When The River Talks, We Listen: A Case Study on River Clean-ups as Environmental Adult Education

Date

2024

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

St. Francis Xavier University

Abstract

There are many outdoor environmental volunteer actions individuals can take to address the growing climate and biodiversity crises. Environmental adult education (EAE) activities bring participants together around a shared solution and offer an opportunity to connect and reflect on relationships with nature and society. This qualitative case study examines the experiences of volunteers participating in river clean-ups in London Ontario. It examines what participants learned and how they made sense of environmental issues through outdoor environmental volunteer activities. An analysis of responses from nine interviewed participants revealed common themes. Participants shared that they found river clean-ups to be a source of connection to the land and to other people, and a way to process their emotions about climate change and biodiversity loss. They also highlighted the importance of being able to take action on an issue that seems too complex to address and affirmed their understanding of responsibility to solve environmental problems. Learners shared lessons from the experience, nature and other participants. A variety of learning modalities were reflected in the shared experiences of participants, including experiential, informal, incidental, and land-based learning. While the experiences evaluated in this study were from river clean-ups not intentionally organised as EAE activities, they provide insights that could inform development of future EAE curriculum applications. If river clean-ups are used as a EAE activity, it is suggested that providing intentional framing of the activity at the beginning and opportunities for reflection towards the end could solidify the learning of the activity.

Description

Keywords

environmental adult education, adult education, environmental education, experiential learning

Citation