Place-based environmental education to promote eco-initiatives: the case of Yokohama, Japan

The eco-picture diary as place-based education

Given that environmental responsibility is one of its essential features (Howley et al., Citation2011), place-based education can contribute to the sustainable development of communities by enhancing local people's knowledge, needs, values and networks (Horlings, Citation2015). Place-based approaches enable citizens to understand and interact with their environment and to feel a particular connection and sense of belonging to their environment and community. Hence, they begin caring more about the environment in where they live (Kudryavtsev et al., Citation2012). This sense of place is fundamental to fostering environmental and civic engagement (Schild, Citation2016; Smith, Citation2007) and comprises place attachment and place meaning (Lichrou et al., Citation2014). Place attachment is an emotional connection or link between people and specific places, such as the neighbourhood and city (Hidalgo & Hernández, Citation2001), while place meaning describes the reasons for this attraction. Sense of place is central to several environmental learning initiatives because it may lead to pro-environmental behaviours (e.g., Heimlich & Ardoin, Citation2008).

Place-based education is often used to nurture a sense of place in students. It refers to a wide range of pedagogical approaches in which students learn about local environments through experiential learning (Warkentin, Citation2011) by connecting their school experiences to those of local communities (Smith, Citation2007). By connecting students to their local environment and community, place-based education helps foster environmental citizenship (Schild, Citation2016). Powers (Citation2004) also noted that one of the key components of place-based education is the opportunity for civic engagement because, as Howley et al. (Citation2011) highlighted, it focuses on students’ connections to their communities to promote citizenship. This civic promotional aspect of place-based education overlaps with that of ecopedagogy. As it intends to improve a specific place for transformation (Coughlin & Kirch, Citation2010), it is a form of critical pedagogy (Gruenewald & Smith, Citation2008). Indeed, critical pedagogies are essentially pedagogies of place (Johnson, Citation2012). Therefore, some scholars suggest integrating it into the place-based educational approach.

Critical environmental education/ecopedagogy

Derived from critical theory, critical pedagogy represents a transformational educational response to dominant institutions and/or ideologies in which teachers and students question underlying power relations (Bellino & Adams, Citation2017). Likewise, Misiaszek (Citation2016) explains that ecopedagogy focuses on ensuring that students and teachers understand socio-environmental connections to determine environmental actions through praxis, while also enabling them to identify the gap between the current situation (what is not ideal) and the situation they wish for (what is ideal). Whitehouse (Citation2018) points out that the term ‘eco’ in ecopedagogy indicates the educational prospect of actively caring for the lives of others. This approach addresses the negative impacts of neoliberal urbanization by raising students’ awareness of how social and natural worlds and their problems are interconnected (Ceaser, Citation2012).

Gruenewald (Citation2003) states that critical place-based pedagogy emphasizes experiences in connection with protecting environments for future generations and encourages teachers and students to help revive or enliven their social and ecological environments. Similar to place-based education, which connects students with communities (Schild, Citation2016), ecopedagogy is also relevant to civic education because it is a critical and democratic approach to foster citizenship (Freire, Citation2000; Misiaszek, Citation2015; Mogensen & Schnack, Citation2010).

Chawla and Cushing (Citation2007) note that collective actions are more effective than individual ones in promoting environmental education initiatives: people are more likely to be engaged in social actions if their behavioural control is recognized within their collective competence. Therefore, students need opportunities for collaborative decision-making in order to enable them to control their environment – ‘another core principle of democracy’ (Chawla & Cushing, Citation2007, p. 442). In this context, like place-based education, critical pedagogues emphasize learning outside the classroom because it enables students to understand the environment holistically (Misiaszek, Citation2015).

Nogueira (Citation2018) notes that ecopedagogy helps develop critical thinking skills, which are essential to work towards the transformation of society. Hence, ecopedagogy must be in accordance with transformative and emancipatory environmental education/education for sustainable development to promote active democratic participation to counter neoliberal sustainable development agendas. The emancipatory formative process enables learners to ‘learn to make an autonomous and conscious decision-making, providing an effective and democratic sustainability, that is, a Freirean perspective of education’ (Nogueira, Citation2018, p. 54). Freirean education is based on the critical pedagogy of hope and utopian thinking to realize an ideal future by addressing current socio-environmental issues (Misiaszek, Citation2016). Freirean education aims to empower and enable the vulnerable by guiding them to realize that they have a language to express what they feel, articulate their own ideas and struggles, and see the world as a reality in the process of transformation (Freire, Citation2000). The eco-picture diaries serve children as a tool for this purpose.

