Between school, family and media: Do the children carry - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Between school, family and media: Do the children carry energy-saving messages and practices?

Françoise Bartiaux

Université catholique de Louvain Belgium

francoise.bartiaux@uclouvain.be

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Outline of the presentation

 Objectives

 Impacts of environmental messages on children's

agency & associated feeling of power

 Are children actors in these environmental issues?

 Outline of the presentation

 Theoretical framework  Data  Results  Policy implications

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Theoretical framework

 Sociology of family

 Modes of coordination between the family (the parents)

and the exter n al agents of socialisation (Kellerhals & Montandon, 1991)‏

 Autonomi

sa tion processes of pre-teens of 11-13 yrs (de Singly, 2006)‏

 Sociology of consumption

 Focus on children (Martens et al., 2004)‏  Children as ‘wise deciders’ (Bauman, 2005)‏

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Qualitative data

 13 in-depth interviews with families where

 The eldest (or only) child is 10-11 yrs old  And this child is living with both parents (coordination)‏  Grid: activities after school (including home-

school r

• ute) & for the parent(s), education practices & opinions

 One different intermediary per interviewee  Interviews realised by my students (spring 2007 & 2008)‏  In French-speaking Belgium (1 in Grand Duchy of Lux.)‏  Diverse socio-economic background & family composition

 Content

analysi

Results

• 1. Children in social networks of actors

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Children in social networks of actors

 Detailed results in Moussaoui, Bartiaux & Filliastre (2008)‏

 Media: ambivalent messages

 Series and games are the most popular (active zapping)‏  Specialised broadcasts on environmental topics + news  Advertising incites to consume more

 School: sensitisation depends on teachers

 Variation

be tween children (wind mill, ‘addicted to recycling’, nothing)

 Variation between teachers of a same school

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Green classes…

 Coordination between school and specialised

• rganisations (green classes,

library , museum, big sweater day, festival of sciences…)‏

 http://www.classesvertes.be/classe_verte_nature.html

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“ i t ’ s t r u e t h a t a t s c h

• l

, I ’ d s a y i t ’ s m a y b e m

• r

e f

• r

t h e p l a n e t , w e t e n d m a y b e t

• h

a v e m

• r

e a n economica l concern [at home]” (Mother)‏

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Children in social networks of actors

 Families: varied & ambivalent messages

 Different & sometimes opposite logics

 Financial savings 

Ri g ht to consume (Baudrillard, 1970)‏ & to thoughtlessness

 refusal to mix the roles of the two generations: “I do

not see children as agents of change in a family (…): adults have to think like adults, ( ...) children do not have to assume that [responsibility]”

 1 family aims at minimising its impact on the planet

 Energy-related practices

Results

• 2. Social types of interactions within

networks of actors Do the children carry energy-saving messages and practices? To which conditions?

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Greenhouse effect

• Principle
• Consequence on vegetation
• Action: shared or public

transportation

⇒ what for children?

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+

• Coordination

Delegation

+

• Mediation

Opposition

Participation Diffusion

Modes of coordination between the family (the parents) an d the external agents of socialisation (Kellerhals & Montandon, 1991)‏

Participation: the family relays or not the other actors’ influences Diffusion: “the wideness of the role (tasks or compete nces) attributed by the family to the other agents of socialisation”

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+

• Coordination

Delegation

+

• Mediation

Opposition

Participation Diffusion Opposition:

Low participation & low diffusion

“And alone I have also learne d a little. [Silence]” (Laurent, 10, his mother is speech therapist )‏ “Please Mum, try to recycle your waste” (Cédric, 11, his mother is Post employee )‏

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15 High child agency High child agency Low child agency Low child agency High child agency

+

• High child

agency

Coordination Delegation

+

Low child agency Low child agency

• Mediation

Opposition Participation Diffusion

Opposition:

Low participation & low diffusion

Low child agency: children are “under control” or “too small” High child agency: “Since our performance on recycling [the waste], I am addicted to recycling.” [Mother] “Yes, to some extent, he would be more careful than we are, than I am.” “The school will not educate” The parents do not relay external advice

16 High child agency High child agency Low child agency Low child agency High child agency

+

• High child

agency

Coordination

Delegation

+

Low child agency Low child agency

• Mediation

Opposition

Participation Diffusion

Delegation:

Low participation & high diffusion

Low child agency: lots of sport, routines, rarely on his own High child agency: “I may play [with my Nintendo] whenever I want, except, yes, when I have finished my schoolwork” Busy parents Diffuse role to the other agents No or little relay

• f the influences
• f other agents

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High participation score if...

 If children report what’s going on at school

 “What is happening at school is often a black

box (…) he doesn’t tell muc h about school. ” (Arthur’s mother, chemist)‏

 If parents are listening to them

 “he often comes back from school by saying

‘the teacher has said that…’. Children listen well to their teacher. ”

18 High child agency High child agency Low child agency Low child agency High child agency

+

• High child

agency

Coordination Delegation

+

Low child agency Low child agency

• Mediation

Opposition

Participation Diffusion

Mediation:

High participation & low diffusion

Low child agency: “What I am reproaching, it’s the attempt to utilise the children to make the parents feel guilty. Well, I'm smoking and ... well, this is my difficulty and a challenge for me” High child agency: “if I am cold, I take a shawl or a sweater” “I do not wait from school that… that it interferes with the way that

• ne teaches

them things”

19 High child agency High child agency Low child agency Low child agency High child agency

+

• High child

agency

Coordination

Delegation

+

Low child agency Low child agency

• Mediation

Opposition

Participation Diffusion

Coordination:

Low participation & low diffusion

Low child agency: ? High child agency: sorting the waste, carpooling to school, gardening, camp in a forest during holidays… “They are really well informed from all sides, and in addition, they love nature and respect it.”

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Do the children carry energy-saving messages and practices? Yes if…

 Parents recognise and help develop a strong child’s

agentive power

 Parents have a high participation score: they relay,

comment & exchange environmental information, advice or practices issued by the other agents of socialisation

 At home, there are some energy-saving practices  At home, there are some energy-saving messages

 The other agents of socialisation provide the

children with environmental education

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Policy implications

 Sensitisation campaigns directed to children:

always 2 ‘side-effects’

 they learn of their agentive power, both

• n themselves and in the family, to change
• r not energy related practices

 children also learn socialised ways of

linking their environmental knowledge or concern with their energy-consuming practices: contradictions, laughs or impersonal “one tries” or “one should try”

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Policy implications

 To develop policy instruments to organise the

cooperation between different socialisation agents, or to further encourage it, in order to practically increase children’s ability to act as agent of change, by way of

 subsidies,  recommendation to teachers,  specialised coordination offices,  school benchmarking Internet tools  ...

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Policy implications

 These types of cooperation between

different socialisation agents would relieve children from doing often alone this coordination between their parents, their school and the media,

 each child alone in his or her family,  with more or less success or failure and  with a higher or lesser child’s empowerment as

a consequence.