The perspectives of children and youth are rarely incorporated into program design or environmental planning processes, even when it’s an environment designed for them, such as a green schoolyard, or concerns an issue they are set to inherit, such as climate change. Ranging from theoretical to practical, the studies in this section call for expanding opportunities for children’s meaningful involvement and provide insight into participatory methods that engage children as competent contributors and decision-makers.

Participatory urban planning should encourage young people’s action that is grounded in their “experiential lifeworlds”

Researchers in Sweden reviewed 44 studies of participatory approaches used with young people (age 8-25 years) in urban landscape planning. The review identified a prevalence of less interactive participatory methodologies that have limited opportunities for youth to draw on lived experiences or produce action. The study highlights the need for increased utilization of more interactive participatory methods which engage youth’s experiential understandings in transforming urban landscapes.
Hagemann, Sang & Randrup, 2024. Young people’s participation in urban landscape planning and transformation: a scoping review of interactive approaches.
Access Study

A participatory approach to youth involvement can promote development of youth-enabling environments

This conceptual paper proposes combining an affordance-capability approach and participatory action research to involve youth in the development of “youth-enabling” environments that enhance well-being and positive growth. Community planning based on the proposed approach focuses on the relationship between youth and community spaces and honors the capabilities and desires of youth, as well as their right to participate.
Jaffe & Loebach, 2024. Fostering youth-enabling environments: A participatory affordance-capability framework for the development and use of youth-engaged environmental assessments. 
Access Study

An “impactful co-design” framework may be helpful in engaging children in the design of health-promoting communities

Ten adults experienced in co-design with children (age 5–13) in New Zealand shared insights to identify practices important for actualizing children’s ideas in creating health-promoting local environments. Findings enabled the development of a framework for “impactful co-design” that empowers children, along with a practical checklist for adult decision-makers facilitating co-design with children.
Williams et al., 2024. Impactful co-design: Adult decision-makers’ perspectives on actualising children’s ideas for health-promoting neighbourhoods in Aotearoa New Zealand. 
Access Study

Children would benefit from expanded opportunities for participation in the development of green schoolyards

Researchers in Spain analyzed 108 articles and interviewed five key informants to examine the governance configurations of green schoolyards, including policy, stakeholder roles, and participation processes. Findings highlight several challenges, including children’s limited involvement in decision-making. The study calls for greater prioritization of equity and justice as well as increased children’s participation, among several other key recommendations.
Sekulova & Mallén, 2024. The governance configurations of green schoolyards. 
Access Study

Providing innovative and participatory approaches for climate change education can empower children and young people

This systematic review of 220 studies, mostly conducted in the U.S., examined the existing literature on climate change education for children and young people. Findings indicate that while formal educational approaches are most prevalent in climate change education, evidence suggests that creative, participatory approaches may be more effective in empowering children and moving them to action and advocacy.
Rousell & Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, 2020. A systematic review of climate change education: giving children and young people a ‘voice’ and a ‘hand’ in redressing climate change. 
Access Study

Participatory design, or co-design, is a process that strives to involve users — in this case, children — in the design of the programs, plans, or settings that impact them. The studies presented here examine children’s active and meaningful participation in programs, ranging from ecological restoration and climate change planning, to schoolyard design and curriculum development.

When children are granted decision-making power, participatory design can enhance the effectiveness of initiatives, support children’s development of agency, and produce numerous beneficial outcomes for children and their social and ecological communities. 

Youth involvement in climate change infrastructure planning can benefit both youth and the community

Students (age 11-14) in the U.S. participated in a program aiming to help youth gain the knowledge and skills needed for meaningful involvement in climate change planning processes. Youth demonstrated “an increased positive attitude toward advocacy in terms of outcome efficacy and their ability to be assertive and heard.” The study indicates that both youth and the community benefit from youth involvement in infrastructure planning.
Reckner et al., 2024. Impact of youth education on green stormwater infrastructure recommendations to increase equity and resilience in marginalized communities.
Access Study

Environmental education can engage young children as equal partners through participatory approaches

This study explored 15 young children’s (age 4) experiences as co-creators of an outdoor space at their nursery school in Greece. Findings indicate that engaging young children as equal partners through participatory design provides authentic and engaging opportunities for critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and communication and negotiation with adults. The study demonstrates that environmental education that engages children in decision-making can provide an empowering experience.
Tsevreni, Tigka & Christidou, 2023. Exploring children’s participation in the framework of early childhood environmental education.
Access Study

A sustainable development curriculum developed in collaboration with an Indigenous community increased students’ sense of place