Backcasting

Given that eco-picture diaries reflect individual and collective thinking, images and visions in an attempt to realize a desirable future, it is considered a backcasting approach (Lehtonen, Citation2012). Vergragt and Quist (Citation2011) define backcasting as first generating a desirable future and then looking backwards from that future to the present in order to strategize and plan how it could be achieved. As Robinson (Citation2003) notes, ‘unlike a predictive forecast, the purpose of backcasting analyses is to assess social and environmental feasibility and desirability, rather than to predict likelihood’ (p. 748). Mendoza et al. (Citation2017) describe backcasting as an approach to develop normative scenarios in order to examine the feasibility and implications of achieving desirable outcomes, by exploring alternative pathways towards it. Phdungsilp (Citation2011) notes that establishing a sustainable city requires a systems-wide approach. Backcasting, therefore, involves various stakeholders ‘in the process of defining and evaluating the desirability of the scenarios’ (Lehtonen, Citation2012, p. 844). This approach coincides with the characteristics of the eco-picture diary, as futures education, which involves multiple stakeholders at different levels, enables students to address concrete socio-environmental problems to achieve an ideal future in a systemic manner.

Futures education aims to provide students with opportunities such as reflection, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, and cooperation and participatory decision-making experiences to manage and develop a better common future (Lehtonen, Citation2012). These skills and experiences may enhance self-efficacy, foster a sense of connection to the community, and serve as civic education (Lehtonen, Citation2012). Kopnina (Citation2014) explains that backcasting approaches are useful for environmental education/education for sustainable development because ‘they make participants feel responsible and empowered to take action to reach their vision for a better community by raising their awareness of environmental issues’ (p. 219). Misiaszek (Citation2016) also asks: ‘If all citizens in a society have an interest in the future of that society, why should they not have a “say” in the education of the next generation of citizens?’ (p. 601).

In the process of creating eco-picture diaries, students think hard to envision an ideal future image of Yokohama and elaborate on how to address the current socio-environmental issues to realize it. While beginning to practice backcasting, Lehtonen (Citation2012) notes that students find it difficult to think spontaneously about the future and the images of the future of the world tend to be negative. It ‘provokes fiction, surrealistic and humorous future thinking’ (p. 109). By the end of the practice, however, students come to self-reflect and their future thoughts become more realistic (Lehtonen, Citation2012). This suggests that the eco-picture diary is also a reflective learning approach.

Reflective learning

Given that the eco-picture diary is journaling and that journal writing is a means of reflection (Dyment & O’Connell, Citation2011), it can be considered a kind of reflective learning tool. Hubbs and Brand (Citation2005) explain that journal writing reflects the students’ internal processes including ‘an experience, a personal value, or a belief and serves as a means of inner dialogue that connects thoughts, feelings, and actions’ (Hubbs & Brand, Citation2005, p. 62). The rationale for reflective journaling is drawn from the experiential learning theory originally proposed by Dewey and subsequently developed by Kolb (Citation1984).

Kolb proposes the following stage model of experiential learning: (1) concrete experience, (2) reflective observation, (3) abstract conceptualization and (4) active experimentation or application. Reflective journaling helps this learning process. In the first stage, a student describes an experience. In the second stage, the student reflects on a specific experience. In the third stage, the student considers and questions the meaning of the experience. In the final stage, the student applies new meanings, interpretations, or understanding of the experience.

The eco-picture diary includes images as well as texts, which help activate and develop a variety of cognitive abilities for reflective learning (Mayer & Sims, Citation1994). Hansen and Machin (Citation2013) note that text/language and image/visual interactions have received considerable attention in the field of environmental communication. The number of studies on visual environmental communication has been significantly increasing in part because the benefits of visual stimuli over verbal material on episodic memory recognition have been validated through various studies (Brodeur et al., Citation2017). Accordingly, reflective journaling through the eco-picture diary is a cognition-developing tool for reflective learning, which may be instrumental in improving the intention to participate in pro-environmental activities (Varela-Losada et al., Citation2016).

