Dr Rosamund Portus' Outputs (39)

Buzzing about bees: Exploring action-based storytelling as a tool for children’s environmental engagement and agency (2025)
Journal Article

This article considers innovative research in neuroscience and psychology showing that we need to transform environmental storytelling, moving away from stories focused on awareness raising, to ones which develop people’s capacity for action. We inve... Read More about Buzzing about bees: Exploring action-based storytelling as a tool for children’s environmental engagement and agency.

Connecting environment and community: Teaching and learning for a sustainable future (2025)
Book Chapter

Reading slowly together: Facilitated climate literature book clubs and their potential for engaging young people with climate crisis (2024)
Journal Article

Engaging young people with the effects and potential future impacts of climate crisis is essential for facilitating the changes required. These topics and their consequences can be overwhelming, and the emotional responses equally diverse, from anxie... Read More about Reading slowly together: Facilitated climate literature book clubs and their potential for engaging young people with climate crisis.

Bridging voices in the climate crisis: The role of hope in young people’s participation (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

This output is a set of slides associated with the conference presentation 'Bridging voices in the climate crisis: The role of hope in young people’s participation'. The lead author is Sadie Barnes, in collaboration with Enda Hayes, Sara-Jayne Willia... Read More about Bridging voices in the climate crisis: The role of hope in young people’s participation.

Exploring the association between growth mindsets and climate action with young people (2024)
Journal Article

Decades of research has demonstrated the power of growth mindsets (i.e. belief in the malleability of the qualities of humans) to shape people’s ways of making sense of their socio-cultural reality and influence their ways of thinking about and actin... Read More about Exploring the association between growth mindsets and climate action with young people.

Student responses to climate knowledge: Enabling climate concern to flourish (2024)
Journal Article

Purpose: This paper aims to examine a co-produced initiative implemented at the [University Name] between September 2022 and April 2023. The student-led project (Climate, Conversations and Cake: The 3C’s) addressed environmental and climate crisis aw... Read More about Student responses to climate knowledge: Enabling climate concern to flourish.

Qualitative research seminar: Planning co-productive research with young people (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Join us for an engaging research seminar as we delve into the insights garnered from the CCC-CATAPULT research project, aimed at exploring young people's experiences of climate education. Throughout the session, we will present some principles that w... Read More about Qualitative research seminar: Planning co-productive research with young people.

Reflections on co-productive research in a youth-focused climate education project (2024)
Journal Article

The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasises the value of listening to young people’s voices. Since its inception, there have been significant moves to involve young people in research that concerns their lives in a time of environmen... Read More about Reflections on co-productive research in a youth-focused climate education project.

Exploring environmental value action gap and education research: A semi-systematic literature review (2024)
Journal Article

Despite rising levels of interest in global environmental challenges, progress towards the widespread adoption of pro-environmental behaviours remains slow and inconsistent. Previous literature identifies the importance of education for working to ad... Read More about Exploring environmental value action gap and education research: A semi-systematic literature review.

Learning from young people’s experiences of climate change education (2024)
Journal Article

This article centres on young people’s experiences of climate change education (CCE). There is much written on CCE (e.g. what it is, what it should be, how it should be taught, where it should be taught), but there is little exploring young people’s... Read More about Learning from young people’s experiences of climate change education.

Making a song and dance about it: The Plan Bee project (2024)
Newspaper / Magazine

This magazine article examines the arts council funded 'Plan Bee' project. The work shares details about the bee-focused workshops shared in schools, exploring how this connects to wider knowledge regarding environment storytelling.

Using narrative tools: How to explore young people’s vision of transformative learning places for climate change education (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

Abstract:

Drawing from the experiences of the CCC-CATAPULT project (www.ccc-catapult.org), the proposed session shares a tool to support youth visioning of transformative learning places for Climate Change Education (CCE). The CCC-CATAPULT project... Read More about Using narrative tools: How to explore young people’s vision of transformative learning places for climate change education.

Art and ecology: Encountering bee decline through creativity (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

As concern for bees’ survival becomes an increased focus of environmental conversations, projects that engage with bee decline have emerged as a visible fixture of the creative landscape. This invites the question of what role creative practitioners... Read More about Art and ecology: Encountering bee decline through creativity.

“I got hope but I don't have trust”: Exploring young people’s thoughts and feelings about the climate emergency (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

The CCC-CATAPULT (Challenging the Climate Crisis: Children’s Agency to TAckle Policy Underpinned by Learning for Transformation) project critically examines educational and worldview influences on young people’s (15–18-year-olds) climate and environm... Read More about “I got hope but I don't have trust”: Exploring young people’s thoughts and feelings about the climate emergency.

Rachel Carson - searching for wonder (2023)
Book Chapter

Rachel Carson is one of the most famed environmentalists of the twentieth century who, in 1962, published her seminal book Silent Spring. Exposing the damaging effects of insecticides, Carson’s writing sparked an environmental movement which continue... Read More about Rachel Carson - searching for wonder.

The alternative nature toolkit: Where in the world is nature? (2023)
Digital Artefact

Published 11th April 2023 by Dr Rosamund Portus, Sadie Barnes and Dr Sara Williams, co-created with parents/guardians living across the Southwest of England.

This toolkit was created as part of the project ‘Nature Deficit Disorder in the Pandemic:... Read More about The alternative nature toolkit: Where in the world is nature?.

Guide to running a youth climate cafe (2022)
Digital Artefact

In 2022 researchers Sara-Jayne Williams and Rosamund Portus from the University of the West of England Bristol (UWE Bristol) collaborated with student interns Sadie Barnes and Mariana Fidalgo, as well as Youth Action Partner members, to develop a gui... Read More about Guide to running a youth climate cafe.

Connecting environment and community: Building students’ capacities as future environmental professionals (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

As we find ourselves in a period of environmental emergency, it has become clear that we need to transform environmental management teaching. Critically, we need to prepare students to become professionals who respond to environmental challenges as i... Read More about Connecting environment and community: Building students’ capacities as future environmental professionals.

The Stories We Tell: Exploring the Folklore of Bees in an Age of Extinction (2022)
Digital Artefact

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, a curious news story was circulated. This story reported that, following the Queen’s death, the royal beekeeper had paid an official visit to the hives at Buckingham Palace to inform the ho... Read More about The Stories We Tell: Exploring the Folklore of Bees in an Age of Extinction.

Art and ecology: Encountering bee decline through creativity (2022)
Presentation / Conference Contribution

As concern for bees’ survival becomes an increased focus of environmental conversations, projects that engage with bee decline have emerged as a visible fixture of the creative landscape. This invites the question of what role creative practitioners... Read More about Art and ecology: Encountering bee decline through creativity.