Beyond consensus: Negotiating climate citizenship through deliberative communication in school-based climate action

Abstract

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.