The science behind composting: How household biowaste management practices shape young children’s understanding of organic matter decomposition

Abstract

Environmental education is becoming a growing area of interest in early childhood education. In France, more time is given to environmental education activities in the preschool curriculum. Yet, there is a risk of narrowing preschool environmental education only to carry out pro-environmental behaviours, without giving pupils the opportunity to connect these practices to the scientific knowledge behind. Drawing on the concept of socialisation, the article explores how the interplay of the social and geographical backgrounds, as well as implementation by the family of biowaste management and how this influences 5-year-old children’s understanding of organic matter decomposition. We used semi-structured interviews with parents and young children to determine details of parental composting execution on the one hand, and children’s knowledge and misconceptions about the organic matter cycle in a composter on the other. We collected data from samples in neighbourhoods with different socioeconomic characteristics in two different French cities. Results show that young children are capable of developing an early understanding of biowaste decomposition in the context of composting. This study also shows that all the variables involved in the child’s immediate environment must be analysed to understand how their ideas are constructed, and how their observations are interpreted.

Keywords:

• Early childhood
• family
• socialisation
• compost
• household waste management

Acknowledgements

The author sincerely thanks Agnès Grimault-Leprince for proof reading. Her gratitude extends to Nolwenn Quéré-Sherbourne and Lee Sherbourne for their comments on an earlier draft, and to Sue Perks for fruitful comments that helped to improve the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This work constitutes part of a PhD funded by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME). The PhD research from which this paper is based is supported by ADEME under Grant TEZ17-32.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Valérie Marchal-Gaillard

Valérie Marchal-Gaillard is a doctor in education at the CREAD educational research laboratory, University of Western Brittany (UBO), France. She is also teaching and research associate at UBO. Her university background focuses mainly on ecology, with a French Bachelor’s Degree in Ethology and Population Biology and an English Master’s Degree in Primate Conservation. After obtaining a Master’s degree in Educational Research and passing the selective competitive primary-school teaching examination in France, she worked in elementary schools and preschools for ten years. Her research interests include early childhood education, outdoor environmental education and bridging science experiences with school and home. ORCiD: 0000-0001-7296-5803