Third Generation Project, University of St Andrews (United Kingdom)
The Third Generation Project, University of St Andrews (United Kingdom) received Honorable Mention for the 2024 MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship. The priority for the Third Generation Project is to put the people most impacted by climate change at the heart of a progressive education agenda. It does this in three ways: First, it creates opportunities to educate diverse audiences – including Western policymakers, academics, students and communities – in practices and advocacy tools that prioritise the voices and local knowledges of marginalized frontline communities. Second, everyone involved collaborates ethically to provide a platform for the voices of marginalized frontline communities, aiming to elevate the profile of collective rights issues. Third, it takes action to challenge the extractive practices of mainstream academic research by developing lasting partnerships with frontline communities and, importantly, taking their cues from them.
Since the inception of the program, they have created and brought to fruition multiple climate justice education initiatives including:
1. Mutual Aid Clinic (MAC): This started life in January 2022 with the aim of engaging with organisations led-by communities experiencing structural oppression. The MAC team is composed of students from across years and a range of academic disciplines. Together, they provide time, labour and a diverse skill set to community-based organisations. Since its inception, the team has been working with members of the Scottish Gypsy/Traveller community based in Pitlochry. Gypsy/Traveller communities have faced, and continue to face significant discrimination, and the programme aim is to highlight this through a mix of community engagement, archival research, document analysis and education.
2. In its sixth year of operation, the Emerging Researchers Programme teaches critical and collaborative research skills to undergraduate students in the social sciences by putting them through a two semester-long intensive training programme. This programme includes eight workshops on critical theory, methodology, and research practice skills; fieldwork simulations; and a climate justice and education-oriented research project where the Emerging Researchers are expected to produce two outputs engaging non-academic audiences in their findings.
3. Since 2022, TGP has been working to create climate justice education materials for use in nonstandard educational settings aimed at children and young people whose education has been curtailed in some way, e.g. young carers, those who have been excluded from school. This project has been led by three student members of the management team (prior to their 2023 graduation) and includes cartoons and flashcards. These materials are now entering the focus group and workshopping stages led by current student members of the TGP team.
What Students say about Third Generation Project:
“The critical research skills I learned through the programme had a huge impact on both my undergraduate and masters degree in International Development. The knowledge and skills in community involvement I learned through TGP shaped my early career supporting community projects across Scotland.”
– Graduate, 2021
“The Mutual Aid Clinic has been the most important class I have taken in my university experience. We get the opportunity to do things that I never thought were possible for undergraduate students, conducting meaningful, community driven research that is primarily led by the students.”
– Graduate, 2024
“Participating in such a diverse and multidisciplinary team has opened my eyes to new ways of thinking, and the opportunity it’s [TGP] given me to put my research skills into practise has been so rewarding and a totally unique experience as an undergraduate. ”
– Graduate, 2024
