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Makale Özeti:
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Achieving a sustainable future requires that individuals adopt sustainable behaviors, which
are often learned and cemented at a young age. Yet, traditional education efforts have been
inadequate in fostering transformative change, in part because many programs focus on
fact-heavy, teacher-centered techniques while neglecting the practices that behavioral and
sustainability scholars highlight as central to creating change. To address this gap, the present
research integrates three critical yet mostly disparate bodies of research— educational
pedagogy, behavior change, and sustainability competencies. This interdisciplinary approach
to education was implemented and evaluated with a small group of students during
an intensive summer program and year-long case study. The curriculum focused on food
and waste behaviors and utilized experiential, real-world, problem-based methods in order
to increase competence in sustainability and promote pro-environmental actions. The impact
of the program was assessed through surveys, interviews, videos, and participant observations.
The data showed that significant changes in knowledge and behaviors were
achieved, while suggesting that social knowledge in terms of food is more resistant to
change as compared to that of waste. Throughout the year, students maintained significant
behavior changes in terms of their waste decisions; however, sustainable food behaviors
were more resistant to long-term change due to the students’ social and cultural environment.
This article will detail the education program and assessment techniques while highlighting
each student’s unique characteristics, barriers to change, and motivations for action.
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