ARTICLES

 

Transgressive Eco-Arts Pedagogy: A response to Kulundu-Bolus, McGarry and Lotz-Sisitka (SAJEE, Volume 30)

 

 

Carol Preston

University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

 

 

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ABSTRACT

Kulundu-Bolus, McGarry and Lotz-Sisitka (2020) have offered transgressive learning as a new approach to environmental education. As a response to their work, this paper describes and discusses aspects of a four-year action research project in which a group of children, adolescents and adults from the rural community of Wakkerstroom-eSizameleni participated in a series of multimodal arts-based interventions in which increased environmental awareness and improved environmental practices were key goals. Five vignettes from these interventions are used to argue that Transgressive Eco-Arts Pedagogy (TEAP) can facilitate community engagement, greater environmental awareness and small steps towards the improved environmental practices that Kulundu-Bolus et al. have called for.

Keywords: Environmental education, arts-based learning, multimodality, sustainability, transgressive learning, pedagogy of love

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Introduction

In the introduction to Learning, Living and Leading into Transgression - A reflection on decolonial praxis in a neoliberal world, Kulundu-Bolus, McGarry and Lotz-Sisitka wrote:

This paper is inspired by the call and response tradition of singing in Africa, where one person sings a phrase, and inspired by their contribution, the crowd sings back; this becomes an intuitive on-going iterative process of improvisation and meaning making together. It is this kind of call and response education that is needed for environment and sustainability education, an approach to learning and education that is contextually responsive, adaptive and moves towards solidarity in this time of crisis (2020, p. 113).

This paper is a response, a 'singing back' to Kulundu-Bolus et al.'s call. It aims to offer a critically reflective account of aspects of a multimodal, arts-based informal education initiative in which I attempted to work in contextually responsive ways with a group of children, adolescents and adults in the eSizameleni-Wakkerstroom community to effect changes in behaviour with regard to littering and dumping.

I hope that this response will be of interest to environmental educators in view of the impact of plastics and other forms of litter on the natural environment. The arts have an important role in changing attitudes and behaviours, and if arts-based interventions are implemented using an inclusive and bottom-up approach, over extended periods of time, and monitored carefully, they have the potential to make significant contributions to environmental education in both rural and urban areas.

 

Transgressive learning and environmental education

Kulundu-Bolus et al. pointed out that "within environmental and sustainable education there is much boundary crossing, and navigating of plural ecosystems of knowledge, world-views, cosmo-visions and identities" (p. 112). They called for a means of intersecting each of these thoughtfully and meaningfully and present transgressive learning as one such means. Their paper emerges from extensive cross-disciplinary work which they described as "grounded in empathy and practices of care, transgressive social environmental learning, and fugitive ways of re-imagining and re-sourcing the lived practice of decolonial love; always holding women, young people, children and the most marginalised of our societies in mind" (p. 113). Their work also encompasses non-human elements of our world such as fauna, flora, soil and air. They asked how transgressive learning could be extended "into a commitment to actively living in transgressive ways?" (p. 113).

For Kulundu-Bolus "going beyond abyssal thinking means constantly meeting oneself and one's community at the borders of what dignity for the Earth and all sentient beings should be in this world" (p. 114). For her "an important part of this process is the need for constant reflection in motion" (ibid.) and she asked us to consider "how we are implicated in the state that we are in" (p. 115). In her view, "living into transgression means accounting for all the parts of yourself that are unresolved in the tensions that you see around you" (p. 120). Doing this involves reflecting on who and how we are in the world, especially in the context of post-apartheid South Africa, and on how those of us who are educators behave towards and with our learners. This practice involves living with these personal truths as opposed to living apart from them as was the case for myself as lead facilitator in the action research project that is the focus of this paper.

In the same co-authored paper, McGarry argued that we need to 'unlearn' "the enculturated ways of being that encourage and reinforce coloniality" (p. 115), and he urged us to engage in "a practice of challenging the very ideas we use to think with" (ibid.), since these ideas have stemmed from the colonial past. He suggested that queer theory has the capacity to contribute to unhinging these past practices. Included in such unlearning and re-learning is the conceptualisation of humanity as a commonality that ignores differences such as creed, sexuality and race (p. 122). Throughout the four years of an action research project in which I have been involved based on principles of TEAP, there was a focus on commonality, while also acknowledging differences in identity positions of participants, researcher and facilitators, in ways that began to speak to McGarry's call for deep inclusivity.

