientists are focused on facts, statistics and examples. Making future scenarios more tangible and meaningful for learners would require a narrative application. Narrating future scenarios can strengthen the presentation and interpretation of these important scientific findings by bringing futures alive and making the impact of climate change more compelling and relevant (Pahl and Bauer, 2013). Especially, through developing narratives of future scenarios by themselves, learners have the opportunity to get engaged in envisioning the future, connecting the future possibilities to their current lifestyles and community choices and contemplating the meaning of decision-making and action in light of their future envisioning. In the context of politics education in Germany, Nordensvard (2014) used a narrative approach towards the future, which engaged high school students as story-tellers. He suggested that this method was effective in engaging students in thinking about social changes and exploring in-depth their views about the future. It was found that, despite negative and pessimistic future visions dominating students’ narrative writings, there were traces of hope (leading to a new system) and, more interestingly, when asked about their own futures, their description became more positive. As indicated by several researchers, having a good understanding of students’ negative emotions about the future can serve as a basis upon which instruction is developed to help student thoughtfully process available information and to build a positive attitude towards overcoming challenges in their warming, living world (Pfautsch and Gray, 2017; Nordensvard, 2014). In the context of environmental communication, Sheppard and colleagues (2011) have used future scenarios to engage local communities in addressing future environmental change. Environmental change was made more compelling and meaningful through the development of specific localised scenarios with certain level of narration and based on rigorous scientific information. These local scenarios were presented in participatory planning sessions and seemed to be effective in enabling more engaging and understandable discussion among different stakeholders in local communities.

Several science educators have advocated the use of future scenarios and scenario writing to foster deep learning and foresight among students, including pre-service science teachers (Paige and Lloyd, 2016; Lloyd, 2011; Lloyd et al., 2010; Paige et al., 2018). For instance, in Paige and Lloyd’s (2016) case study, pre-service teachers participated in a campus workshop where they gathered data and developed a relationship with a significant tree on campus. They were then tasked with envisioning the tree site 20 years into the future. During this exercise, they were encouraged to visualise how the university campus may change over that time while adopting a utopian rather than dystopian worldview. The analysis of the scenario writing revealed that pre-service teachers were able to acknowledge the past and project into the future, envisioning a more hopeful possible future.

Although above findings are encouraging, there is little evidence on whether and how narratives (as materials) and narrating (as activities) future scenarios facilitate deeper learning of climate change in actual teaching practices. In addition, the features and depth of narratives created by learners deserve much more research attention as they may provide fresh insights into underlying reasons and patterns of their thinking and feeling about the climate future for themselves and others, as well as their involvement in shaping it.

The teaching module under study

This study was undertaken in the context of an introductory climate change course intended for all majors at a public research-oriented university in Taiwan. A futures-focused, narrative-based teaching module (9 h) was developed specifically for this semester-long elective course. This module, taught by the researcher who is a science educator, was introduced as the final component, following two earlier components instructed by a marine scientist and a sociologist, respectively. Over approximately ten weeks in these two earlier components, students explored a number of climate change topics, including Earth’s climate systems, climate and marine environments, climate and energy, ocean-based renewable energy, food and agriculture under climate change, global climate change and environmental ethics and international responses to climate change. Having obtained substantial knowledge about the mechanisms, impacts and both international and local responses, with a focus on Taiwan’s most affected domains, the final component was designed to provide students with scaffolds and opportunities to contemplate climate change from a futures perspective. The goal of this module is to support students in applying their understanding innovatively and fostering a forward-looking mindset towards the complex challenges of climate change.

The module was developed based on an instructional framework (refer to Table 1) that was adapted from previous studies on futures thinking and narrative writing (Julien et al., 2018; Lloyd et al., 2010). The first theme, “exploring futures”, consisted of four phases. During these phases, students were systematically guided to explore possible future scenarios related to climate change, based on scientific evidence, and compare their major differences. For example, they were introduced to an online platform (https://tccip.ncdr.nat.gov.tw/ds_02_01_ar5.aspx) that aimed to effectively communicate Taiwan’s climate change projection information, derived from rigorous scientific data. This platform allowed students to manipulate certain parameters, enabling them to observe future changes within the context of Taiwan across four emission pathways: Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6, 4.5, 6.0 and 8.5 based on IPCC’s fifth assessment [1]. Through these interactive features, students engaged in discussion to comprehend the implications and significance of these changes. Phase 4 marked a shift towards focusing on the desirable, sustainable pathway (RCP 2.6). In one activity, for example, students were prompted to identify and analyse what figures, events and objects have driven or are driving climate change towards positive as well as negative directions. Subsequently, the focus shifted to understanding the meanings or implications of these figures, events and objects for positive changes.

