‘One Person Cannot Change It;It’s Going to Take a Community’: Addressing Inequity through Community Environmental Education

Abstract

Environmental injustice is often an intersection of economic, social, and environmental disparities. Addressing the inequities borne by communities overburdened with such disparities requires local learning opportunities. Exploring how and what participants learn during community education projects can help inform and improve practice, which was the focus of this study. This study reports on a larger community environmental education project involving participatory action research, which involved community residents in Chicago learning to monitor local air quality using low-cost air sensors. The experiences of 14 volunteer air monitors were collected using focus group interviews and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) approach to thematic analysis. Participant learning focused on new and existing skills related to science/technology, interpersonal communication, and local environment. Volunteers built skills in using low-cost air sensors, taught other community members about air monitoring and local air quality, and devised strategies for improving community air quality and health. This exploration of the experiences of community residents learning to use low-cost air monitors has three applications to community education practice related to addressing inequity: utilizing community members as educators, developing community capacity to engage with science, and normalizing equitable processes. The study’s findings mark a contribution by the field of adult and community education to both Critical Science Agency and low-cost air monitoring literature, in addition to the Education for Sustainability literature by addressing the lack of focus on sustainability and equity by highlighting a community-based PAR project focused on developing local capacity of marginalized communities to address air quality issues.

“The implication for community and adult educators is that we should be more intentional about utilizing community learners as educators.”

Introduction

Environmental Justice (EJ) communities are neighborhoods with a disproportionate share of environmental burdens (Bell & Ebisu, 2012). Environmental challenges can impact human health, economic resiliency and vitality, and community strength and wellbeing (NASEM, 2017; World Health Organization, 2021). EJ communities (e.g., low income, people of color) have long suffered increased health risks from environmental impacts (Bullard & Johnson, 2009). Such communities typically experience an intersection of economic, social, and environmental disparities (University of Pittsburg, 2019). Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic explicitly exposed the relationship between poor air quality and inequitable health impacts in EJ communities (CDC, 2020). To have a substantive role in addressing environmental and health impacts, all communities need sustained opportunities to learn about their localized air quality and risks posed by air pollution and other sources of contamination. Given the state of low-cost air quality monitoring technology, EJ communities need equitable partnerships with and technical support from air quality specialist. Specifically, it is helpful for EJ communities to understand sources of pollution; contamination types; how local wind patterns and climate affect air quality; technology available to monitor air quality; and current policies and policy-making processes at the local, state, and national levels. Communities who understand the science and technology of environmental challenges impacting their neighborhoods can become informed decision-makers when developing or advocating policies to address these challenges and electing representatives responsible for enacting and enforcing policy (Corburn, 2005).

Air quality and land use implications are issues of concern for many communities, particularly EJ communities (Erickson et al., 2017). New technology, in the form of low-cost air sensors, now makes it possible for communities to monitor local air quality and learn about the implications of poor air quality on their personal and community health (US EPA, 2019). This presents an opportunity for community-based learning about how science and technology can be utilized to develop and advocate for policy change addressing environmental challenges. However, a technological solution alone is not the answer. Without attention to the learning processes involved in addressing community health impacts resulting from poor air quality, the changes needed to protect the health of ALL communities will remain elusive.

This study reports on a larger community environmental education project involving participatory action research (PAR). The project involved community residents in Chicago learning to monitor local air quality using low-cost air sensors. All communities involved were in areas with air quality impacts, such as high traffic congestion and industrial activities. For example, the Little Village neighborhood has one of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, asthma, and airborne-related illnesses in Chicago (Geertsma, 2018). Residents experience daily environmental injustices including a high volume of truck traffic (two trucks per minute in some intersections) and diesel pollution (LVEJO, 2019). In April 2020, while experiencing the highest Coronavirus infection rates in Chicago, a botched smokestack implosion at the former Crawford Coal Plant covered Little Village in a toxic dust cloud (Peña, 2020).

As part of the project, Volunteer Air Monitors (VAM) engaged in a variety of inter-related learning experiences to develop their capacities for monitoring their local air quality. VAM members were community residents who collected local air quality data using low-cost handheld and stationary air monitors. When residents were learning how to use air monitoring equipment, they were often also learning and making meaning about local air quality and pollutants with other residents through dialogue and collaboration. Focus group data collected after residents completed air monitoring were analyzed to further explore how and what VAMs learn during a community-based PAR air monitoring project. This will be focus of this paper.

