Environmental sustainability: Understanding young adults' learning, thinking, and actions

This thesis explores the ways in which young-adults' environmental learning and experiences influence their decision to live sustainably. In particular, this thesis focuses on young adults' environmental and sustainability learning. It elaborates on young peoples' views about environmental and sustainability issues, such as climate change, the sources for their learning about these issues, and how young adults' learning encounters, in turn, affect their actions toward environmental protection and decision-making.;The findings in this study suggest that the three overlapping learning contexts, that is the personal, sociocultural, and physical play an important role in shaping young adults' learning about environmental and sustainability issues. The data reveal that despite the unavailability or near-absence of environmental studies and education within the formal school curriculum (particularly at the elementary and high school levels), the young adults rely on other locations for learning, such as the internet, environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs), television, and family. In light of this, the research participants suggest the re-introduction of environmental programs and content in the school curriculum. Finally, the results of this study demonstrate the centrality of knowledge and experience in relation to environmental and sustainability issues in the actions and thoughts of the young adult research participants.;This study makes an important contribution to the field of environmental and sustainability education by demonstrating the critical role of learning in a knowledge society. It illuminates the implications of various learning contexts for a sustainable global environment and future. Furthermore, it provides insight into the views of young adults regarding the future of the global environment and current sustainability initiatives in a world that faces ever-greater challenges.;Through a series of in-depth individual interviews with 18 young adults from three universities in southeastern Ontario, this qualitative study provides in-depth insight into young adults' understanding, learning experiences, and actions in relation to environmental and sustainability issues. Employing a Contextual Model of Learning framework the narratives of the young adults in this study are analyzed and discussed within three overlapping environmental learning contexts: personal, sociocultural, and physical settings. This framework allows for an examination of the complex interactions and relationships that shape how and where environmental learning occurs.