Urban youth preserving the environmental commons: student learning in place-based stewardship education as citizen scientists
| Autor: | Morgan Smallwood, Erin Gallay, Constance A. Flanagan, Alisa Pykett |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Experiential education 01 natural sciences lcsh:HD72-88 lcsh:Economic growth development planning Agency (sociology) Collective environmental action 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Sociology 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Citizen-science business.industry 05 social sciences Place-based education General Medicine Public relations Collective efficacy Local community Common-pool resource Environmental education Environmental commons Urban environmental education Stewardship business Commons Community science 050104 developmental & child psychology |
| Zdroj: | Sustainable Earth, Vol 3, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2020) |
| ISSN: | 2520-8748 |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s42055-020-00026-1 |
| Popis: | BackgroundThe urban ecology and especially youth of color living in urban spaces have received relatively little attention in environmental education. The purpose of this work was to assess what urban youth learn about theEnvironmental Commonsby participating in place-based stewardship education (PBSE) projects. By theEnvironmental Commonswe refer to: 1) the natural resources and systems on which all life depends, and 2) the public spaces and processes in which people work together to determine how they will care for those resources and for the communities they inhabit. Core principles in all projects include: experiential education about the natural environment in the local urban ecology; students’ scientific and civic agency; and collective learning/action in teams of students, teachers, and adult community partners committed to sustaining the local ecosystem. After engaging in the projects, students were asked to reflect in their own words on what they had learned.ResultsThe reflective essays of 205 children (14% in 4th–5th grade) and adolescents (86% in 6th–12th grade) from predominantly (79%) racial/ethnic minority backgrounds and residing in urban communities were analyzed. Coding was informed by Environmental Commons theory and by Elinor Ostrom’s work on the practices of groups that are effective in stewarding common pool resources, with the highest number of coding categories assigned to any individual response being 8. Analyses revealed that students: became aware of human impact on nature and were resolved to redress negative impact; identified as stakeholders of the environmental commons and their local community; felt a sense of pride and collective efficacy in their team efforts that benefitted both the human and more than human communities with whom they identified. Verbatim excerpts from students’ reflective essays are included to illustrate the range of ways that youth interpret in their own words the interdependence of human life with other living systems and the responsibility of humans to work together to sustain those living systems.ConclusionsSince younger generations will bear the burdens of the climate crisis, it is imperative that they reimagine what gives their lives meaning. The PBSE model documented here offers hope for nurturing an identification and commitment to the Environmental Commons in urban youth. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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