Ph.D., Antioch University, 2019, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Can environmental youth leaders affect meaningful positive change in the global fight to reign in climate change? While the academic literature contains a vast array of youth leadership materials, there is a gap in the research of the effect environmental youth leadership programs have at the community level, and specifically how these effects can contribute to environmental sustainability of that community, region, or country. This mixed methods qualitative study narrows this gap by employing grounded theory and narrative analysis to determine how five Bangladeshi environmental youth leaders understand their role in influencing their school and communities' efforts to adapt to and reduce their contribution to climate change. The purposes of this study are to: (a) describe and understand the experiences of five Bangladeshi environmental youth leaders as they engaged in participatory social engagement as Participant Action Researchers (PARs) during their environmental youth leadership roles (b) understand the conditions necessary for these five environmental youth leaders to experience success in their leadership positions; (c) define environmental youth leadership and environmental youth leaders in this Bangladeshi context; (d) explore environmental youth leadership as an educative process that can facilitate widespread environmental literacy and engagement in Bangladesh, and throughout the world and; (e) contribute a new grounded theory analysis to environmental youth leadership theory. The findings of this study reveal that certain conditions need to be present for these five environmental youth leaders in Bangladesh to experience success in their roles. These conditions include the ability to `convince' others, the presence of other youth to support them, and the experience of individual transformation in worldview and character brought about by the development of an environmental consciousness and pro-environmental behavior. These findings might be valuabl (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jimmy Karlan PhD (Committee Chair); Joy Akerman PhD (Committee Member); Michael Mueller PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Climate Change; Education; Environmental Education; Environmental Studies; Native Studies; Science Education; Secondary Education