Adolescent consumers: reaching them,border crossings and pedagogical challenges

Consumerism is part of living in the contemporary post‐modern world. It is claimed that schools and consumer education have a rather marginal impact on the consumer behaviour of young people. This qualitative study explores adolescents’ ways of consuming in three different worlds: home, school and peer groups. The aim is to understand how the adolescents experience border crossings between these worlds. What do they think about consumerism and consumer education? Finally, the pedagogical challenges of consumer education are discussed. The qualitative data was collected through mind maps, written questionnaires and semi‐structured group interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The data was collected from 59 teens (between 14 and 15 years of age) from Vantaa, Finland. According to the results, the adolescents’ way of consuming in each world differs from each other. However, border crossings occur with natural strategies and smooth transitions. The adolescents feel that ‘real’ consumerism does not begin until adulthood. Then, it is time to act like responsible consumers. Their motivation to study consumer issues at school is poor, because they feel the substance of consumer education not corresponding to their lives. Because of this, consumer education needs pedagogical renovation based on the needs of the adolescents and the special features of their consumerism.