Environmental education in the context of climate emergency: adaptation and validation of the RESCLIMA instrument for research in high school

This article deals with environmental education in a climate emergency context and adapts and validates a research instrument developed by the RESCLIMA Project to study the social representations of climate change in secondary education students. Validation has involved a semantic analysis carried out by professors of masters and doctorates, together with a pilot test with students from three state universities. The suggestions of the evaluators have been analyzed and incorporated into the instrument, addressing specific questions related to the Brazilian context. Given the relevance of the social representations of the climate emergency to guide public policies and develop more effective communication and environmental education practices, it is essential to investigate how this is being configured among secondary school students. The validation process has provided evidence of the consistency of the questionnaire to understand how these representations are being constructed in this population group and of their potential to guide more solid pedagogical educational strategies to respond to the problem.