Let it Bee: children as agents of biodiversity through intergenerational learning

Education and lifelong learning have the potential to play a role in the transition towards an environmentally sustainable future. Children can become agents of change in this transformation through child-to-parent intergenerational learning (IGL). In this study, eight-to-nine-year-old children participated in an educational project about bumblebees and flowering plants at school, and their parents were included in homework assignments. We explored the parents’ experiences of their children’s learning and child-to-parent IGL through semi-structured interviews with the parents five months after completing the project. Interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings revealed that the children were enthusiastic agents of knowledge within their immediate and extended families, friends, and neighbours. Both children and parent’s acquired new awareness of the species richness of bumblebees and flowering plants, as well as global and local threats to insect biodiversity. In addition, many facilitated insect-friendly gardens by planting and conserving flowering plants. This study demonstrates how an educational project, involving family-nature interactions, enhanced the enthusiasm, awareness, and actions of both children and parents, and how that engagement persisted for several months after the intervention. These insights highlight the potential of including child-to-parent IGL in educational projects to encourage biodiversity conservation across generations and within local communities.