Each successive cycle of the action research TEAP intervention was informed by critical reflections on practice in the previous cycle in ways that could begin to address what Lotz-Sitiska was asking for when she suggested that we "transgressively embrace the unknown", by extracting what is useful from old theory, discarding what is not, and creating a new theory from the resultant debris. Quoting Wark (2011), she suggested "a low theory dedicated to the practice that is critique and the critique that is practice" (p. 116). I suggest that TEAP may enact low theory in ways that are useful for contemporary environmental education in which the focus is on praxis rather than on academic discussion and where this praxis extends over long time-frames so that sustainability can be achieved.

To return to Kulundu-Bolus, she suggested that "leading into transgression requires a sense of optimism geared at asserting the possibility of what could be, within the constraints of what is" (p. 121). The action research intervention began within optimism on the part of the research facilitators who subsequently experienced both highs and lows as they grappled with socio-cultural and socio-economic constraints made worse by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, as will be indicated in the paper, some successes were achieved.

In addition to Kulundu-Bolus et al., others who have written about transgressive learning include Fox (2017) whose advice to those who wish to take such an approach included the following:

■ "Create room for reflection

■ Provide economic models that are attractive

■ Trust your learners to follow you and to even lead you

■ Target feelings and emotions rather than expecting the facts and stats to speak for themselves

■ Collaborate with local communities to increase the feeling of connection" (Fox, 2017, no page number).

Condeza-Marmentini and Flores-Gonzales (2019) also considered transgressive learning in relation to environmental education noting that "recent research in the field of environmental education has introduced the concept of disruption as a desirable competence in relation to transgressive learning" (p. 20).

 

Transgressive Eco-Arts Pedagogy (TEAP)

While there are many approaches to informal environmental education, the approach proposed by Kulundu-Bolus et al. presents meaningful ways in which real changes to environmental behaviour can be made. I argue that TEAP is a pedagogic approach that enables the transgressive learning, living and leading which they advocate.

In Lotz-Sisitka's 'non-conclusion' she listed nine processes as being important for sustained futures. In view of its potential to use the arts to engage the interests of the marginalised, to be inclusive of all elements in the environment (human, faunal, floral and the Earth itself) and to move away from colonial practices, I argue that TEAP begins to respond to these nine, which are:

morphing towards an undivided future (learning), dancing between contradictory masks (living), ... engaging in relentless experiments with freedom (leading), colonizing the charade (learning), re-habiting place (living)... practising solidarity within intersectional movements (leading),... low theory out of the dust of the old (learning), escape multi-form fractured selves (living, and lead from the situation... (p. 124)

I present TEAP as a contribution to the conversation about learning, living and leading for sustained futures as opposed to a formalised and fixed pedagogic approach to either formal or informal environmental education as various art forms for teaching and learning multimodally can be used in many different ways.

 

Multimodal arts-based pedagogy

Archer and Newfield (2014) explained that "a multimodal approach to pedagogy recognizes that teaching and learning happen through a range of modes - image, writing, speech, gesture - and encourages pedagogic tasks that require multiple forms of representation" (p. 1). In their view, such an approach is particularly valuable in multicultural, multilinguistic communities. For Block (2009), acting, singing, storytelling and the making of visual art all contribute to "building an individual sense of what it means to be a human. The arts are an essential part of the story of what it means to be a human being and a community" (2009, p. 35)

