Chapter 3: Research Methods
4.5 Summary and concluding comments
We can see evidence of a range of pedagogical strategies which work to make water use more visible, and bring out the themes of nested and connected scales and responsibility towards water.
It was argued that young people need to have or perceive personal agency in order for them to take action. These means positively highlighting steps they personally can take, rather than communicating a negative message about current water use and availability. Where behaviour changes are encouraged, some of the materials focused on what a young person would be able to achieve themselves, but others provided general tips for actions around the home. Many teenagers will not do the laundry or water the garden at home, and so providing tips about these actions relies on pupils pestering their parents to change habits, or remembering the behaviours for when they are older. While the materials could be effective in achieving these things, presenting behaviours children do not have the ability to change could act to reduce their sense of efficacy and result in apathy.
Indeed, making the issue personally relevant is important, whether that be through describing the impact of individual water consumption, or as found in some of the materials, through discussions about tourism or virtual water, which act to link the personal to water issues on a global scale. These materials make other aspects of water use visible in ways young people (and even their teachers) may not have considered before. This may help pupils to reconnect with the tangible water they see coming out of their household taps and increase their desire to save it, even if this topic is not explicitly covered in lessons.
Equally, they may decide to act more responsibly towards water on an international scale: reducing their water usage when on holiday in water scarce countries (as Tourism Concern is aiming to promote), or making more informed decisions about buying products which have smaller or
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more sustainable water footprints. This relates to the characterisation of the sustainable citizen presented by Desforges et al. (2005).
Bringing responsibilities into discussions about rights (as the GA Water Works toolkit does) also helps young people to link the personal to the global. However, if these responsibilities are solely to raise awareness of campaigns, it is questionable whether water literacy and citizenship is truly being developed. Here it is important to consider the purpose of the water education materials surveyed, and whether there is a role for more resources which do not have a money-raising motivation.
It was noted from the survey to East Midlands geography teachers that there is a gap in water education from Years 7 to 9, perhaps because the requirements of GCSE and A-level are not at play. In particular, I found that water was not taught during Year 9 at two thirds of the surveyed schools. Resources like the ones surveyed in this chapter were predominantly aimed at the Key Stage 3 age group (and younger) so resources do exist to change this situation. However, with the dissolution of the Sustainable Schools strategy and the lack of pressure to create water conservation targets for Eco-Schools status, there is little motivation from outside the school to teach about water at Key Stage 3. While many of the schools were working towards Eco-Schools targets, at the time of writing (2013) energy is the sole compulsory topic to meet Eco-Schools requirements (Eco-Schools, n.d.-e). As schools are encouraged to draw links between their targets and what is taught in lessons, if water was a compulsory topic, this would have an impact on the teaching of water at Key Stage 3 as well as potentially on the water sustainability of secondary schools.
However, it could be critiqued that water is even considered as a separate target for the Eco-Schools programme. It is clearly connected to energy and carbon initiatives, as recognised in the STW Water Reporters workbook, but little is made of this connection elsewhere. Furthermore, its interdisciplinary nature makes water as a topic easier to teach at primary school, where its role in science and other subjects
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can be acknowledged without passing off the topic as the remit of other disciplines.
Another major finding was the absence of attention to ‘the local’ as a scale. While the GA toolkit asked pupils to consider their water company region, it was notable that the water company resources did not tend to refer to local or regional water issues. It would be interesting to see teaching resources specifically focused on the region and its water supply and demand, as is more commonly done in Australia (see Section 2.4.8 in Chapter 2). This may make people feel a greater sense of personal connection to the area, and indeed, water citizenship, as their attention is drawn to local water bodies or weather patterns where water outside the home can be seen.
To summarise, there is a range of water education resources on offer to secondary school teachers from several providers. Arguably the most effective materials do not actively promote an agenda, but achieve transformative learning through encouraging pupils to construct new knowledge (through a range of pedagogies to suit different learning styles) and reflect upon what they have learned in order to assess the sustainability of their direct, indirect or virtual water consumption. Working to make water use visible across a range of scales from personal to global (including local and national), and paying attention to young people’s ability and responsibility to act, is likely to make the materials even more effective.
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