Research conducted with an Indigenous community in Taiwan involved three fifth-grade students, six Elders, and two teachers in the design and assessment of a place-based Indigenous education for sustainable development course. Results indicate that a community-based participatory design approach is effective in promoting Indigenous students’ sense of place and that incorporating Indigenous Elders’ traditional ecological knowledge was an essential component of the course.
Li & Shein, 2023. Developing sense of place through a place-based Indigenous education for sustainable development curriculum. 
Access Study

Young children, with support of early childhood educators, can be meaningfully involved in ecologically sustainable practices

This report describes two sustainability projects in which preschool children played an active role in restoring natural environments in Australia and the U.S. The projects were child-led, with the teachers serving as facilitators and co-learners. Children demonstrated empathy for non-human species and the ability to make meaningful contributions to sustainable practices, with impacts reaching beyond their individual classrooms.
Konerman et al., 2021. Children’s agency and action in nature preschool: A tale of two programs. 
Access Study

Participatory action research is a collaborative approach that engages children, program stakeholders, and/or community members as co-researchers to generate new understandings and address environmental and social issues. A central aim is to empower participants through mutual learning and socially-just action. The following studies are focused on the knowledge produced by children and educators as they work to deepen connections with nature or act on environmental issues.

Strategies identified by girls through participatory action research can support their equitable utilization of greenspace

Twenty adolescent girls (age 10–16) in the U.K. co-designed an initiative to determine factors that act as “enablers” and “barriers” to their engagement with nature. Workshops revealed girls’ perceptions and experiences which limited their utilization of greenspace. Strategies co-produced by the participants provide insight on how to facilitate equitable access, engagement and connection with nature for adolescent girls.
Cole et al., 2024. Greenspace & us: Exploring co-design approaches to increase engagement with nature by girls and young women.
Access Study

Engaging in participatory research helped deepen preschool educators’ commitments to nurturing young children’s empathy towards nature

This study explored 15 nature preschool educators’ capacity to facilitate young children’s empathy through a Community of Practice in the U.S. Educators who engaged in participatory “ripple effect mapping” research reported an expanded awareness of the impacts of their empathy capacity-building. Educators viewed participation in the research as “transformative,” strengthening their motivation and commitment to nurturing empathy development in children.
Ernst et al., 2024. Empathy capacity-building through a community of practice approach: Exploring perceived impacts and implications.
Access Study

Urban young people work towards ecological resilience through participatory research approaches

A participatory action research project engaged South African urban young adults (age 18–30) in an arts-based exploration of environmental issues. The project increased environmental awareness, cultivated a stronger sense of community responsibility and agency, and revealed young adults’ capacities for responding to issues such as climate change. Findings suggest that participatory methods elevate young adult voices, build community and enable “healing, co-learning and creativity.”
Sitas et al., 2022. Youth visions in a changing climate: Emerging lessons from using immersive and arts-based methods for strengthening community-engaged research with urban youth. 
Access Study

Educators engaged in participatory action research identify key leverage points for promoting nature-based play

Using a participatory action research approach, early childhood educators in Scotland developed a causal loop diagram to identify factors that support or constrain opportunities for nature-based play in early childhood settings. Findings revealed specific key leverage points of “strategic importance in the system,” including educator confidence and agency, which can be prioritized to expand nature-based play opportunities on a larger scale.
Zucca et al., 2023. Outdoor nature-based play in early learning and childcare centres: Identifying the determinants of implementation using causal loop diagrams and social network analysis. 
Access Study

Adolescents serving on a Young People’s Advisory Group helped shape an investigation of climate change and youth mental health

A team of researchers and youth (age 14-18) in the U.K. worked together to explore adolescents’ thoughts and feelings about current environmental issues. Interviews with the adolescents showed that while they tend to be highly engaged in environmental issues, they are also experiencing fear, anxiety, anger and sadness regarding the state of the environment. Results also showed that the benefits of taking action apply to both the environment and the mental health of youth.
Thompson et al., 2022. Adolescents’ thoughts and feelings about the local and global environment: A qualitative interview study. 
Access Study

Participatory action research principles can facilitate children’s engagement in local wildlife conservation

This study explored children’s (age 6‐12) experiences in designing and painting murals to encourage threatened species conservation at 12 schools in Mexico, a case study of participatory action research. The results suggest that participatory action research offers a culturally relevant approach to conservation education. Findings call for conservation education that incorporates children’s participation in program design, arts‐ and place‐based educational methods, real‐world opportunities for critical thinking, and community‐centered approaches.
Franquesa‐Soler, Sales & Rivera, 2022. Participatory action research for primate conservation: A critical analysis of a nonformal education program in Southern Mexico. 
Access Study