Literature Review

The intersections of three bodies of literature, Community Education, Education for Sustainability, and Critical Science Agency, can help us understand the learning contexts and experiences of VAMs in the project under investigation. Community education is focused on solving community-identified problems in a variety of contexts through learning processes that aid in delineating problems, identifying additional needed resources, and developing needed skills. While Education for Sustainability (EfS) offers a framework for humanity learning how to move toward sustainability, incorporating equity into the concept is an under-developed area to which this study contributes. Critical science agency is a possible outcome of blending community education practice and EfS, given their respective focus on helping adults learn to address intractable problems. While research exploring community use of low-cost air monitors is beginning to emerge, no studies focus on the learning processes of the adults engaged in it (Durkin et al., 2020; Matz et al., 2017; Wong et al., 2020). The study discussed here begins to address this gap from the perspectives of adult learning and education.

Community Education

Community education focuses on usefulness, employs diverse methods, and emphasizes collaboration (Tett, 2010). Community education “involves recognizing the rights of those who experience problems to define appropriate solutions and campaign for their implementation often against the vested interests of the powerful” (Tett, 2010, p. 90). Several studies illustrate the diverse contexts of community education within the realm of adult learning. These include Johnson et al.’s (2015) ethnography with Puerto Rican community learners, Golding’s (2011) analysis of older Australian men out of the workforce, Grace and Wells’ (2007) qualitative descriptive study on queer young adults, and Gillespie and Melching’s (2010) case study of an African non-governmental organization. Taken together, these studies all illuminate key themes of community education and learning, namely, (1) honoring learners’ existing learning strategies is crucial to learners’ openness to new learning, (2) connecting new learning experiences to existing cultural practices helps learners identify their important issues, (3) group activities and hands-on experiences facilitate deep learning, (4) these activities allow learners to critically reflect on their experiences, and (5) learning outcomes can expand from the individual/community level to social/national levels. However, prior research seated in community education contexts have not investigated whether these themes resonated with learning about local air quality in EJ communities. For example, Wong et al.’s (2020) analysis focused on engagement processes. Notably, Matz et al. (2017) identified participants’ learning outcomes but provided limited analysis of the learning process devoid of any learning theory.

Education for Sustainability

Community education contexts are well-suited for employing EfS as they offer real-world settings in which learners can grapple with sustainability challenges in their daily lives. Sustainability has a variety of definitions and conceptions. We use Ehrenfeld’s (2008) broad conception that sustainability is “the possibility that human and other life will flourish on the planet forever” (p. 49). Turning this possibility into reality requires Education for Sustainability (EfS), a process by which humans can learn to be far-seeing enough, flexible enough, and wise enough to contribute to the regenerative capacity of the physical and social systems upon which they depend (Meadows et al., 1992). Historically the Western world’s emphasis on sustainability and attendant education efforts have been largely focused on reacting to environmental degradation, ignoring the connections between environmental, economic, and social systems (Jacobs, 1999). These types of responses prioritize expert knowledge and are not concerned with equity. Fortunately, sustainability is an evolving concept and a recent trend in research and practice is moving toward exploring the intersections of sustainability and equity. However, “while there is already much attention to the twin challenges of sustainability and equity, there is remarkably little systematic work to address their interlinkages” (Leach et al., 2018, p. 2).

Critical Science Agency

Critical Science Agency (CSA) “refers to opportunities to merge scientific and other forms of knowledge and practice to address instances of injustice” (Schenkel et al., 2019, p. 310). It is a form of agency that emerges when learners collectively blend their understanding of science with other sources of knowledge (such as local or community knowledge) to query and address injustice. Emerging from STEM education efforts, it has been applied in youth science education settings (Basu et al., 2009; Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2010; Schenkel et al., 2019). However, given its emphasis on local knowledge, collaboration, and science education, it may prove a useful construct for developing programs and practices that incorporate EfS and community education in an effort to support adult participation in sustainability education that addresses inequity and leads to equitable systemic change.

Purpose of the Study

The study described here is part of a larger research project on community use of low-cost air monitors that explored adult learning centered around an existential threat (air quality) experienced by community residents engaged in a community-based PAR project representing both marginalized and gentrified neighborhoods. The purpose of this paper is narrower and explored how and what volunteer air monitors learned during the community-based PAR air monitoring project. It examined the learning processes of community residents serving as volunteer air monitors and the interlinkages between environmental sustainability and equity using EfS. Exploring EfS in community education contexts provides an opportunity to address both the paucity of research surrounding adult learning and EfS as well as the intersections of sustainability and equity, and for critical science agency for addressing inequities and injustices to emerge.

