Student emotional response to the lesser kestrel environmental and sustainability education program

Abstract

Emotion is a central aspect for protecting the environment in environmental and sustainability education (ESE). As such, positive emotions toward nature can increase motivation to learn and take environmental action. This qualitative case study explored the complex interrelationship among place-based education, emotions and values related to ESE, academic social and emotional learning, and explored the situated notion of emotions in the context of environmental citizenship. The emotions of 59 fifth-grade students, who were engaged in a program to protect the Lesser Kestrel, were explored. The findings suggest that the outcomes of the Lesser Kestrel program were complex and mostly positive in activating students’ emotions. The results indicate that ESE programs should focus on situated emotions, due to their important role in promoting powerful learning experiences and environmental citizenship, which may mitigate the environmental crisis, along with moral issues that affect the well-being of the individual, and social and natural environments.

Keywords:

• Environmental sustainability education
• place-based education
• outdoor experiential learning
• emotion
• environmental citizenship

Acknowledgements

We give our great thanks to members of Falcon School, particularly the school’s principal, for their participation and openness. We would also like to thank Yana Tigiev for her help and drawings.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dafna Gan

Dr. Dafna Gan is a co-founder of The Center of Education for Environmental Sustainability, head of the Master program of environmental education, an environmental education researcher and lecturer at Kibbutzim College, Israel. Dr. Gan’s research interests include environmental education, education for sustainability, multicultural education, transformative learning, leadership in higher education and non-governmental sustainability organizations. Her academic practices in the education field are devoted to sustainability implementation in both the college sector and in Israel.

Adiv Gal

Dr. Adiv Gal is a co-founder of The Center of Education for Environmental Sustainability. He earned a Ph.D. in zoology at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Dr. Gal teaches a variety of courses at the undergraduate and master’s degree levels in the science department at Kibbutzim College in the areas of environment and sustainability. He has led environmental education programs in Israel for more than twenty years and has also taught in elementary schools since 2004. Recently, his research interests included studies of climate change education, Ecohumanism, sustainability, environmental education (empowerment, self-efficacy, experiential learning and, outdoor learning).