The impact of Sustainability Education - learning from research

with Alumni

This workshop focuses in sustainability education and the impact it has on

behaviour and attitudes beyond life in the classroom. I’ll be sharing my research
with Alumni on the factors that led them to be passionate about environmental
sustainability, and the barriers that education can remove. Alongside other
educational research, we’ll use this information to discuss best practice within our
Bahrain context.
 Session Plan
❏ Sustainability Consciousness and Action
Competence
❏ How does this link to (my) research?
❏ What do we already do in our schools?
❏ What can we learn?

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What do we already do in our schools…

✘ What do we ✘ What do we
already do that already do to
motivates young break down
people to act? barriers to action?

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Sustainability Consciousness & Action Competence
Sustainability Consciousness = “experience or awareness of sustainability phenomena” (Gericke et al., 2019;p.37)

Action Competence = having the knowledge to identify different actions, having confidence in their abilities to act, and
having willingness to carry out said action (Olsson et al., 2020)

SUSTAINABILITY CONSCIOUSNESS ACTION COMPETENCE

- Schools with ESE create higher sustainability - When students are involved in decision making
consciousness in students (Berglund et al., 2014) and research they are better able to take action
- 77% of environmental activists identify previous (Jensen and Nielsen, 1996)
experience of natural areas, especially in - Effective ESE focuses on the skills to make
childhood, as a source of environmental sensitivity environmental decisions rather than the ʻrightʼ
and commitment to pro-environmental action way to behave (Duerden and Witt, 2010)
(Chawla, 1999). - Engaging students as researchers, peer and
- Participating in outdoor gardening and caretaking community educators, and project leaders gives
increases positive environmental attitudes (Skelly them responsibility for change (Percy-Smith and
& Zajicek, 1998) Burns, 2013)

There is a difference between learning about something and actually experiencing it

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 Considering Action Competence

Looking back at our list of motivators and barriers

- Where do they fit in our Action Competence
quadrant?
- How likely are they to lead to action?

The Action Competence approach shared by Jensen and Schnack (1997). Taken from
Jensen and Schnack (1997;p.169)

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 Research Context
SCHOOL CONTEXT VIETNAM
- British-style International School in Vietnam - 4th largest amount of plastic waste in
- Through school from F1 – Year 13 Southeast Asia, annually throwing 730,000
tonnes into the ocean (Hai and Vu, 2019)
- Engaging in action around the sustainable
development goals since 2015 - Schools contribute up to 19% of plastic waste
in the city (households = 10% and restaurants =
- Mainly through co-curricular programme, but 6%) (Verga, Borongan, and Memon, 2016)
also within the curriculum

Very limited research on long-term behaviour change as a result of education.

Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) specifically focuses on education
related to attitudes and behaviours surrounding climate issues and global
environmental challenges (Olsson et al., 2020)

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 Research Aims
1. Understand what makes effective ESE using 3. Understand the longitudinal impacts of school
worldwide research ESE

2. Understand motivators and barriers to action for 4. Suggest ways to improve ESE for longer-term
young people that affect engagement in impact
pro-environmental behaviour

5. Identify research gaps for future investigations in

this field

“To what extent does school Environmental and Sustainability Education

develop long-term changes in attitudes and behaviours in relation to the
environment?”

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 Research Approach
CASE STUDY PARTICIPANTS
- Life History Interview Technique (Chawla, 1999) – - Alumni from the school, graduating between
formative experiences leading to 2016-2019
pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours

- Interviewees – 7 alumni who had been

- Questionnaire measuring Sustainability passionate about environmental sustainability
Consciousness (Gericke et al., 2019) and action while at school
competence (Olsson et al., 2020)

- Questionnaire participants – alumni from within

these graduation years

Sustainability Consciousness = “experience or awareness of sustainability phenomena” (Gericke et al., 2019;p.37)

Action Competence = having the knowledge to identify different actions, having confidence in their abilities to act, and
having willingness to carry out said action (Olsson et al., 2020)

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Theory – motivators and barriers

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 Theory – motivators and barriers
MOTIVATORS BARRIERS
- Favourable attitudes - Lack of control
- Awareness - Lack of knowledge
- Beliefs about othersʼ attitudes - Existing values
- Self-efficacy - Denial
- Influential others - Lack of incentives – internal and external
- Skills development - Perceived conveniences (inconveniences)
- Opportunities to act - External structures
- Empathy

Gained from reviewing the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980), Environmental Behavioural Model
(Hungerford and Volk, 1990) and the Model of pro-environmental behaviour (Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2001)

