The temporal and spatial dimension

While work on place and space in human geography is extensive, the temporal dimension is less well documented. The idea of different possible futures has been taken up however, particularly in geography education (see Chapter 2 for a full discussion). In this section I suggest that encouraging students to think about water usage on different scales promotes citizenship: an argument also made by Hicks (2008: 120) in reference to the futures dimension.

Futures

The Geographical Association Water Works toolkit brings in the concept of possible, probable and preferable water futures. The book states that this helps teachers and students to:

“…develop a future-oriented perspective on their lives and events in the world…[and] engage in responsible citizenship in the local, national and global community, on behalf of both present and future generations” (Watts, 2009: 33).

144

Hicks (2008) stresses that nurturing a futures dimension in young people’s education is very important. In other work, he has described how geography teachers may not ‘claim’ the temporal dimension, when the past is seen to be the role of history teachers. This means the future can get overlooked in school education (Hicks, 2007b).

The GA toolkit encourages the learner to describe a water future for the year 2050, either where water demand has risen and not been restricted, or where water resources have been safeguarded (Watts, 2009). This scenario-style approach could inspire pupils to think about how their actions can affect their futures, developing a sense of intergenerational responsibility and citizenship. In the plenary, children write a ‘message in the bottle’ about the water future they would like to see, either locally or globally, for a classroom display.

Hicks (2007) writes about possible, probable and preferable futures (reflecting previous work by Bell (1998)), which can be mapped onto timelines in the classroom. He suggests students think about who else (individuals, organisations or charities, for example) might share their preferable future. This could be a way of encouraging children to be critical about what they read and decide for themselves what their values are (Hicks, 2007b). A number of the materials touch upon probable water futures, such as rising water tables in the Australian Murray-Darling basin leading to increasing salinity (BBC Education, n.d.). Readers of the Severn Trent Water Water Reporters workbook are asked to consider the potential impact of climate change on water supply, but are also given the statement "Water consumption will lead to climate change", and asked to rank their viewpoint on an opinion scale. Following this, they must explain their view in writing (Severn Trent Water, 2010a: 16). Here they are reflecting on and consolidating their knowledge, putting it into their own words, and articulating their opinion (Figure 4.11). There could also be a role here for teaching about uncertainty in futures, as Wals (2010) advocates.

145

Figure 4.11 STW Water Reporters workbook: Climate change and water consumption futures (Severn Trent Water, 2010a)

Spatial scale

As suggested in the literature review (e.g. Herod, 2009), the concept of nested scales could work to encourage water citizenship amongst young people as it demonstrates the nesting of the personal experience within the global context, effectively using constructivist pedagogy. Some of the analysed materials clearly attempt to do this, while others focus solely on the global scale, or just personal experiences.

Global and international scale

Some materials centre on increasing learners’ knowledge of water resource patterns across the world. Overwhelmingly the charity materials can be seen to have an international case study focus, due to the charities’ remit of international aid (Unicef, Oxfam, WaterAid, CAFOD and Action Aid). For instance, the main feature of the Unicef resource is pupil role plays about either Ghana or Vietnam, so this text

146

takes on a very international focus with in-depth case studies (Unicef, 2004). The CAFOD game Life Without Taps, after asking pupils briefly to add up their own water uses, moves on to focus on case studies from Zimbabwe and Zambia (CAFOD, 2012a).

The case study method of teaching has its critics, and Brooks and Morgan (2006) instead advocate the 'place study' enquiry to bridge the gap between academic understandings of ‘place’ and what is being taught in school geography. However, the use of both case study and ‘personal story’ is common in charity resources, in order to encourage the development of empathy with people affected by the issues concerned.

The use of case studies can also be unhelpful if it is not explicitly connected _{to young people’s personal experiences. However, in many} cases the materials do this: interestingly the WaterAid resource Human Rights and Sanitation asks students to share good and bad experiences of toilets, and do an audit of their school’s facilities. By asking students to “think of an occasion when access to a toilet has been a problem. Why was it a problem, what did they do and how did they feel about it?", a connection is built between learners and the people described in the personal stories about sanitation in Uganda, Ethiopia and India which follow (WaterAid, n.d.- a: 4). This connection helps the learner to visualise difficult situations relating to water cleanliness and access.

Action Aid’s resource begins with a discussion of the 2012 UK drought as a gateway to dialogue about food shortage in The Gambia (Figure 4.12). To finish, it considers what we use water for around the home and how we could save it (ActionAid Schools, 2012). This is an example of where the national, international and personal scales are all included, though a clear link between the impacts of personal actions on national and international situations is not necessarily apparent. The resources that link personal experiences to global issues exemplify

147

elements of constructivist teaching, where the teacher provides a route for the student from what they already know to new knowledge.

Figure 4.12 Selection of slides from Action Aid’s Unpredictable Rain resource demonstrating connection between local and international

experiences of drought (ActionAid, 2012)

National

While most of the charity materials make reference to UK water use, it is not a main featureand the focus tends to be on understanding water use in developing countries and considering this when using water at home. Action Aid’s Unpredictable Rain resource has a strong UK emphasis alongside its main focus on food shortages in The Gambia (ActionAid Schools, 2012). The GA Water Works toolkit also begins with the two most common focal points: personal water use, broadening out to international case studies (in this case, in the Middle East). However, interestingly it also considers water supply in the UK: pupils study mission statements from UK water companies to try to identify the relative importance of increasing supply and encouraging water

148

conservation from the company’s point of view. This is a good way to increase media literacy and critical reading of resources (Watts, 2009).