Phase 5 was centred around the theme of “narrating futures”, involving reflection and discussions to identify concrete elements of positive changes on a main aspect of life, and form their own visions of the carbon-neutral future. For example, they engaged in a discussion with their groupmates about climate actions or events that have impressed them, sharing their observations and experiences and the reasons for being impressed. Later, all groups presented their discussion results to the class, fostering a sense of diversity in climate actions and events. Lastly, as a culminating task, students were required to envision and narrate a desirable future by completing a written assignment in which they imagined and described their life in a carbon-neural city set 30 years in the future (i.e. 2052).

Methods

Procedure and participants

Data was collected over two consecutive semesters (consisting of two classes) in 2022. In total, 75 out of 87 enrolled students from the Spring Semester, and 65 out of 81 enrolled students from the Autumn Semester participated. The data included students’ self-generated future narratives from their final assignments and pre- and post-tests measuring their content knowledge and self-perceived action competence. Student narratives were collected for both semesters (N = 140), while the pre- and post-tests were only conducted during the Autumn Semester due to pandemic-related issues in the Spring Semester. Out of the 65 students in the Autumn Semester, 37 completed both the pre-test and post-test.

The participants represented a wide range of disciplines within fields such as humanities, sciences, engineering and management. They ranged from second-year to final-year students, as first-year students typically focus on the core curriculum in their perspective majors.

Instruments

Student narratives. In the final phase of the teaching module, students were guided to reflect and discuss actions or events to create a desirable and sustainable future scenario, as well as how to represent it. To engage students in envisioning this future scenario, a final assignment was given where they were specifically asked to develop a narrative that portrays a carbon-neutral city of the future. A writing prompt was provided to ask students to imagine themselves in the year 2052, in their 50s and living a fulfilling life. They were told that the city they lived in had achieved carbon neutrality. They were then tasked with writing a story describing their daily life in this carbon-neutral city. Student narratives were collected and analysed in this study to explore students’ envisioning of how daily life might change in a more sustainable world.

Pre- and post-test. A survey instrument was used to assess students’ climate change content knowledge and self-perceived action competence. The measure for content knowledge involves a dichotomous multiple-choice test, previously used in studies examining university students’ climate change knowledge, with a focus on climate systems (Aksit et al., 2018; Liu, 2022). The Rasch analysis of the Mandarin Chinese version of this test exhibited adequate unidimensionality, and all the items’ weighted mean-square (WMnSq) values were within the acceptable range (between 0.75 and 1.33). Cronbach’s alpha was 0.62, indicating the acceptable reliability for the items. This 21-item test covers a variety of science concepts related to climate change such as solar radiation, the greenhouse effect, energy emitted by the Sun and the Earth, Earth’s energy flow and budget, natural factors influencing Earth’s temperature change and the potential consequences of climate change on various environmental systems. The test included 17 single-response items (e.g. “Which is the most common form of radiation given off by the Earth’s surface?’) and four multiple-response items (e.g. “Which of the following can be caused by climate change?”). For single-response items, respondents were asked to select the best answer, while for multiple-response items, they needed to choose all applicable answers. The maximal score for the test is 21, with higher scores indicating a more advanced scientific understanding of climate change.

