Lectio praecursoria: Pathways to pro‑environmental education

Abstract

This lectio, presented on 10 October 2025 at the University of Eastern Finland, introduces the topic of my doctoral dissertation, the motivations behind it, the methodological approach, and the main findings. Climate change and other environmental problems challenge our education system. Changes in human behavior are needed, but changing personal behavior is challenging. Providing students with environmental knowledge is not enough. It rarely translates into pro-environmental behavior and may even lead to feelings of despair. Instead, environmental education must also foster students’ action competence. My doctoral dissertation seeks to uncover practices that can promote pro-environmental behavior among adolescents in the school context. The dissertation provides a holistic picture of pro-environmental education, drawing on three empirically and methodologically distinct articles. The first sub‑study examines qualitative findings from primary studies on the enablers and barriers to adolescents’ pro‑environmental behavior. The second sub‑study presents environmental education expert teachers’ perceptions of environmental education and their students’ environmental literacy. The third sub‑study focuses on students’ perceptions of the eco‑club and its influence on its members and other students. The school context of environmental education is formed by various actors. Based on my results, carrying out pro-environmental education in the school context is often challenging. The actors experience internal pressure from the upper levels of the actor chain, while having limited opportunities to communicate with and influence the upper levels from below. The results of this dissertation show that, despite the challenging state of environmental education, there is cause for optimism. Pro‑environmental education requires a holistic approach in which all actors within the school context are committed to a shared goal, support one another, and communicate their needs and achievements as they work toward this goal.