In writing about the role of the arts in community-based social change, Etherton and Prentki (2006) argued for a bottom-up approach in which all participants are included. On multimodality, Archer and Newfield have stated that "multimodal approaches have the potential to transcend, and embrace, multi-linguistic societies" (2014, p. 4), and continued thus: "a multimodal approach to pedagogy recognizes that teaching and learning happen through a range of modes - image, writing, speech, gesture - and encourages pedagogic tasks that require multiple forms of representation" (p. 1). The research on which this paper is based, investigated the affordances of a range of non-traditional arts-based interventions for engaging first children, and subsequently adults, in activities that aimed to promote changes in attitudes and behaviours towards the local environment. Educationists and others who value the inclusion of opportunities for learners of any age to learn and to demonstrate their learning through a range of modes argue that people make meaning in multiple ways (Jewitt et al., 2016, p. 369) and should be given opportunities both to work in their preferred modes and to take risks in using modes of meaning making that are new to them. It is this risk that is aligned to the principles of transgressive learning. This is important in a neoliberal world since this disrupts the status quo that we find in contemporary environmental education where the value of learners in the process of learning is not recognised.

Key principles and strategies informing a multimodal approach to teaching and learning in both formal and informal contexts include the following:

■ Recognition of the semiotic resources, cultural practices, languages, epistemologies, histories, and personal experiences that learners bring to the business of learning

■ Recognition of learner interest and agency

■ Recognition of the affordances and constraints of particular modes and their appropriateness to the specificities of context. (Archer & Newfield, 2014, pp. 12-13)

 

The action research intervention

The four-year intervention involved a reconnaissance phase followed by three cycles of action research, of approximately one year each, undertaken for the twin purposes of doctoral research and community benefit, purposes that are not always easily aligned. This account of aspects of the overall study begins with a brief description of the research site and its residents and of the overall research initiative. This is followed by a series of short vignettes which are used to inform the conclusion to the paper

The research site, the research questions and the research process

Wakkerstroom in southern Mpumalanga is a typical example of a South African rural village with an adjacent township (eSizameleni). Wakkerstroom-eSizameleni is surrounded by wetland and grassland biomes that attract both South African and international visitors to the diverse birdlife. There are approximately 5500 residents in Wakkerstroom and eSizameleni with isiZulu being the dominant language, followed by Afrikaans and English (Census 2011). Most of the homes in eSizameleni are RDP houses and the unemployment rate is estimated to be between 40 and 55% of the adult population (SALGA, accessed 2021).

Service delivery in Wakkerstroom-eSizameleni is constrained by lack of funding for maintenance of infrastructure, and there are constant problems with sewerage leakage into the wetland, impassable roads with potholes and service vehicle breakdowns. Since for the most part eSizameleni residents are either unemployed or living a subsistence existence, the municipal funds are constantly under pressure. However, waste removal occurs once a week and is for the most part reliable. Despite the provision of this service, the evidence of widespread littering and dumping of waste throughout the community is what led to the conceptualisation of an action research project which investigated the following:

■ Could an intervention at the intersection of applied arts and environmental studies, result in improved environmental awareness and improved environmental practices on the part of children in a rural village?

■ What are the affordances of applied arts for developing sustained environmental good practice in relation to the management of litter?

■ Could other rural villages in South Africa benefit from a TEAP approach to environmental education?

With the assistance of the co-ordinator of a school aftercare programme in eSizameleni, purposeful sampling was used in the selection of participants for this study. All the children were communicatively competent in English but could choose to communicate in isiZulu with the researcher employed to work with me.

For Paolo Freire, "knowledge is created through people struggling, observing, analysing and arguing with each other about how to make the world a better place in which to live" (cited in Bess et al., 2018, p. 89). This Freirean view of knowledge creation is at the heart of action research which focuses on involving participants in improving a social situation or practice (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988, in Bess et al., 2018; italics in the original). The ongoing reflection on data gathered throughout the fieldwork from the preparatory reconnaissance phase to the conclusion of the third cycle of interventions, enabled adjustments to be made as the project evolved, although it was not always possible to achieve the equality of partnership between research facilitators and participants that is advocated in the action research literature (e.g. Bess et al., 2018; McNiff, 2014). One important adjustment was the inclusion of adults in the second and third cycles of the intervention, given the interest they showed in the children's activities during the first cycle. Within and between each cycle of the project, the action research process of planning, acting, observing and reflecting was undertaken. Reflection was facilitated through extensive journaling which included consideration of my own position as a white woman of privilege undeniably influenced by the colonial and apartheid past and its ongoing legacies in relation to child and adult participants positioned spatially on the margins by apartheid era planners. It was important for all participants to make choices about what they worked on and how they worked within the framework of the intervention and to engage in discussions in their preferred languages - made possible by the multiple language competences of my research assistant and myself.