As a second measure in the survey, a Likert-type five-point scale was used to measure self-perceived action competence for climate change. The scale was adapted from an existing and previously validated scale on self-perceived action competence for sustainability (Olsson et al., 2020; Finnegan, 2022), with the change being the modification of the wording from “sustainability” or “sustainable development” to “climate change” or “global warming”. For example, the original item “I believe I can influence global sustainable development through my actions” was modified to “I believe I can influence the course of climate change through my actions”. The scale included 12 items, which were categorised into three components: knowledge of action possibilities, confidence in one’s own influence and willingness to act. Each component had four items. Respondents were asked to rate their agreement with each statement on a five-point scale, with higher scores indicating higher levels of self-perceived action competence for climate change. This measure was translated into Mandarin Chinese and then back translated, and it was reviewed by two experts in science and environmental education for accuracy and appropriateness. A pilot test (N = 75) was conducted and the analysis results show that the measure is valid and reliable across all three components (r = 0.80, 0.79 and 0.84, respectively).

Data analysis

Two coders were involved in the iterative coding process of the student narrative text based on content analysis. Their primary objective was to identify “meaningful units” within the text that shed light on traits or characteristics of a carbon-neutral future. These units were then evaluated, categorised into themes through independent coding and later verified through consensus meetings to resolve any inconsistencies. Through this process, a total of 12 distinct themes emerged.

The pre- and post-instruction survey data were evaluated using univariate descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis, specifically, the Wilcoxon singed rank test and an effect size measure. Preliminary testing revealed that the data did not conform to a normal distribution. Hence, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, which does not rely on data normality, was chosen to compare the results of the pre-test and post-test. Effect size was then calculated to assess the magnitude of the observed difference.

Results

Students’ images of carbon-neutral futures

The analysis of student-generated narratives resulted in the identification of 12 distinct themes depicting a desirable and sustainable urban future. These themes captured various projections of life in a carbon-neutral city. More specifically, they explored vivid portrayals of what one might see, feel and experience in such a city. Their envisioning ranged from anticipated infrastructural advancements and technological implementations to adaptations in lifestyle habits and potential shifts in societal attitudes towards sustainability. The distribution of student responses across these themes is presented in Figure 1.

A significant majority, 85%, focused on zero- or low-carbon transportation, emphasising the necessity for sustainable transit solutions. Within this theme, students envisioned a future city dominated by fully electric, renewable-energy-powered or other zero-emission modes of transportation. Here are two representative excerpts: “I have my own vehicle for commuting. It is powered completely by renewable energy” (Student A35):

I took a tram [to work]. I most saw pedestrians, cyclists and autonomous electric buses on the way. There was a few private autonomous electric cars. Traffic was very smooth. The city felt cleaner without exhaust (Student B60).

Over half of the students, 54%, emphasised the importance of clean, green environments. They dreamed of cities with abundant green spaces, minimal pollution and well-maintained public spaces. As one student put it:

The government requires a certain percentage of parks, prohibits cars and motorcycles from entering urban areas, and updates the anti-smoking laws. My house happens to be next to the largest park in Taiwan. It's truly a pleasure to dine on the balcony, overlooking a sea of greenery (Student A66).

Following this, green buildings (36%) and a call for no or few plastics (35%) were prominent themes, encapsulated by one student’s vision:

When I went to the convenience store to get a drink, almost all the packaging was no longer made of plastic. Instead, they used paper bags made from renewable sources and biodegradable utensils. […] I noticed that the buildings around me were covered with green plants and had a green architecture style (Student B12).

Other popular themes included approaches to saving energy or water (29%), prevailing carbon reduction policies (29%) and local, plant-based food (28%), with students suggesting, “The office building I work in is temperature-controlled and utilized smart technology to regulate the energy consumption of the air conditioning system” (Student A50); “The government prohibited laying hard pavement in parks. […] facilities are constructed using suspended mesh metal devices that are translucent, permeable to water, and allow for ventilation” (Student A66); “My lunch was prepared with vegetables and fruits grown by people in our apartment complex on the rooftop to reduce carbon emissions” (Student B40).

Simply high-tech emerged in 12% of narratives, emphasising the role of advanced, non-environmental technologies in shaping the cities of the future. For instance, one student envisioned:

[…] a lifestyle supermarket launched two years ago, where order picking is done by robotic systems, and the items are then centrally transported to various buildings by the distribution centre. Ever since the physical supermarkets transitioned to full automation, it has saved a lot of time for everyday shopping (Student B60).