Based on the example and theoretical features of the eco-picture diary mentioned above, it is hypothesized that the eco-picture diary is a place-based education tool in combination with ecopedagogy, reflective learning and backcasting approaches. The current study aims to test this hypothesis.

Theoretical framework and orientation: change theory to place-based education

In order to analytically generalize findings from case studies, we adopted Powers's (Citation2004) change theory for place-based education. This theory assumes that place-based education helps a student first become knowledgeable about and familiar with a place, after which he/she develops a sense of attachment to the place. Place-based education could help students to first acquire relevant skills, followed by competence and self-efficacy. By connecting schools or their activities to the community, along with positive attitudes towards and self-efficacy over the local environment and within the community setting, students become active participants in their community. As their civic engagement increases, social capital expands and deepens. Social capital refers to social networks and resources within social systems where people share common affiliations and help reinforce or have a consensus on social norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness (Putnam, Citation2004) that foster pro-social behaviours (Coleman, Citation1998) and enable people to address socio-environmental issues in the community through collective action (Flanagan et al., Citation2015, p. 296).

Social capital comprises informal and formal networks: the former includes relationships with families, partners, friends and neighbours, while the latter includes relationships with formal entities, such as governments and businesses (Western et al., Citation2005). Bridging social capital is challenging because ‘it demands that people and communities look beyond their comfort zones to form relationships with others who are not like them’ (Flanagan et al., Citation2015, p. 296). For instance, students usually may not have opportunities to interact with governments and businesses, although these interactions can be very beneficial for them educationally and socially. However, place-based education like the eco-picture diary provides this opportunity. Overall, improving a community's social capital will lead to a socially and environmentally healthier community (Figure 2).

It should be noted that the change theory has some constructs similar to those of the theory of planned behaviour, which assumes that intentions to perform behaviours can be predicted from attitudes towards the behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. These intentions, together with perceptions of behavioural control, account for considerable variance in actual behaviour (Ajzen, Citation1991). Perceived behavioural control refers to people's evaluation of the levels of difficulty of performing a given behaviour. Non-controllable factors, such as time, money, skills and the cooperation of others, may hinder control. When control is not a problem, behaviours can be predicted from intentions, such as voting intentions and a mother's choice of feeding method. Subjective norms refer to the perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform a specific behaviour. As Manstead (Citation2011) explains, many behaviours depend on physical and psychological support or a lack of support from others. Attitudes towards the behaviour may determine whether a person has favourable or unfavourable feelings about the behaviour in question (Ajzen, Citation1991). To sum up, while the change theory for place-based education is a relatively new working model, it is founded on the well-known theory of planned behaviour.

Methods

To obtain data, we employ documentation research and open-ended in-depth interviews. Documentation research is important in supporting and augmenting evidence from other sources (Yin, Citation2018). Here, documents refer to eco-picture diaries themselves for analysis. We analysed 529 eco-picture diaries that had won awards of any kind. Further, interviews with relevant stakeholders were conducted. As suggested by Yin (Citation2018), we asked the interviewees about not only their opinions about the eco-picture diary but also their insights and meanings related to it. The interviewees included two city personnel, three staff members from research design, one elementary school teacher, one elementary school principal and one president from a private company. These interviewees were recruited via snowball sampling methods, starting from the Yokohama personnel.

The interviews took place in a focus group because the data that emerge from interactions through focus groups are known to ‘yield insights that might not otherwise have been available in a straightforward interview’ (Cohen et al., Citation2011, p. 436). While regular focus groups typically range from four to ten participants (Krueger & Casey, Citation2000), mini-focus groups, which involve three to four participants, are used for the current research because they are useful to discuss the topic in depth (Anderson, Citation1998); moreover, they are ‘easier to recruit for and can be held at locations that larger groups cannot’ (Daley, Citation2013, p. 11). The focus group interviews were held between 15 November and 15 December 2019 and 17 January 2020.