Local

Moving on to the local scale, for its final lesson the GA Water Works toolkit queries pupils on who supplies their water, and where it is sourced from: key information for locally engaged water literate students to know (ibid.). Lesson 6 of the Oxfam Education Water for All resource is named “Act locally- learning from change”. However, the actions listed for students to take (like inventing a targeted watering machine or looking at water under a microscope) are more about appreciation of water than actively improving local situations. Nonetheless, this is still bringing water to the forefront of discussion and therefore helping to make it ‘visible’ (Oxfam Education, n.d.).

In theory, the local (or at least regional) focus should be the place of the water company, whose agenda will be concentrated on its specific region of the country. The English Midlands are not mentioned in any of the STW materials surveyed, however, with only a handful of general points about England or the UK (for instance, the STW Water Saving Guide begins with an introduction: “I know it’s no desert here but believe it or not, England has less water available than Spain or Australia!”) (Severn Trent Water, 2010b: 2). Reflecting on local water experiences such as drought, or landmarks such as lakes and even swimming pools would provide tangible and visible ‘water places’ for young people to connect with.

Personal and household

Continuing to narrow down the scale brings us to the individual and the household. After witnessing a gap in material provision at the local level, many resources are focused at the personal scale.

149

The STW Water Saving Guide and Water Saving Tips flier both focus almost entirely on the individual or their household and the practical action that should be taken. The emphasis is on ‘water saving tips’ and facts, organised in the booklet by which room they would be carried out in in the home (Severn Trent Water, 2010b, 2010c). The STW Water Reporters workbook also focuses on personal water consumption, though international case studies are referred to in terms of links between water, energy production and climate change (Severn Trent Water, 2010a). This provides a wider context for individual action. In the Water Reporters workbook, students are encouraged to undertake reflective and enquiry-led learning through conducting an audit of their water use and answering questions about what they could change. After conversations about the volume of water used in everyday household actions, students complete a ranking exercise to test their understanding of what actions consume the most and the least water (Figure 4.13) (ibid.). In this way, understanding of personal household water consumption is explored repeatedly in the resource. Clearly the household is the simplest scale at which to make water use visible, and conducting an audit is a straightforward way of making consumption more conspicuous and encouraging active thought about water use.

150

Figure 4.13 STW Water Reporters workbook: activity to rank household activities by water consumption (Severn Trent Water, 2010a)

Personal and household direct water use is generally mentioned briefly in each of the charity materials, though it is absent from Unicef’s Water - a Right or a Commodity? resource, with this focused solely on water consumption in other countries (Unicef, 2004).

Focus across scales

A number of the materials encourage young people to connect their thinking across scales. Making connections could encourage water

151

citizenship and a sense of responsibility towards others over space and time.

The concept of virtual water is used by the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) activity How much water does it take to make a burger? in order to connect international water availability with personal consumption. Speaking in terms of the number of litres of water used to make particular food products helps the learner to visualise this ‘hidden’ ingredient (Centre for Alternative Technology, 2011). Morgan (2001a) touches on the imagined geographies brought to light through the consumption of food produced in other countries: an idea that encourages consideration of the consumption of virtual water at a range of scales. This could have a positive impact by increasing young people’s awareness of their relationship with people elsewhere in the world, but it may act to reinforce stereotypes of poverty and difference if care is not taken (Morgan, 2001a).

The Tourism Concern documents also have a concurrent individual and international focus as the student reads about the contrasting water situations tourists and locals have within miles of one another. Impacts of these situations are explored in card sort games and class debates. They are then related to personal steps individuals can make, such as reporting dripping taps to hotel staff (Tourism Concern, n.d.). International tourism is a clear opportunity for young people to link ‘faraway’ situations to their personal actions, though the impact of these resources may be limited if the student has never been on holiday abroad. However, this is again an example of constructivist learning.

Just one of the resources utilises the time and space dimension: in the GA Water Works toolkit, students are asked to “imagine what could happen to water demand and supply in their local area by 2050” (Watts, 2009: 32). I have argued in this chapter that the local or regional focus is missing from many of the education materials examined for the PhD research, and therefore thinking about local futures can be seen as

152

quite innovative. Hicks (1996) found children to rarely think about the future of their community or discuss this subject with their friends. He found discussion to still be minimal about global futures but children were much more likely to have given this topic some thought. If both the local scale and futures are not covered in most of the educational resources produced by non-formal providers, they may not be incorporated into lessons by teachers and therefore local futures would not be considered.

Summary

To summarise, the international and the personal focus are common in the water education materials surveyed. The missing scales within the resources tend to be the local and the national scales, which provide important links from household water consumption to global water scarcity and particular water concerns in other countries. The Walker Review (prior to publication of the 2012 UK Water White Paper) suggested a campaign of key national messages targeting the community level would be the most effective way to encourage efficient water use (Walker, 2009). A regional focus could be most appropriate scale for water companies to work at, but young people might have less of a connection to their ‘region’ than to their local community.

Where multiple scales are included in the resources, connections between the scales are not always made clear. Consideration of both water futures and water footprints is an innovative way of crossing scale boundaries (if boundaries are considered to exist), making water use at the global scale more visible, and also provides a route into discussions about international and intergenerational rights and responsibilities, which will be considered more fully in the following section. This helps to develop sustainability citizenship across scales, as Desforges et al. (2005) advocate. Constructivist learning environments and enquiry-led learning could potentially utilise the concept of nested and connected scales, working from the locales a young person is familiar with

153

(personal, household and local scales) to those less familiar (regional, national and global scales).