A smaller but noteworthy number of students touched upon themes like higher awareness and more actions (11%), urban farming (9%) and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies (6%). Their ideas often conveyed conviction and foresight, as seen in this student’s call to action:

The minimalist lifestyle has become highly popular, and people are less interested in fast fashion clothes, resulting in a significant reduction in waste and water consumption. Through education and policies, the issue of food waste has also been reduced. It is now trendy for each household to have a small garden where they can grow their favourite vegetables. I believe that education plays a crucial role. As every school values environmental education, every child actively engages in carbon reduction activities (Student B20).

These excerpts shed light on the diverse visions students hold for a carbon-neutral city, each emphasising different elements of sustainability in the context of an urban environment.

To have a better understanding of how these 12 themes were distributed, the coders counted the number of themes expressed by each student. This indicates the scope or range of changes necessary for a desirable future as perceived by the students. As shown in Figure 2, there were responses that covered as many as ten themes (1%), while most of the students (73%) mentioned 3–5 themes in their responses. This indicates that students were able to specifically associate the desirable future environment with multiple dimensions of climate efforts.

Effects of futures-focused learning on students’ content knowledge and action competence

A statistical analysis was conducted comparing pre-test and post-test scores to evaluate changes in students’ content knowledge and action competence, the latter of which was divided into three components: knowledge of action possibilities (knowledge), confidence in one’s own influence (confidence) and willingness to act (willingness). The results are presented in Table 2. The highest possible score for content knowledge is 21, and the overall average score increased from 11.00 in the pretest to 12.20 in the post-test. For the five-point action competence scale, students averaged 3.89 in the pretest and 4.36 in the post-test, with the highest average observed in knowledge (4.07 and 4.42) and the lowest in confidence (3.68 and 4.35).

The Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed significant improvements in both content knowledge (Z = −2.484, p = 0.013) and action competence (Z = −3.561, p < 0.001) from pre-test to post-test, with medium (r = 0.36) and large (r = 0.66) effect sizes respectively. All action competence components also improved significantly with medium to large effect sizes: “knowledge” (Z = −2.307, p = 0.021, r = 0.53), “confidence” (Z = −3.246, p = 0.001, r = 0.75) and “willingness” (Z = −2.441, p = 0.015, r = 0.49). The largest effect size was observed in the “confidence” component. These results suggest that the intervention had particularly substantial impact on action competency, most notably on students’ confidence in their own influence on climate change.

Discussion

The content analysis of student-generated narratives provides valuable insights into the teaching and learning of climate change, specifically in the context of a futures-focused, narrative-based teaching module. These narratives, elicited in the final assignment, demonstrate the outcomes of systematic learning about scientific future projections and what factors and drivers may underlie these pathways. The 12 themes identified in the narratives showed that students were able to provide diverse and rich representations of a sustainable, carbon-neutral urban future at the end of the teaching intervention. This indicates their good understanding of the different facets of a sustainable future. The prevalence of themes such as zero or low carbon transportation, clean green environments and renewable energy aligns with previous research on sustainable urban development (Hall and Pfeiffer, 2000; Mersal, 2016; Han et al., 2012), suggesting that the teaching module effectively conveyed knowledge and fostered awareness of sustainability concepts among students.

Moreover, the emphasis on individual and collective actions, such as saving energy and water, the adoption of local, plant-based food systems and implementing policies and measures to reduce carbon emissions indicates the teaching intervention’s success in instilling a sense of personal responsibility and agency in students. These themes align with the transformative learning framework proposed by sustainability researchers (Sterling, 2011; Sterling and Orr, 2001; Wals and Corcoran, 2006), highlighting the students’ ability to critically reflect on their own behaviours and contribute to sustainable solutions. By contrast, “simply high-tech” solutions not necessarily tied to sustainability were given less emphasis, indicating that students recognised the complex and multifaceted nature of sustainability issues. The themes elicited from the student narratives, while universal in some aspects, also reflect responses to Taiwan’s specific environmental and social context, particularly in sustainable transportation (zero- or low-carbon transportation), which is most frequently mentioned by the students. In recent years, significant changes in transportation have become highly visible in Taiwan. The successful integration of e-bike systems into public transportation and the increasing popularity of e-scooters, supported by government subsidies and environmental campaigns, are notable developments. The emphasis on this theme suggests that while students’ understanding of sustainability incorporates global concepts, their envisioning of solutions are shaped by the local context.

