Eunice S. Q. NG
Ridge View Residential College (RVRC)
Ng, E. S. Q. (2024). Engaging communities in sustainability [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Conference in Singapore (HECS) 2024, 3 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecs/hecs2024-esqng/
SUB-THEME
Opportunities from Engaging Communities
KEYWORDS
Interdisciplinary education, sustainability education, environmental stewardship, service learning, experiential learning
CATEGORY
Paper Presentation
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Sustainability challenges are complex global issues without straightforward solutions, which often invoke feelings of being overwhelmed and powerless within learners (Hickman, 2020; Pickering & Dale, 2024). Scholars and practitioners have recommended for sustainability educators to be aware of learners’ emotional and mental states, and recommended strategies for coping with these ecological emotions (Pihkala, 2020). Such strategies include fostering a sense of personal meaning in sustainability action, providing authentic learning experiences, and engaging in collective pro-environmental action (Olsen et al., 2024). By engaging communities in sustainability, learners can contribute meaningfully to sustainability while witnessing the impact of community participation on sustainability (Restrepo-Mieth et al., 2023).
Offered at Ridge View Residential College (RVRC) in fulfilment of NUS General Education’s Communities and Engagement (CE) pillar, the course RVN2000 “Engaging Communities in Sustainability” explores the role of communities in addressing resource consumption and waste production challenges through field trips and classroom seminars. Field trips were designed to educate about Singapore’s three priority waste streams (Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, 2020) (see Table 1). As part of an assignment, students were also tasked to interview community members on a sustainability issue to understand their views and motivations towards sustainability.
Table 1
Course Field Trips
These out-of-classroom activities offered students authentic learning experiences, allowing them to go beyond individual pro-environmental action to participate in collective action instead. Being part of a community invoked feelings of empowerment in sustainability, with one student reflecting that “the example of FRC demonstrated how we can initiate changes in our community by ourselves, rather than waiting for others e.g. government to step in”.
Figure 1. Students rescued 5 tonnes of “ugly food” during a food rescue with FRC.
Figure 2. Students sorted through waste collected at NUS University Town’s Resource Sorting Station.
Figure 3. Students observed how e-waste was sorted at ALBA’s E-waste facility in Tuas.
While field trips provided tangible examples of community participation in action, they appeared discrete and disconnected since each community had a different purpose. Hence, a key stage in the course was to actively frame students’ community engagement experiences within a broader framework of community participation. This highlighted the complementarity and contributions of various forms of community participation at the ecosystem level (Sandri, 2021).
Students leveraged Rut et al. (2021)’s Ecologies of Participation framework (see Figure 4) to analyse different community participation approaches’ contributions and limitations vis-à-vis their field trip experiences. In doing so, students found deeper meaning in their out-of-classroom experiences, as evidenced in a student’s reflection that “the most memorable connection I have learnt is the power of the community. Seeing examples from case studies such as Koh Pitak as well as seeing FRC operate first-hand, I have learnt that with high social capital, a strong motivation and goal, we can achieve a lot in terms of pushing for sustainable initiatives”.
Figure 4. Ecologies of community participation in sustainability (Adapted from Rut et al. (2021)
By emphasising community participation beyond individual community units, students recognised the significance of having diverse, multiple forms of community participation within the broader ecosystem. Coupled with their personal experiences in engaging with communities in sustainability, students recognised their own role in addressing sustainability challenges and were empowered to be change agents for sustainability.
REFERENCES
Hickman, C. (2020). We need to (find a way to) talk about … Eco-anxiety. Journal of Social Work Practice, 34(4), 411-424. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2020.1844166
Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment. (2020, 30 July). The Resource Sustainability Act. Retrieved July 12 from https://www.mse.gov.sg/resource-room/category/2020-07-30-resource-sustainability-act/
Olsen, E. K., Lawson, D. F., McClain, L. R., & Plummer, J. D. (2024). Heads, hearts, and hands: A systematic review of empirical studies about eco/climate anxiety and environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2024.2315572
Pickering, G. J., & Dale, G. (2024). The role of perceived powerlessness and other barriers to climate action. Canadian Geographies, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12938
Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco-Anxiety and Environmental Education. Sustainability, 12(23), 10149. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310149
Restrepo-Mieth, A., Perry, J., Garnick, J., & Weisberg, M. (2023). Community-based participatory climate action. Global Sustainability, 6, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2023.12
Rut, M., Davies, A. R., & Ng, H. (2021). Participating in food waste transitions: exploring surplus food redistribution in Singapore through the ecologies of participation framework. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 23(1), 34-47. https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908x.2020.1792859
Sandri, O. (2021). Providing a ‘point of entry’: Approaches to framing sustainability in curriculum design in Higher Education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 37(1), 56-68. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2020.19