Methodology

This study’s data comes from a community education project exploring low-cost air sensor use by Chicago communities concerned about local air quality using PAR approaches. Communities represented include Little Village, Riverdale Area Community, and South Loop, which were communities involved in the PAR project chosen for their prior engagement in community environmental issues. Little Village is a largely Latinx, blue-collar neighborhood, home to the second largest industrial corridor in the city (City of Chicago, 2019). Riverdale Area Community is a primarily African American community located in the Toxic Donut, so named because it is surrounded by landfills, industry, and transportation networks. Little Village and Riverdale Area Community are environmental justice communities. South Loop is a gentrified neighborhood bordering transportation networks. It has heavy construction activities and considerable rush hour vehicle emissions.

Participants

Data was collected from 14 community residents who served as air monitoring volunteers. All were trained to use low-cost air sensors by individual project community organizers (COs) trained by technical partners with air monitoring expertise. Participants were neighborhood residents, at least 18 years old, and able to walk neighborhood air monitoring routes for 2 hours.

Data Collection

Following the collection of each community’s air quality data, volunteers participated in focus groups conducted by their CO. All COs used the same questions, including asking about skills gained, participation motivations, changes in air-quality knowledge, and future involvement in neighborhood air/environmental issues. Focus group questions were developed collaboratively by representatives from each project partner. A grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2014) was used to collect data because of the focus on the process of participants engaging with low-cost air sensors to develop knowledge about local air quality.

Data Analysis

Data was analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) approach to thematic analysis. We modified it slightly by starting with a keyword/concept search drawn from constructivism, behaviorism, and social cognitivism as described in Merriam et al. (2007) to understand VAMs’ learning. We began with line-by-line coding to search for keywords/concepts, then developed initial codes driven by keywords/concepts, reduced them further to categories, and then identified themes to capture the learning of the volunteers in this project. Once we identified the themes, we reviewed them for accuracy (e.g., if they reflected learning in the project) and then defined and named the themes.

Findings

Our analysis of community education activities demonstrated how learning skills in a social setting resulted in making new meaning with the potential to engage and educate additional community members. Volunteers built confidence in using their new and adapted skills, which helped them form new social connections and develop identities as scientists. Learning in a social group led volunteers to engage a wider circle of learners, making community-wide action to facilitate change seem possible.

Learning Air Monitoring Skills

The following themes emerged from analyzing community learning outcomes as volunteers learned air monitoring skills: developing new skills, adapting existing skills to new contexts, and heightened awareness of surroundings. Volunteers learned to use low-cost air sensors and reported increased awareness of local environments.

Developing New Skills

Volunteers reported taking responsibility for their learning and acquiring skills while monitoring. A Riverdale Community Area volunteer described learning to use different hand-held air sensors: “I learned how to set up the phones to [connect to] the AirBeam and the Terrier. I learned how to do that real quick [and] make sure it was picking up [data] right away.” Several volunteers participated in both summer and winter monitoring, providing them with the opportunity to improve air monitoring techniques by increasing their comfort level with equipment and routes. As a result, their data-collection skills improved. A repeat South Loop volunteer compared the first and second monitoring sessions.

[The second time] I felt more comfortable looking at [the equipment] to make sure it was reading. The last time I did it, once I set it…I never looked at it [again] the whole time and luckily they always took. But…the equipment does fail and there were times that it would be off or not [recording data]…This time I could check it and when it did drop, I could reset it, but I felt more comfortable with the equipment.

Adapting Existing Skills to a New Context

Adult learners come to new learning experiences with skills they may not expect to use or improve. One Little Village volunteer described how learning to explain the project in Spanish to community members helped improve their bilingual skills.

A lot of [people] asked me why I was walking around. I had to learn how to translate what I was doing into Spanish for the community…This one lady selling tamales asked me what I was doing…We ended up having a small conversation about what I was doing, the community, and why it was important. She was on our side; she feels the air is not clean as it once was.