The multimodal arts-based activities included in the research cycles consisted of play-making, process drama, puppetry, drawing, poster-making and participation in street parades and site visits. The facilitation of activities in a range of modes enabled participants to work according to their strengths and interests and to explore working in modes that were new to them. The collection and analysis of data in a range of modes also contributed to the validity of the claims made at the conclusion of the study.

 

Transgressive learning and TEAP

The five vignettes from the research included in this section illustrate aspects of what I am terming 'transgressive eco arts-based pedagogy' (TEAP). They were chosen to illustrate more and less successful aspects of the interventions and what can be learned from both relative successes and relative failures.

Research vignette 1: Visiting the village dump and drawing responses to the visit

After a visit to the village dump during the first research cycle, the children were given paper and drawing materials to use in making images of their choice as a response to the visit. Analysis of what they chose to represent enabled me to add to my understanding of what they had expressed verbally, in isiZulu, English or Afrikaans, about the visit. In analysing the drawings I focused on the features suggested by Hsu (2014):

(1) Information value. The placements of elements ... endows them with the specific informational values attached to the various 'zones' of the image.

(2) Salience. The elements are made to attract the viewer's attention to different degrees.

(3) Framing. The presence or absence of framing devices disconnects or connects elements of the image, signifying that they belong or do not belong in some sense. (p. 177, italics in the original)

It was evident that the toxic nature of the dump had made an impact on the children, as many of them foregrounded the mound itself, a dead cow, a foraging dog and a family of waste collectors in their drawings. To my surprise fewer than half the drawings included any waste objects (tins, glass, paper, plastic, etc.), perhaps suggesting that these objects were so naturalised that they had either become invisible or were not considered worthy of attention. As a result of this analysis of the drawings, further activities were planned with a focus on the harmful effects of plastic on bird and animal life and on waterways and collecting waste to turn into useful (e.g. eco-bricks) or decorative (e.g. jewellery) objects. Drawing was included in activities in each of the three research cycles and over time provided some evidence of change in attitudes towards the environment. At first the images indicated that it was 'the children' or 'others' who dropped litter but during the course of the fieldwork the children became more willing to admit to their own poor behaviour in this regard. Figure 1 is an image of a child confessing to dropping litter before class, while Figure 2 shows a girl using snack packet papers to make mats, which she then sold at a village market. Figure 3 is a graphic and textual response to ways in which the respondent might deal with waste if there was no dustbin at hand, and these include keeping the waste until s/he got home or asking someone if they could point out a bin.

 

 

 

 

While these graphic indications of behavioural change are small and do not necessarily mean that good practices will be sustained, they did at least present a possibility that this could be the case. In terms of TEAP, site visits over time, with each one followed by graphic responses to the visit, provide an indicator of changes in attitude or perspective.

Research vignette 2: Introducing process drama

Dorothy Heathcote, a pioneer in the field of process drama, advised beginning the process by building belief and experience and then moving towards depth of insight about that experience, whenever possible, moving the participants to a moment of awe (Wagner, 1979, p. 76). A co-facilitator and myself aimed to create a space for the children that was familiar to them, within which they could play and interact with one another. Once this space had been established, with characters from a story they had listened to allocated to each one, the children were encouraged to act within the space as they saw fit. The space created was a village similar to the one they lived in, with shops, taverns, a school, church and police station. The children immediately embraced the process and then engaged in the enactment of a range of village activities. While they were acting, issues were introduced to them: nappies and bottles were being dumped in the river and littering was becoming a serious issue. A shift in the performances was then observed in that the children began discussing the issues presented to them, and when a 'community meeting' was held a heated discussion ensued during which the children debated who was responsible for the dumping. There was evidence of shifts from light-hearted enjoyment of role-playing to a more serious engagement with local environmental problems.

