Beyond consensus: Negotiating climate citizenship through deliberative communication in school-based climate action
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21831/jc.v23i2.97572Keywords:
communicative rationality, deliberative democracy, sustainability learning, climate citizenship, student agencyAbstract
This study critically examines deliberative democracy within school-based climate action, contending that student agency and participation in climate citizenship education are shaped by communicative processes rather than solely by individual capability. While environmental education increasingly addresses climate change, instrumental and technocratic approaches continue to restrict authentic democratic engagement. Employing a critical ethnographic methodology informed by Habermasian communicative action and Freirean critical pedagogy, data were collected from a school-based climate action programme involving teachers, students, and external facilitators. The findings indicate that deliberative processes are shaped by communicative, instrumental, and strategic rationalities, resulting in asymmetrical negotiation, partial compromise, and contingent consensus. Although dialogic spaces foster student participation and critical reflection, these opportunities are constrained by institutional structures, cultural norms, and power relations. The study concludes that student agency is context-dependent and relational, emerging from communicative processes. It recommends repositioning climate education as a dialogic and participatory space to more effectively support democratic engagement.
References
Arslan, S., & Curle, S. (2024). Institutionalising English as a foreign language teachers for global sustainability: Perceptions of education for sustainable development in Turkey. International Journal of Educational Research, 125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2024.102353
Baildon, M. C., & Baildon, B. (2025). Climate crisis, affluence, and moral-civic education. Pedagogy, Culture and Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2025.2518436
Beasy, K. (2020). Interpretations of sustainability beyond the middle class. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 36(3). https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2019.25
Carspecken, F. P. (2020). Critical ethnography in educational research: A theoretical and practical guide. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315021263
Císař, O., Frantová, V., Kolmaš, M., Hejzlarová, E., Čada, K., & Němcová, L. (2025). From consensus to domination: Inductive theorizing of the mechanisms of mini-publics deliberation on climate change. Climatic Change, 178(11). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-025-04038-8
Dobson, A. (2007). Environmental citizenship: Towards sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 15(5). https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.344
Dunlop, L., Atkinson, L., Malmberg, C., Turkenburg-van Diepen, M., & Urbas, A. (2024). Treading carefully: The environment and political participation in science education. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 19(2–3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-024-10215-5
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.; 30th anniversary ed.). Continuum. (Original work published 1970)
Gallay, E., Shantz, E., Flanagan, C., Pykett, A., & Voelker, L. (2025). Environmental civic science: Civic and scientific literacy on socio-environmental issues for the common good. Theory into Practice, 64(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2025.2453365
Gibson, M. (2020). From deliberation to counter-narration: Toward a critical pedagogy for democratic citizenship. Theory and Research in Social Education, 48(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2020.1747034
Habermas, J. (1984). The theory of communicative action, Volume 1: Reason and the rationalization of society. Beacon Press. https://search.worldcat.org/title/The-theory-of-communicative-action/oclc/9732141
Habermas, J. (1987). The theory of communicative action, Volume 2: Lifeworld and system: A critique of functionalist reason. Beacon Press. https://search.worldcat.org/title/The-theory-of-communicative-action/oclc/9732141
Habermas, J. (1990). Moral consciousness and communicative action. MIT Press. https://archive.org/details/moralconsciousne0000habe
Hammond, M. (2025). Deliberative democracy without deliberation. Journal of Deliberative Democracy, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.1460
He, B., Breen, M. G., & Fishkin, J. S. (Eds.). (2021). Deliberative democracy in Asia. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003102441
Hormio, S. (2023). Collective responsibility for climate change. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 14(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.830
Huttunen, H. (2025). Education for deliberative democracy through the long-term view. Theory and Research in Education, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785241264497
Indrawan, M., Luzar, J. B., Hanna, H., & Mayer, T. (Eds.). (2022). Civic engagement in Asia: Transformative learning for a sustainable future. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9384-7
Judge, M., Kashima, Y., Steg, L., & Dietz, T. (2023). Environmental decision-making in times of polarization. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 48, 477–503. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-112321-115339
Kardiman, Y., Maiwan, M., Raharjo, & Pinandhita, P. (2025). Deliberation and consensus as the implementation of Pancasila democracy. In Proceedings of the 5th Annual Civic Education Conference (5th ACEC 2024) (pp. 103–116). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-372-6_11
Kauppi, V. M., & Drerup, J. (2021). Discussion and inquiry: A Deweyan perspective on teaching controversial issues. Theory and Research in Education, 19(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785211052199
Knowles, R. T., & Camicia, S. P. (2025). Controversial for whom? Reconsidering controversial issue discussion and deliberation in education for democracy. Journal of Curriculum Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2025.2563201
Lake, R., & Kress, T. (Eds.). (2013). Paulo Freire’s intellectual roots: Toward historicity in praxis. Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472553164
Mbah, M. F., Shingruf, A., & Molthan-Hill, P. (2022). Policies and practices of climate change education in South Asia: Towards a support framework for an impactful climate change adaptation. Climate Action, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44168-022-00028-z
Mouffe, C. (2000). The democratic paradox. Verso. https://search.worldcat.org/title/The-democratic-paradox/oclc/43662109
Olsson, D. (2022). Facilitating democratic processes for sustainability: The possibilities and limitations of teaching guides for climate change education. Environmental Education Research, 28(7). https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1994927
Pettig, F., & Lippe, D. (2024). Recentring the political in education for sustainable development: Participatory photovoice research as prefigurative politics towards social-ecological transformation. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 40(3). https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2024.55
Romsdahl, R. J. (2020). Deliberative framing: opening up discussions for local-level public engagement on climate change. Climatic Change, 162(2), 145–163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02754-x
Sarid, A., & Goldman, D. (2021). A value-based framework connecting environmental citizenship and change agents for sustainability—Implications for education for environmental citizenship. Sustainability (Switzerland), 13(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084338
Slimani, M., Lange, J. M., & Håkansson, M. (2021). The political dimension in environmental education curricula: Towards an integrative conceptual and analytical framework. Environmental Education Research, 27(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2021.1879023
Spannring, R. (2019). Ecological citizenship education and the consumption of animal subjectivity. Education Sciences, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9010041
Tavernaro-Haidarian, L. (2020). Agency and deliberative communication in the classroom. SAGE Open, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020902077
Thomas, J. (2011). Doing critical ethnography. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412983945
Triyanto, Noventari, W., Mukhopadhyay, T. P., Maulana, B., & Anggraheni, S. F. (2025). Civic engagement of Tengger indigenous community in strengthening ecological citizenship. Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.21831/jc.v22i2.86869
United Nations Development Programme. (2022). Aiming higher: Elevating meaningful youth engagement for climate action. https://www.undp.org/publications/aiming-higher-elevating-meaningful-youth-engagement-climate-action
Urberg, L. (2025). Conflicts of interest in environmental and sustainability education. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2025.2471350
Young, I. M. (2000). Inclusion and democracy. Oxford University Press. https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Inclusion+and+Democracy+Iris+Marion+Young
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Citation Check
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The authors agree to transfer the transfer copyright of the article to The Jurnal Civics: Media Kajian Kewarganegaraan effective if and when the paper is accepted for publication.
Authors and other parties are bound to the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License for the published articles, legal formal aspect of journal publication accessibility refers to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA).
