Children’s Participation in Waste Management Activities as a Place-Based Approach to Environmental Education

Abstract

Drawing on cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), this article analyzes children’s participation in waste management activities in a rural primary school. CHAT is a place-based methodology that allows for analysis of tensions that emerge at the interface of place and action. It considers how cultural and historical tools both constrain and enable action competence development. Although teachers attempted to meet the government policy imperative of making children’s participation part of the school curriculum, their approach, paradoxically, was to prescribe rules and ascribe roles to children. The analysis revealed a mismatch between teachers’ and children’s objectives. The resulting tensions pointed to a lack of dialogue between teachers and children. The consequence was constrained action competence development, which also impacted students’ possibilities for place-based learning. A solution was to open up dialogue among the children themselves, as well as between teachers and children through an expansive learning process that gave rise to a broader range of possibilities and radically changed ideas around participation.