“Our earth, it's like it's in a toaster”: Creative, figurative and narrative interactions in interviews with lower secondary school students about climate activism

Previous studies have identified the use of metaphor and metonymy in contexts of youth-led climate protests and social media activism. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews to investigate how secondary school students in England make sense of different creative uses of metaphor and metonymy in a sample of slogans shared on social media for the Global Climate Strikes and #FridaysForFuture. For analysing students' responses, we produced a coding scheme to unpack the relationship between figurative interpretation and narrative. The findings suggest that different creative uses (e.g. twice-true, juxtaposition and personification) prompted different kinds of thinking about climate change and its relevance to students’ personal lives. The study has implications for research on figurative creativity, narrative, and climate change education. • Interview responses are coded in terms of 5 different types of ‘stories’. • Students explore climate change in a variety of meaningful ways. • Different creative uses of metaphor and metonymy influence students' thinking. • Personification triggers emotional and ethical reflections on the planet.