Data analysis

We conducted content analysis (CA) to analyse both eco-picture diaries and interview scripts. CA classifies written texts as well as visual data into categories through coding and categorization (Silverman, Citation2017). Categories are ‘derived from theoretical constructs or areas of interest devised in advance of the analysis (pre-ordinate categorization) rather than developed from the material itself’ (Cohen et al., Citation2011, p. 559). CA also enables researchers to analyse data quantitatively by detecting frequencies and patterns that indicate significance (Vaismoradi et al., Citation2015). As described above, the eco-picture diary is a place-based instructional tool, entailing ecopedagogy, backcasting and reflective journaling/learning. We coded transcribed data and classified them into these categories based on the following criteria: for ecopedagogy – to what extent the current socio-environmental issues are described; for backcasting – to what extent strategies to address the current socio-environmental issues to realize a desirable future are described; and for reflective learning – to what extent students’ reflective thoughts are described (e.g., detailed/concrete analysis of issues and explanations of solutions instead of simple descriptions). We placed relevant responses into these preset categories to help understand the eco-picture diary better. In analysing visual/textual data from eco-picture diaries, we used a five-point Likert scale (5 = very strong to 1 = very weak) to examine to what extent the contents of eco-picture diaries reflected each category. For instance, if both visual and textual data from an eco-picture diary very strongly reflected ecopedagogical aspects while very poorly reflected future backcasting and reflective learning, we assigned a rating of 5 for ecopedagogy and 1 each for future backcasting and reflective learning. By doing this, we were able to understand better the features of the eco-picture diary.

Given that we use the change theory for place-based education, we also selected relevant responses to analyse the eco-picture diary according to the theoretical framework. The NVivo10.0 software was used to help organize and code the transcribed data.

Reliability and validity

Case studies are susceptible to issues with reliability and validity (Yin, Citation2018). In order to reduce the threat to the reliability of research, the process of analysing data should be systematic and transparent (Schreier, Citation2012). For this purpose, intercoder reliability was calculated for the current research. Intercoder reliability is ‘a measure of the extent to which independent coders evaluate characteristics of texts’ (Lombard et al., Citation2002, p. 589). The two different authors of the current study coded and categorized the same data to establish a consensus (Saldaña, Citation2015). For the validity of case studies, connecting the case with theories is crucial for it to be generalized analytically (Yin, Citation2018). As mentioned above, we used Powers's (Citation2004) change theory for place-based education. As suggested by Gerring (Citation2017), we also went back to the respondents and consulted them to confirm whether their responses were properly reflected in our analysis.

Analysis of eco-picture diaries

The average score of each category is presented in Table 1. Findings suggest that a typical eco-picture diary includes reflection (reflective learning) on current socio-environmental issues (ecopedagogy) and future solutions (backcasting) in texts while solutions are particularly emphasized in images. One of the most common contents in the eco-picture diaries was students imagining problematic situations – for example, of empty cans and plastic bags being littered in the river or ocean, making it difficult for fish or water animals to live comfortably. Students study relevant materials, discuss the topic with their family members and think of solutions to address these issues. Finally, they come up with not only simple solutions – such as the use of eco-friendly shampoos and detergents or picking up trash – but also more creative ones, as described in the examples below:

A fourth-grade student wrote:

In this example, the student elaborates on how Yokohama should be in the future and how the city should address local socio-environmental issues to help realize it. Also, the example indicates that the student expresses the current unsatisfactory situation that Yokohama does not produce renewable energy and causes pollution and elaborates on strategies to transform the city into a more sustainable city (Figure 3, left).

Another fourth-grade student wrote:

In this eco-picture diary, identifying and analysing the issue of littered garbage and its bad smell on the road is an ecopedagogical aspect and creation and use of an AI robot that resembles the Asura statue with several hands to collect the trash is backcasting, while the whole process is reflective. In this student's eco-picture diary, the image reflects both the current issues and future solutions (Figure 3, middle).