Heightened Awareness of Surroundings

Volunteers reported noticing traffic patterns and visual aesthetics during air monitoring. Moreover, they reported an overall increase in environmental awareness after monitoring activities. One South Loop volunteer remarked,

Even though I was looking for air quality issues, I was noticing sound quality issues or even visual aesthetics…The difference is because I was going at the same time every day, [noticing] the difference in the traffic patterns or the density. But to hear the sirens and the trains, the machines, and the construction and all that which I wasn’t really that aware of before and now I notice it all the time…Just having that level of awareness…was a very valuable skill learned.

VAMs demonstrated their ability to utilize new technology to collect air quality data, contributing to their community’s understanding of threats to local air quality; increased their communication skills, allowing for knowledge about air quality and the project to be further disseminated; and increased awareness of their local environment, contributing to an ability to recognize threats and changes. These significant outcomes contributed to the group and social learning described in the following section.

Learning in Community

For some volunteers, learning activities included widening the circle of learners and changes to improve the lives of neighborhood residents. Volunteers believed their learning was a mutually symbiotic relationship wherein organizations, community residents, and volunteers all learn from one another for the neighborhood’s benefit.

Widening the Circle

Volunteers seemed aware of the social nature of their learning. When new volunteers joined the winter monitoring effort, returning summer volunteers embraced roles as mentors to reduce the learning curve for new recruits. Volunteers also discussed educating and involving community members in air monitoring. While a South Loop volunteer noted “being a part of a group and making a difference” added to the learning process, some volunteers recognized their learning community was not limited to their monitoring team but included the neighborhood. Participants described the ripple effects of their own activism within their community. One South Loop volunteer shared that friends and community members aware of monitoring activities were motivated to “look into their own communities for things to do.” A Little Village volunteer also hoped efforts to educate community members about local air quality would help them become more aware of their environment and more engaged in local efforts, stating, “it made the experience more rewarding having talks with people and helping them understand. Hopefully, it makes people join the meetings, come volunteer.” Volunteers noted that informing community members about why they were installing stationary equipment and walking routes to collect data encouraged community members to be more mindful of how they are contributing to air pollution.

Making Neighborhood Change

Volunteers believed active community involvement could produce a significant reduction in air pollution. They also discussed taking an active role in motivating individuals to care about the environment. When asked about the community’s role in solving air-quality issues, a Little Village volunteer responded, “raising awareness and letting people know what’s going on…A lot of the neighborhood doesn’t know what’s going on. People know factories are expanding, but they don’t know what comes with it.” Volunteers believed educating community members would facilitate environmental awareness because once people understand the negative health impacts of air pollution, they may be more motivated to take action. As one Riverdale Area Community volunteer said:

My thing is one person cannot change it. It’s going to take a community. We have to educate them and get them involved…Don’t you want to breathe better? We are just trying to do better as a community. Instead of saying “oh girl, what is that smell,” why not just do something about it and do research on it. What’s going on in your neighborhood is real, and you need to find out!

Volunteers’ engagement in social learning was supported by skill-related learning outcomes. Their ability to use air sensors and explain their activities to others enabled them to not only help other volunteers learn skills but also engage other community members in learning about local air quality and environmental threats. The volunteers’ heightened awareness of their surroundings and community underpinned their goal of engaging their community in change. Further these learning outcomes can also contribute to new understanding of their local environment and new ideas to address problems.

Reframing Problems and Developing Solutions

Volunteers’ learning outcomes include refined understandings of community environmental issues, thinking like a street scientist, and restructuring relationships between the local community and business operations that affect it. After participating in monitoring, volunteers reported experiencing more concern about local air quality and its impact on their neighborhoods. Some shared ideas about future monitoring or the use of their data, which indicated scientific thinking. Some shared ideas about community and business relationships that could improve local air quality.

Refined Understandings of Community Environmental Issues

Through involvement in air monitoring activities, volunteers formed new understandings about local air quality, particularly on relationships between air pollution and health. A Riverdale Community Area volunteer stated, “some people don’t believe we are the highest [in the city] with cancer [rates], but now I know and believe we are because [of] all…I learned.” When asked how the project impacted their views on the neighborhood’s air quality, a Little Village volunteer explained their refined understanding.

I already did projects on the communities’ environment. I actually already knew about cleaning the soil…I never paid much attention to the air quality, so when I heard about diesel trucks…I started asking my sister about asthma [and] respiratory health problems…at school. She said the asthma truck will come once a month and sometimes sooner than that. It’s something we need to pay attention to. Did it change my views? It made me change my view on the community’s environment and made me want to engage more.

