The Community Passion Project

Abstract: 

Modern climate change has created an issue that demands serious attention from the current and next generations. Often, early education is formulative for expanding and introducing problems of the modern world. This project aims to understand how sustainability education is presented to children and investigates differences in students’ exposure to sustainability concepts and the factors that may contribute to those differences. By exploring younger children’s current understandings of sustainability, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the role of their communities, this research seeks to identify how children conceptualize sustainable community development. The project also incorporates a hands-on collaborative art activity designed to help students visualize and communicate their ideas about sustainability. Through working together to create a representation of a sustainable community, participants engage with sustainability concepts in an accessible and creative way. After working with over 100 children in the Cajon Valley School District we determined differences in age groups and reactions to the acitivity via verbal responses and exercises. More extensive research would allow for a broader range of comparisons that would allow for better understanding of children's retention of the topics and previous experience with sustainability. Our findings indicate that community-oriented learning activities may support sustainability education and encourage collective engagement with the SDGs, an important global climate and community betterment goal-set.

The Community Passion Project exemplifies community-engaged research because it was community oriented from day one. We began with an ethnographic review of El Cajon, involving community members by speaking with local businesses. Community members told us about struggles following COVID-19 and economic challenges affecting El Cajon. Combining this with research on funding, housing, and education we then developed an art project and research question that focused on children’s understanding of sustainability and their communities. We contacted six elementary schools, the Cajon Valley School District, El Cajon Library, Community Center, and businesses. After hearing from teachers, we adapted our plan to different ages and class sizes. Four teachers opened their classrooms, and over 100 children shared their perspectives and feedback. Their responses informed our conclusions and the artwork remained in their classrooms, extending the project into their everyday learning.