The children decided that mothers were responsible for dumping nappies and tavern owners for dumping bottles in the river. How the mothers could be supported in the disposal of nappies and tavern owners in the recycling of bottles was discussed. The children showed an ability to solve the problems they had identified themselves. Towards the end of the play-making, one of the boys said that it would be impossible to change the littering behaviour of children until their parents stopped littering. Through this process drama activity children found their voices - voices that they subsequently used to express their views on the value of a clean environment to adults in the community, as will be indicated in vignette 5. Prior to this play-making, the children had been reticent to speak up and voice both their concerns regarding waste in the environment and also their proposed solutions. The engagement with issues in an environment that was familiar to them (i.e. their village), together with the safe space provided for creative expression, enabled them to express their views strongly.

Wagner suggested that process drama functions to search for "the precise dramatic pressure that will lead to a breakthrough, to a point where the students have to come to a problem in a new way, to fight for language adequate to the tension they feel" (1997, p. 13). Through the observation of the boy mentioned above, at a critical moment afforded by process drama, the course of the study changed to include adults. Given the interest that some adults (mainly women) had already shown in participating in the project's activities, this was quite easy to achieve. It is the inclusive nature of TEAP that is brought to the fore here, in that TEAP does not privilege one sector of a community or society over another. All willing participants are included in all ways that they choose, thus promoting the inclusivity called for by Kulundu-Bolas et al.

Research vignette 3: Bringing adults into the research

As the first cycle of the research drew to a close, some adult family members and caregivers began to express interest in participating in the arts-based activities as will be described in vignette 4. There were also younger and older, male and female adults in both Wakkerstroom village and eSizameleni township who, once aware of the research project, became 'champions of the environment'. Their involvement afforded meaningful working relationships with parents and council workers enabling me to work alongside community members to identify projects that could be undertaken when lockdown levels were eased during the Covid-19 pandemic. These projects included a job creation initiative to assist those who had lost their income and the construction of a bench made from eco-bricks at the taxi stop. Figure 4 shows people sitting on the bench while waiting for a taxi.

Liaison with these environmental champions also raised the possibility of sustaining initiatives with an environmental focus beyond the life of the research project. One initiative begun during the second research cycle and which is ongoing, involves the collection of plastic bottle tops and bread tags which are taken to the Tops and Tags programme in Newcastle. Once a sufficient quantity has been collected, the plastic waste is exchanged for a wheelchair for a member of the Wakkerstroom-eSizameleni community. The first recipient was the grandmother of one of the child participants in the project. The 'story' of the collection of waste and of the presentation of the wheelchair was performed as a puppet show and subsequently drawn by the audience. Gogo (grandmother) in her wheelchair was centre stage in every drawing. Figure 5 shows the recipient of the wheelchair with the bakkie-load of tops, while Figure 6 is a graphic representation by one of the child participants.

 

 

 

 

Research vignette 4: Telling stories, making stories: Puppetry on environmental themes

Puppetry was introduced during cycle 1 with children learning how to make paper packet puppets and using them to tell stories with an environmental connection. In preparation for the puppet making and story-telling, the children first discussed characters and storylines. Once the puppets were ready, each child had an opportunity to present their story to the other children, using a combination of isiZulu, English and Afrikaans. The research assistant translated the isiZulu for me and I translated the Afrikaans for him as English was our lingua franca. The children were far more willing to tell stories through their puppets than without them and to use their full linguistic repertoires, providing support for the claim of Schmidt and Schmidt (1989) that puppetry affords one a degree of separation; it is the puppet that communicates messages rather than the puppeteer.

During cycle 2, when some adolescents and adults had joined the child participants, I began to use rod puppets to tell stories with environmental themes. By invitation, I also used them outside the research project: at a meeting of council workers; with a group of retirees and also with other child audiences at a school and at an afterschool care centre. Not only did children learn how to make puppets but through the one degree of separation afforded by speaking as a puppet figure, they were willing to communicate their understanding of environmental issues.

Research vignette 5: Waste clean-up arranged by a research participant

On one occasion while I was driving in the township, one of the research participants stopped me and took me to a place that is regularly used for informal dumping. He asked: "What can we do about this?" and "When can we clean this?" This was a very special moment for me as the suggestion to clean up the site, with a further specific request for a time frame, indicated that the child not only had learnt to 'see' the waste but that it had begun to bother him. He wanted to make a change, and the language he used had shifted from 'they' to 'we'. His questions indicated that he had become aware of the hazards of informal dumping and also that he had developed a sense of personal responsibility for it as a result of his participation in the TEAP intervention.