The survey results provided further evidence of the intervention’s effectiveness, as significant improvements in both content knowledge and action competency about climate change were observed following the instruction – students understood better the scientific concepts underlying climate change, and perceived themselves as more informed, capable and willing to tackle climate change. These findings suggest that such an educational approach can effectively enhance students’ competence in these areas by connecting the present with the future in real-world contexts. Particularly worth-noting was the substantial growth observed in the “confidence” component of action competency, illustrating the intervention’s specific impact on boosting students’ self-assurance to take climate actions.

This specific outcome is especially relevant for Taiwan, where national and international surveys have consistently demonstrated a larger gap between awareness of climate change and actual engagement compared to other industrialised countries (WWViews, 2015; Taiwan EPA, 2020; Hsu and Lin, 2015). One underlying reason for this disparity is that Taiwanese participants often perceive individual efforts as powerless in the face of complex and urgent climate change challenges (WWViews, 2015; Li and Liu, 2022).

Based on the above findings, the study underscores the vital role of future-focused education in equipping students with the necessary knowledge and skills for sustainable practices. The teaching module used scaffolding to systematically guide students through exploring future possibilities based on scientific evidence, examining the underlying factors and drivers that may shape these possibilities and focusing on the desirable pathway to envision the changes of a familiar environment. In this way, students are able to construct plausible, desirable and creative future scenarios that serve as “guiding star” that gives us something to aim for (Hicks, 2007). As we strive towards carbon neutrality, it is crucial to foster a future generation that is aware, knowledgeable, confident and willing to act towards this goal. This study also highlights the potential of narrative-based interventions as a powerful tool in this educational endeavour. By engaging students in creative and reflective activities, using narratives to envision a more sustainable world, we can foster imaginative thinking and instil a deeper sense of responsibilities and empowerment among students. Together, these efforts contribute to shaping climate literate individuals who are prepared to address global challenges and work towards a more sustainable future.

Implications for teaching

Previous research has demonstrated that emotions like worry or hope, evoked by the seriousness and complexity of climate change, have a strong influence on whether and how young people acquire knowledge, sense of personal responsibility and action competence regarding climate change (Ojala, 2012b; Ojala, 2015; Wang and Chen, 2022; Jones and Davison, 2021). To address this, future scenarios were used as a powerful teaching and learning tool in our study on climate change education. The teaching module provided unique experiences to students, enabling them to explore potential futures and vividly visualise a sustainable scenario in a sequential manner. This approach aimed to facilitate a shift from negative emotions to more positive ones, allowing students to form a reasonable, coherent and creative picture of tomorrow’s world as connected to today’s actions. By doing so, students could move from a doomsday perspective to a constructively optimistic one, developing futures thinking or foresight that transcends a spontaneous or intuitive process of thinking about futures (Jones et al., 2012) and fostering a sense of agency and belief in their ability to influence events and circumstances to realise the sustainable future scenario (Levrini et al., 2021; Levrini et al., 2019).

The student-generated future narratives (or scenario writing) can serve as valuable instructional resources in two aspects. Firstly, they include detailed and imaginative responses to the exercise of considering a carbon-neutral future in a familiar urban environment, reflecting their knowledge, feelings, values or beliefs. In this study, there was no further sharing or discussion in the class due to time constraints. Using these narratives to engage in whole-class discussion would likely help expand students’ thinking and ideas about different aspects of sustainable future. Secondly, these narratives can serve as indicators for instruction improvement. They provide insight into what students have learnt and felt about the sustainable pathway of climate change through futures-focused learning, thereby helping to identify the strengths and challenges of the instructional approach.