Although the eco-picture diary is considered a place-based education tool whose purpose and theme is to reflect on the future of Yokohama, several students go beyond the local context of Yokohama and describe issues and solutions in wider contexts. For instance, one third-grade student wrote (Figure 3, right):

Interviews

As will be shown below, respondents viewed the eco-picture diary as a place-based education tool in the context of ecopedagogy, backcasting and reflective learning.

Understanding of place, knowledge and experience

Place-based approaches may help students understand and interact with their environment (Schild, Citation2016; Smith, Citation2007). With the eco-picture diary, students have now become more knowledgeable of socio-environmental issues mainly through interactions with their local environment as well as with family members and other stakeholders, which reinforce their learning. These family members and other stakeholders may in turn become motivated to be more aware and may learn from students or seek information themselves to teach or discuss socio-environmental issues with students.

Attachment to place (attitude)

As a result of the interactions with the local environment and stakeholders, students come to care more about their place (Hidalgo & Hernández, Citation2001; Lichrou et al., Citation2014). The involvement of the private sector in evaluating and selecting eco-picture diaries for awards connects private companies with local elementary schools. That participation itself is a contribution to the local community, as students may become motivated to gain recognition, which inculcates in them positive attitudes towards the local environment and community. The eco-picture diary also facilitates the emission of SDG-related information at the citizens’ level: The exhibitions of eco-picture diaries that take place in JICA Yokohama and UNESCO Associate Schools are such examples. This widespread public exposure and recognition of eco-picture diaries may also help students and other stakeholders to have positive attitudes.

Opportunities for school community interplays

Place-based education focuses on students’ connections to their communities, which helps promote citizenships (Howley et al., Citation2011). As explained in the previous section, through such occasions as awarding ceremonies and exhibitions, various stakeholders have the opportunity to become involved in eco-picture diaries. Overall, eco-picture diaries help students and stakeholders proactively participate in SDG-related activities and contemplate how to realize a sustainable society by raising awareness of and addressing socio-environmental issues.

Skills to act, knowledge and practice

Place-based education helps develop skills such as reflection, critical thinking, and problem solving while also providing opportunities for cooperative and participatory decision-making experiences. The eco-picture diaries ask students the reasons as to why the current socio-environmental issues exist and how to address them. As a result, students may acquire the above-stated skills and experiences necessary to work towards achieving SDGs.

Enhanced competency and self-efficacy

With these skills and experiences acquired, students are more likely to be engaged in community activities because they gain a personal sense of competence and perceived self-efficacy in their collective competence (Chawla & Cushing, Citation2007). Additionally, by contemplating what they can do to realize an ideal society in the future, students naturally form clear action plans towards achieving the goals. Making these action plans with family members and other stakeholders helps them acquire enhanced competence and self-efficacy and become conscious of being civic members of the society.

Civic engagement, community participation and stewardship

A sense of place developed from an attachment to a place is fundamental to enhance positive attitudes towards the local community and foster environmental and civil engagement. Varela-Losada et al. (Citation2016) notes than schools’ collaboration with communities enables responsibility towards the environment. Relevant skills and experiences also foster a sense of connection to the community, and serves as civic education to better manage the local environment. Hence, the eco-picture diary also serves as civic education for enhancing this collective environmental action by involving several stakeholders at multiple levels.

Broadening and deepening community social capital towards healthier social and natural communities

Eco-picture diaries involve various stakeholders at different levels who play a proactive role: students as creators of eco-picture diaries; family members as their co-creators; and teachers, local governments and companies as coordinators. This is how community social capital becomes widespread and pervasive through the use of eco-picture diaries. In this way, social capital's extensive cohesive networks are iteratively broadened and deepened, thereby ensuring systemic changes towards healthier social and natural communities (Western et al., Citation2005). This is because ‘communities with higher levels of social capital and its components are more likely to act for the collective good around issues related to environmental management and sustainability’ (Krasny et al., Citation2015, p. 4). This collective action with high social capital involving various stakeholders at different levels could result in several Yokohama residents addressing the 3Rs to reduce garbage waste production in the G-30 programme, make efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, and achieve SDGs. Thus, Yokohama has been selected for the following eco-initiatives: the Environmental Model Cities, the Environmental Future Cities, the SDGs Future Cities, and the Eco2Cities.