After this conversation we organised a clean-up event for the following Saturday. The boy had arranged for a number of his friends to attend but during the course of the morning, other curious children joined us until there was a group of 25, between the ages of four and fourteen. All the children worked extraordinarily hard and we were able to make a substantial dent in the waste.

Two events that occurred while the clean-up was under way are worth noting. When an adult passerby teased the children, saying that their work was a waste of time, the boy who had initially suggested the event responded thus: "At least we are trying; what are you doing?" He said, "I love my planet and I don't want to see it like this". The second event that morning involved a person who arrived with a wheelbarrow full of waste with the intention of dumping it where the children were cleaning. The children voiced their indignation which drew the man's attention to the activity and he left, somewhat embarrassed.

While there had been other indications that TEAP had enabled small changes in attitudes and behaviours towards the environment, this was a pivotal moment in the fieldwork for the research. The 11-year-old boy who had asked for assistance in the clean-up had joined the programme when he was eight, left, and then joined again. This vignette suggests that long-term interventions may have the capacity to draw children back after they have dropped out for any number of reasons. Figures 8 and 9 show the children at work and the waterway after it had been cleared of waste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusions

Transgressive art subverts, shocks and dismantles the status quo, as was often evident in the performance art that became so popular in the 1980s. Transgressive teaching and learning however, seeks to disrupt traditional approaches to teaching and learning. It seeks to level the playing fields between the haves and the have-nots, to include the voices of teachers and learners and parents or other caregivers. Co-learning and co-leading is emphasised, with space for mutual acknowledgement and respect between those who learn and those who teach, in ways similar to what Carabello and Soleimany (2018) described as 'a pedagogy of love' in which recognition and nurturing of differences - race, creed, nationality and sexual orientation for example - permit embracing of inclusivity.

With reference to Lotz-Sizitska's call for 'low theory', I suggest that the vignettes included in this paper are illustrative of the value of transgressive eco-arts pedagogy, informed by conceptualisations of transgressive learning, for arousing and sustaining community interest and involvement in environmental issues on the part of children, adolescents and adults. The interventions based on TEAP were informed by a range of 'high' theories (e.g. deep ecology and eco-feminism as explained in Preston, 2021) and multimodal arts-based pedagogic practices that have been at the margins or non-existent in most South African schools (Archer & Newfield, 2014). At their core was the need, expressed during the initial reconnaissance phase by community members, for a cleaner environment, for support of community members through job creation and provision of services, and for opportunities for children and adults to 'play' in safe spaces. By the end of the third research cycle, in which some activities had to be put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was evidence in the children's drawings, posters and performances of increased environmental awareness. However, while some of them became quite passionate about cleaning the environment, others continued to litter. Some of the adults who became involved are still collecting tops and tags for wheelchairs and other waste for making eco-bricks.

Throughout each of the cycles of an action research intervention informed by TEAP, the reflexivity advocated by Kulundu-Bolus et al. (2020) was paramount in thinking about, planning, implementing and reflecting on the multimodal activities as is indicated in Figure 10.

 

 

With reference to the further planning indicated in Figure 10, some of the adults in the community are willing to continue their efforts as 'champions of the environment' in collaboration with myself and the co-ordinator of an after-school programme in Wakkerstroom-eSizameleni. We are hoping to encourage both adults and children to actively live in transgressive ways (Kulundu-Bolus et al., 2020).

Through the use of five vignettes I have attempted to show how TEAP, using multimodal arts-based interventions, has the capacity through its non-binary approach, over time, to embrace the "boundary crossing, and navigating of plural ecosystems of knowledge, world-views, cosmo-visions and identities" that already exist in environmental education (Kulundu-Bolus et al., 2020).

 

Notes on Contributor

Preston, Carol

Carol Preston is a research associate and guest lecturer at Drama for Life, Wits School of Art at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her interests lie in applying the arts in informal environmental education.

 

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