Limitations and recommendations for future research

It is important to recognise the limitations of this study and look into potential areas for future research to address these limitations. Firstly, while this study demonstrated the value of futures-focused, narrative-based teaching, further research can investigate the specific elements and strategies within this approach that enhance student engagement and learning outcomes. Comparative studies that compare, for example, narrative writing focusing on a “desirable” future with focusing on a “probable” future can provide additional insights into the unique benefits and challenges of using narratives in climate change education. Secondly, the study was conducted with a relatively small sample in a single-university setting. Replicating this study with larger and more diverse samples would allow for greater robustness and generalisability and help to identify potential variations in the effectiveness of the teaching module across various student demographics and learning environments. It would also be meaningful to delve deeper into the long-term impacts of the futures-focused, narrative-based approach on students’ attitudes, behaviours and decision-making regarding sustainability.

Lastly, this study used narrative writing for students to visualise their thoughts and ideas about the sustainable future. Although the narrative exercise effectively engages students in envisioning a future scenario (what they will see and experience) with plausibility and creativity, it faces the challenge in going beyond more tangible outcomes of individual and policy actions to capture and manifest socio-economic structural changes. What is revealed in student narratives is like a snapshot of their mental images of a sustainable future. Moreover, while writing a story requires little, if not minimal, learning, it may not be the optimal way to vividly visualise episodes in the minds of the digital generation. It is recommended that future studies explore alternative methods of visualisation that better resonate with students’ digital preferences. Investigating the effectiveness of using digital visualisation, such as AI-generated images, may provide valuable insights into how to further enhance engagement and understanding among students. Comparing the outcomes of these digital visualisation tools with narrative writing would help identify the specific ways in which each method supports students in envisioning and comprehending sustainable futures.

Conclusion

The study investigated the learning outcomes of an innovative teaching module that focuses on exploring and narrating futures in the context of climate change. Integrated into an introductory climate change course, the scaffolded design of the teaching module aimed to systematically guide students to examine and compare possible future scenarios based on scientific evidence. It then focused on the desired, sustainable one for further reflection and narration. The analysis results from student-generated narratives and pre/post-test surveys showed that the teaching intervention made positive impacts on students’ understanding of the all-round effort needed to secure a desired, sustainable future as well as their confidence to make contribution. These results underline the importance of aligning climate change education with the goal of developing the next generation’s knowledge, skills and mindsets to work towards a sustainable future. They also illuminate the potential of narrative-based interventions as a means of fostering not only students’ real-world understanding of sustainability but also their readiness to contribute actively to a more sustainable future.

Overall, this study contributes to the broader academic conversation on climate change and sustainability education by showcasing the effectiveness of a futures-focused, narrative-based approach. It demonstrates how such an approach can effectively engage students in envisioning and understanding a carbon-neutral future. The narrative results highlight the nuanced ways in which students themselves perceive a sustainable future in a real-world context.

Figures

Figure 1.

Themes of the future carbon-neutral city envisioned by the students

Figure 2.

Student distribution (%) of the number of themes mentioned in the student narrative (N = 140)

Table 1.

The instructional framework of the futures-focused teaching module

Theme	Phase	Description
Exploring futures	Phase 1	Explore meanings of futures and future scenarios regarding climate change
	Phase 2	Examine current situations of climate action
	Phase 3	Examine possible future scenarios based on scientific evidence Identify critical aspects that differ among these possibilities
	Phase 4	Highlight the most desirable change and identify the important driving factors behind it
Narrating futures	Phase 5	Identify actions or events that represent the desirable change on a main aspect of life Develop a desirable future scenario of this aspect into a narrative and bring it into life

Source: Author’s own creation

Table 2.

Results of Wilcoxon signed-rank test and effect size

Measures	n	Pre-test M (SD)	Post-test M (SD)	Z	p	Effect size
Content knowledge	37	11.00 (3.04)	12.20 (3.61)	−2.484	0.013	0.36
Action competence	37	3.89 (0.87)	4.36 (0.51)	−3.561	<0.001	0.66
- Knowledge	37	4.07 (0.79)	4.42 (0.51)	−2.307	0.021	0.53
- Confidence	37	3.68 (1.15)	4.35 (0.53)	−3.246	0.001	0.75
- Willingness	37	3.91 (1.00)	4.31 (0.60)	−2.441	0.015	0.49

Source: Author’s own creation

Note

1. During the teaching period, the Taiwan climate change platform had not yet been updated with the IPCC’s latest, sixth assessment.