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 My findings - Questionnaire themes
QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS QUALITATIVE FINDINGS
- High knowingness in relation to sustainability - Motivating factors linked to awareness of issues,
issues, especially in those with strong thoughts about the future, and personal
pro-environmental attitudes investment

- Due to ESE – agreement that school experience - Barriers included time, opportunities to take
had increased awareness, knowledge and action – there were lots of opportunities in school
willingness to act but less in university

- Fewer behaviours or actions shown – linked to - ESE helped to develop positive environmental
confidence and self-efficacy attitudes

- ESE could go further in developing agency and

feelings of impact

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 My findings - Interview Themes
- Opportunities at school for learning and “transformational” experiences – projects and activities (“I
think a lot of the learning I did didnʼt actually happen in classrooms, it was through the clubs and just
engaging with different people”)
- Personal intrinsic motivators – personality, drive and curiosity (“intrinsically, Iʼm a person who is really
curious about what future societies look like”)
- Family and childhood experiences - (“my mom is actually super frugal like she would never throw away
anything that's glass or plastic bag”)
- Models and “inspiring” peers - (“if you really want to engage and you really want to learn, collaboration is
key”)
- Experiences in the natural world – building empathy and environmental sensitivity
- Documentaries and other learning - need to be time specific
- Feelings - empathy and guilt
- Seeing impact (“But seeing the trash in the river mainly also, just like I made me sad and also shocked that
people were living like this” )
- External pressures - transition to university, role of organisations, etc.
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 Research Conclusions
1. Education provides knowledge of environmental issues and opportunities to engage in active projects,
develop leadership skills, and make connections with like-minded others.
a. Experiences in the natural world provide first-hand knowledge of environmental issues and
develops environmental sensitivity and empathy which increases action.
b. Knowledge presented at the wrong time without skills to act can be demotivating.

2. Social factors, including family and peers, can provide subjective norms that can lead to engagement in
action.
a. Family = motivator and a barrier.
b. Confidence = motivator and a barrier. Influenced by environmental factors such as life
circumstances, social factors such as like-minded peers, and personality factors or locus of control.

3. Focus on increasing agency for young people, for example, ensuring that the infrastructure is in place for
individuals to take meaningful action and see the impact of that action.
 What does this mean for us?

❏ What can we add or ❏ What can we add or

change to improve change to break down
motivation and build barriers to action?
action competence?

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Thank you
 References
Azjen, I., & Fishbein, M., 1980. Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Behaviour. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Berglund, T., Gericke, N., & Rundgren, S.C., 2014. The implementation of education for sustainable development in Sweden: investigating the sustainability consciousness among
upper secondary students. Research in Science and Technological Education, 32(3), pp.318-339.
Bonazzi Piasentin, F., & Roberts, L., 2018. What elements in a sustainability course contribute to paradigm change and action competence? A study at Lincoln University, New
Zealand, Environmental Education Research, 24(5), pp.694-715.
Chawla, L., 1999. Life Paths into Effective Environmental Action. The Journal of Environmental Education, 31(1), pp.15-26.
Duerden, M. D., & Witt, P. A., 2010. The impact of direct and indirect experiences on the development of environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 30(4), pp.379-392.
Gericke, N., Boeve-de Pauw, J., Berglund, T., & Olsson, D., 2019. The Sustainability Consciousness Questionnaire: The theoretical development and empirical validation of an
evaluation instrument for stakeholders working with sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 27, pp.35-49.
Hai, T. T., & Vu, N., 2019. The Crisis of Plastic Waste in Vietnam is Real. European Journal of Engineering Research and Science, 4(9), pp.107-111.
Hungerford, H.R., & Volk, T.L., 1990. Changing learner behavior through environmental education. Journal of Environmental Education, 21(3), pp.8–21.
Jensen, B. B., & Schnack, K., 1997. The Action Competence Approach in Environmental Education. Environmental Education Research, 3(2), pp.163-178.
Kollmuss, A., & Agyeman, J., 2002. Mind the Gap: why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behaviour?, Environmental Education
Research, 8(3), pp.239-260
Olsson, D., Gericke, N., Sass, W., & Boeve-de Paw, J., 2020. Self-perceived action competence for sustainability: the theoretical grounding and empirical validation of a novel
research instrument. Environmental Education Research, 26(5), pp.742-760.
Percy-Smith, B., & Burns, D., 2013. Exploring the role of children and young people as agents of change in sustainable community development. Local Environment, 18(3),
pp.323-339.
Verma, R. L., Borongan, G., & Memon, M., 2016. Municipal Solid Waste Management in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, Current Practices and Future Recommendation. Procedia
Environmental Sciences, 35, pp.127-139.

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