The affordances of an applied arts intervention for sustained environmental good practice in Wakkerstroom-eSizameleni
Date
2021
Authors
Preston, Carol
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Abstract
The Constitution of South Africa guarantees its citizens the right to a pollution-free
environment and this guarantee is supported by legislation. School curricula also include
content on the hazards of environmental degradation. However, despite legislation and
education, littering and dumping remain major problems in many parts of South Africa. This
study investigated the possibility of developing environmental awareness, and of bridging the
gap between such awareness and environmental action, on the part of children and adults in the
village of Wakkerstroom-eSizameleni, Mpumalanga. In an action research project, framed
theoretically by deep ecology and eco-feminism, three cycles of multimodal activities, with
applied drama at their centre, were planned, enacted and reflected upon in order to establish
what affordances these may have, collectively, for changing poor environmental behaviour.
While acknowledging that changes in participants’ littering and dumping behaviours were
limited, the study revealed that arts-based activities are an appropriate vehicle for raising
awareness, developing knowledge and skills and forming relationships which have potential
for impacting on environmental behaviour in the long term, given participants’ high level of
engagement and sustained interest in these activities.
Other key findings relate to the methodology of the study. In order for it to be replicated in
other rural areas of South Africa, a thorough reconnaissance of any action research site would
be essential since no one village is the same as another, and local champions of the environment
would need to be identified in order to promote long-term sustainability of environmental good
practices. In the initial cycle of this action research study, only children were involved but it
became evident that adults needed to be included in both the arts-based activities and
community outreach endeavours, given that children’s socio-cultural behaviours are inculcated
primarily in the home, and given the importance of understanding both child and adult
perspectives on community needs.
A final finding of a methodological nature is that there is value in re-imagining the role of a
critical friend in action research. In this project, for much of the time the central researcher was
able to reflect on her actions and their outcomes only through post-activity journaling. This
journaling was very important, particularly in relation to identifying the possible development
of eco-anxiety on the part of both participants and the researcher. However, when a friend was
able to facilitate activities planned by the researcher, thus freeing the latter to be a reflective
observer of participants’ responses in more nuanced ways, the quality of the researcher’s
reflections, as ‘an inside I’, was enhanced.
Description
A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021