We like to get messy: An ethnographic examination of some contributions and challenges of creative exploration for children's environmental learning.

摘要

This study is an ethnographic examination of a trash arts environmental education program, whose goals are to introduce environmental ethics about waste and consumption and to use creative exploration to create trash art. Using community development as a framework, the study examines power relationships, the creation of meaning, and the use of environmental pedagogies within the program in order to describe the experience of the program, especially for its student participants. The analysis reveals that learning is divided into a section concerning teacher-controlled environmental ethics and a section concerning student-controlled physical environmental learning. The separation of the program into distinct parts creates two contrasting experiences within the program. As a result, creative attempts by students to connect the two sections through constructive learning techniques are thwarted by the program's disjointed format. Despite the failure of the program to empower and legitimize student learning, this study describes the complexity and ingenuity of student-controlled learning and shows how it adds valuable dimensions to children's environmental educational experiences.