Reimagining transformational environmental leadership: Higher education students’ perspectives within the context of climate change – A South African baseline case study

Abstract

Climate change has multiple socio-ecological impacts as recognised in Sustainable Development Goal 13 (Climate Action). There have been numerous calls by the United Nations secretary-general for effective leadership and urgent responses to mitigate these impacts. More than just knowledge and political leadership is needed; students need opportunities to enable agency to develop their environmental leadership potential. To understand students’ perspectives on climate change and environmental leadership a baseline case study was conducted at a higher education institution in South Africa. The respondents were a convenient sample of students (n = 102) within a department in the Faculty of Science. A convergent parallel mixed methods approach was applied to data collection, which involved an electronic questionnaire with open and closed questions, and individual interviews. Forty-eight students responded to the electronic questionnaire (47.1%) and six of the 48 were interviewed. The findings include: a majority (70.8%) believed that climate change is influenced by anthropogenic factors, a greater majority held the belief that people should be given tangible rewards and punishments (60.1%) to achieve objectives and the majority of students (80%) indicated that knowledge is a key driver of environmental leadership in the mitigation of climate change.
Contribution: The study demonstrated the need to develop leadership attributes within the transformational Education for Sustainable Development agenda to enhance the agency and potential of higher education students to mitigate climate change. It is recommended that higher education institutional leadership take greater cognisance of environmental leadership and encourage curriculum integration, community engagement and youth-identified development programmes to support present and future students to mitigate climate change impacts.