Environmental and sustainability education (ESE) covers various topics. Of these, waste management has become prevalent given the increased focus on plastic pollution and other material waste. Waste management has typically been viewed in popular culture as a problem in which the consumer should take responsibility for their material consumption. For example, recycling, composting, separating waste materials, and choosing not to litter are key lessons in ESE regarding waste management. However, this end-of-life approach for materials by each individual does not focus on the systemic issue of the cycle of material consumptive behavior which ultimately fuels more unsustainable habits (e.g., plastic consumption, ineffective recycling, depletion of natural resources to make products). Therefore, ESE can provide more effective lessons on waste management by focusing on the entire materials lifecycle and on reducing the overproduction of materials, pollution, and human consumption. The researchers in this study explored the way a waste facility conducted its waste education within the transformative sustainability learning framework. They also gathered insight from teachers on their ability to link waste management to both individual and social responsibilities.
Transformative sustainability learning (TSL) is a teaching method that allows learners to develop autonomy in their critical thinking about sustainability and the environment and the role of social, economic, and political contexts. For example, the learner can take a waste management issue at face value but is also equipped to think about the issues from different frames of reference based on their own experiences. Then, that learner can make decisions based on that critical evaluation of the issue because they acknowledge their initial interpretation at face value may be inherently unsustainable. This shift from teaching about a topic to encouraging students to think critically and offer alternative solutions can cultivate more sustainable behaviors.
The study was conducted in 2018 at the Hiriya waste treatment facility in Israel, one of the largest in the world. The researchers identified about 140 K-16 teachers from the area that participated in the study. These teachers were divided into four groups of 30-50 teachers each, and each group participated in four, three-hour professional development sessions at the facility over a series of visits. The researchers made observations of these group visits. A group of 10 other teachers visited the facility with their students, and the researchers interviewed them a few weeks after this visit. Of the teachers interviewed, 4 were preschool teachers, 6 were primary school teachers - all with 4-18 years of teaching experience - and 5 had experience in ESE. The researchers also collected 25 different lesson plans (documents) from the facility. The three sources of information (observations, interviews, and documents) were then analyzed by the researchers to uncover the level at which Hiriya deployed TSL and the impact it had on the teachers.
The researchers found the lesson plans from Hiriya demonstrated TSL in that the curriculum and activities supported critical thinking by encouraging learners to challenge constructs of environmental issues and solutions. Observations and interviews revealed the teachers felt a range of emotions and responses like surprise and confusion to the visitor experience and perception of waste management responsibility after that. For example, some teachers expressed frustration, anger, or denial during the program that contradicted their preexisting experience or understanding of waste management (e.g., recycling). Further, some teachers demonstrated TSL by starting to expand their perspective of waste management and material consumption beyond the environmental elements and impacts to consider the broader socio-economic and socio-political contexts of sustainability. The researchers believed the programming put the teachers at the edge of their comfort zone, but the experience was not too overwhelming that they could not learn. Instead, this challenge helped the teachers learn and expand their thinking.
Despite this deeper learning, not all teachers exhibited a desire to engage in a behavioral change that addressed the systemic issues of consumerism and waste management, such as advocating for policies that place emphasis on the producer. The interviews revealed that most of those teachers changed their consumption habits, waste management, and recycling in the time after their experiences at the facility. This did not translate directly into change among all of those teachers, however. Some teachers only made changes in their own lives and within their circle of influence (i.e., with their families or with their friends). Only a few of the interviewees felt they had a role and influence in material consumption and waste management systems. Overall, the researchers found that Hiriya's education program impacted the teachers during and after the visit, with particular focus on the cognitive, the emotional, and sensory learning experiences (smells, sights, sounds). The teachers experienced different levels of perceptive and behavioral change afterward.
There were limitations to this study, and the results were not generalizable. The study took place in Israel, and the waste management practices may not reflect the circumstances in other countries. Furthermore, Hiriya is one of the world's leading waste treatment facilities based on the tons treated daily and does not reflect the average facility's capacity. The facility also hosts a waste education professional development program (the one the teachers went through), which may not be typical for most facilities. Therefore, this experience may not be widely-accessible in other areas. Finally, the study focused on teachers, so the results may not directly translate to school children.
The researchers suggested critical learning that implements TSL like the Hiriya waste management program is important for encouraging systemic change for important ESE issues like material consumerism and waste management. Specifically, the combination of the cognitive, emotional, and sensory learning experiences can be effective in sparking behavioral change. The researchers also recommended that, specific to waste management, the curriculum should focus less on the individual actions or downstream solutions to combat the issues and instead focus on the systemic, collective actions or upstream solutions that address the source of the issue (e.g., extended producer responsibility, which is where the manufacturer bears the burden of the items' environmental impacts). Finally, the researchers asserted the Hiriya waste management education program can serve as a model for other resource management ESE topics.
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