CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
7.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
In this section, I list suggestions to educationists wishing to embark on community-oriented environmental projects with groups, based on my experiences with Project WATER in Grahamstown. I also make some general recommendations regarding community projects as an approach to environmental education. These recommendations are based on my experience of a single case study in Grahamstown. They are therefore by no means seen as definitive, but rather are offered as points for discussion with educationists.
7.2.1 Environmental action projects:
(a) Get to know the people with whom you want to work before attempting to involve them in the project. If you are new to an area, find somebody who can introduce you to groups and individuals who will be interested in working with you (Section 4.4.1). Encourage people with a genuine interest in and concern for the project to share responsibility for the project (Section 4.3.4).
(b) Try to make contact with community groups which can offer support (Section 4.3.8).
(c) If you plan to work with teachers, make sure that you inform them of the project in time for them to consider incorporating it into their year plan (Section 4.3.6b).
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(d) Start with what the group and the wider community consider to be their needs (Sections 4.3.3 & 4.3.8). Preferably encourage the group to define a problem it would like to address. If you are trying to promote a particular project such as Project WATER, make links between what the group feels it needs and what the project can offer.
(e) Discuss the rationale for and the value of the project with the group. Make sure that they see the value of their involvement in the project and do not feel that they have been forced to participate (Section 4.2.2).
(t) Share ownership of the project with the group by negotiating the direction the project should take. As the competence of the group develops, encourage members to take over more and more of your responsibilities. Work towards 'giving the project away' (Section 4.3.8).
(g) If possible, meet regularly with the group (Section 8.4) and encourage the development of skills gradually as the need arises. Try not to teach skills out of context or to overload the participants by teaching them too much too quickly (Section 4.2.1).
(h) Try to provide adequate time for an action project to develop. If too little time is allocated and the problem is not addressed, the project may become marginalised as an environmental practical. . Participants may feel disempowered if problems are highlighted but not addressed (Section 4.2.3).
(i) Don't separate yourself from the learning process (Sections 4.2.1 & 4.4.2).
Learn with and from the group, as much as you expect the group to learn from your knowledge and experience.
G) Take an action research approach to project development. Plan, act and reflect with participants so that a deeper understanding of the problem
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develops through involvement in addressing it. A reflective approach provides flexibility and responsiveness to complex, changing situations (Section 8.2).
(k) Encourage enthusiasm for the project and a vision of what is possible.
Encourage people from within the project and representatives of other projects to share their experiences and successes (Section 4.3.8).
7.2.2 General recommendations:
(a) Teacher Education:
The formal school system does not specificall y promote holistic and community problem-solving approaches to education. Teachers are unlikely to engage in these alternative approaches (interdisciplinary, issues-based, experiential, critical, community-based, participatory) unless they are seen to be of such educational significance that they justify the effort required to implement them. Teachers also need to know that they are competent to coordinate these approaches.
In order for prospective teachers to obtain experience of interdisciplinary, action-oriented approaches characteristic of environmental education, I suggest that student teachers be required to engage in a community project during their teacher education programme. My experience with student teachers indicated that, if they had not previously been introduced to environmental education as an approach, they did not immediately recognise its value. Time to clarify the concept' environmental education' and to experience and reflect on environmental approaches appeared to be necessary.
The student teacher class could be divided into interdisciplinary groups and each group could be required to identify a community project to be addressed during the year. The project would need to be achievable within two or three terms and defining such a project would help students to get an idea of the scale of problem they might later address with their own pupils. For
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example, each group could be assigned to a school or informal education project in the town and be required to spend one timetabled afternoon per week working with pupils on a community service project identified in collaboration with the pupils and teachers. Projects might include coordinating service club activities at schools, rehabilitating a derelict plot to provide a children's play park or establishing a tutoring programme to assist educationally disadvantaged pupils at the school.
The advantages of such a programme would include student teachers developing skills and confidence to enable them to institute similar programmes once they started teaching. It would also provide experience of working as an interdisciplinary team. Students would benefit from ongoing contact with schools and develop confidence in dealing with pupils which would help to prepare them for teaching practice. Involvement in a community-oriented project might help student teachers to develop an understanding of the importance of the school in its community as a vital unit of society in which constructive action for change can occur. If this project was approached as an action research project, it might develop students' skills of reflective self-evaluation, encourage them to critically reflect on the purpose of education and provide a stimulus for some to continue with action research in their own classrooms.
(b) Teacher In-Service Education and Training (INSET):
In order to provide in-service teachers with the opportunity to discuss holistic, community problem-solving approaches to environmental education, workshops could be run through teachers' centres by environmental educationists or teacher educators with experience in these approaches.
Teachers from schools in which these alternative approaches were part of the curriculum could be invited to describe their programmes and experiences.
Education policy-makers could be invited to these workshops to explore ways of introducing flexibility into subject syllabi and examination systems in order
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to provide teachers with opportunities to pursue alternative approaches.
Support networks could develop out of these workshops to provide teachers embarking on innovative projects with contacts to provide assistance and encouragement.
(c) Environmental educationists and formal education:
Having previously worked as an environmental educationist organising day- visits for school groups to natural areas, I found the experience of involvement in a longer term environmental education project very rewarding. The opportunity to work for an extended period with pupils and teachers provided insights into perceptions of environmental education in formal education, understandings of the obstacles to the approach and an appreciation of the value of community-oriented environmental action projects in schools.
I feel that environmental educationists working in non-formal educational settings are well placed to support teachers in formal education with ideas, expertise and encouragement to embark on environmental projects. In my experience in Grahamstown, the Wildlife Society Education Subcommittee was pivotal in bringing together school and community groups to define a project of mutual concern. The environmental education officer or committee can act as a catalyst, providing prospective teachers with the imagery required to inspire an action project, the knowledge to deepen their concern and the skills and tools to develop a sense of competence.
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