Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

This study investigates two schools, which are a part of Keep Sweden Tidy’s environmental
education program, Green Flag. One goal of environmental education is for its participants
to adopt pro-environmental behaviors. The Green Flag program aims for schools to adopt
sustainable development goals, to assist the school to actively work towards these goals,
and to give children a voice in environmental questions. I compared two schools by looking
at the children’s perspectives of this program. This study calls on practice theory in order to
compare the practices in place at each school and discern what is necessary for the children
to feel that the practices are meaningful for them, in that they can reflect upon the meaning
of the practice, they feel enabled, have influence, and a mandate of agency in
environmental questions.

With this study, I found that certain environmental practices are more successful at
engaging children in environmental questions. Practices that have transformed from a
dispersed to an integrated practice were more successful in enabling the children to feel that
they had influence in the practice and a strong mandate of agency. Also, I found that
practices that have been in place for a longer period of time have structures that are more
well-defined, which constrained the children and hindered their mandate of agency in the
practice and their engagement. On the other hand, practices with a newer structure enabled
the children to act and in turn they felt that they had a strong mandate of agency to
influence the practice. Last, the environmental practices that influenced the children’s
behavior outside of school where the ones in which they felt that they had influence and a
strong mandate of agency.