Thinking like a Street Scientist

Corburn (2005) coined the term street science to describe “a process that emphasizes the need to open up both problem framing and subsequent methods of inquiry to local knowledge and community participation” (p. 8). Volunteers showed evidence of acting as street scientists. Some volunteers described ideas for monitoring and using their data. A Little Village volunteer described reasons for returning for winter monitoring.

I wanted to see if there was a difference between warmer weather compared to colder weather because there were more trucks and people working. Apparently, there is. I mean before there wasn’t the company or warehouse built yet, but now that it is, there is an increase in trucks. So, I think that has something to do with it.

This volunteer is thinking like a street scientist, curious about the impact of seasonal weather differences and increased truck traffic on local air quality. Further, another Little Village volunteer conceptualized effective ways to analyze and present data. “Maybe you do a full-on campaign because there is…the data I collected as well as the other data the other people collected. We can combine them together…and make this a really big issue because it is a big issue.” This volunteer is engaging in meaning-making related to their experience in data collection in the community. This statement reflects thinking like a street scientist, as it shows a realization of the strength in compiling the efforts of all volunteers to share the community’s collective story for the purpose of taking action.

Restructuring Community and Business Relationships

Little Village volunteers discussed ways to protect the community’s environment, which is increasingly negatively impacted by business activity. Their solutions are to change the dynamics of “business as usual” and increase community power in relation to the power business generally wields. As one Little Village volunteer shared:

If you want to be part of the community, then there are certain things that need to be done. Any new business like the Amazon warehouse that’s supposed to be here…you have to…play by our rules a little bit. I say let’s try to get more support by the community and try to find a way to get businesses to work with our rules.

This street scientist is seeking to upend the system that typically empowers businesses at the expense of disempowering communities. Implementing this suggestion would lead to a more equitable balance of power.

Developing skills to use air sensors and collect data provides the foundation for volunteers’ process of making new meaning about local air quality issues. These skills also contributed to their abilities to think like street scientists. Viewing the entire neighborhood as a learning community may be helping to proliferate ideas about involving more community residents to re-balance relationships between community and business.

Application to Practice

This exploration of the experiences of community residents learning to use low-cost air monitors is an example of EfS as sustainability involves addressing social, economic, and environment injustices (Leach et al., 2018). The findings of this study seem to support the key themes of community education outlined in the literature review (Gillespie & Melching, 2010; Golding, 2011; Grace & Wells, 2007; Johnson et al., 2015), demonstrating their resonance with EJ community learning and air quality. While the primary role of VAMs was to learn about their local air quality and collect neighborhood level air quality data, an analysis of their experiences revealed their dual role as educators. Not only did VAMs help other volunteers learn, but they shared their learning about local air quality with others in their neighborhood by answering questions from neighbors on the street and telling friends and family about their experiences.

The implication for community and adult educators is that we should be more intentional about utilizing community learners as educators. Engaging learners in community contexts in specific discussions and planning for their role as educators, as well as providing guidance in facilitating adult learning in their communities, will enhance community education efforts.

Moreover, adult educators could be more intentional about incorporating community education or community education strategies in our teaching. As educators in a global landscape fraught with entrenched social, economic, and environmental inequity threatening the future of humanity, we must facilitate adult learning in ways that prepare adults to address current and future challenges. We want to share some problem-centered learning strategies incorporating community education, education for sustainability, and environmental justice practices for use in formal and non-formal settings based on the authors’ decades of experience in these areas. These strategies are applicable to adult educators practicing in any context concerned with developing learners’ abilities to navigate issues of inequity and injustice. The lead author incorporates learning objectives centered around opportunities for learners to bear witness to the community education landscape around them in all her courses. Learners have the option of taking a light touch or diving in deep. One example of a light touch is students having input into the class syllabus by choosing topics that they want to explore during the semester and students choosing Sustainability and Adult Learning. Then the instructor curates readings and videos on that topic to engage students in discussions (synchronous or asynchronous online discussion) around that topic. An example of deep diving is a semester long project with learners choosing an issue of personal/professional relevance, examining the literature on said issue, describing how that looks in their local setting, and then reflecting on how adult learning and practice could help address that issue. In this course, learners examine the issue through these three lenses of human rights, economic empowerment, and environmental sustainability. This could be modified for other contexts and settings. Another example of deep diving is volunteering with an organization, embedding themselves for a close-up look while providing service and support to the frontline work. The examples that we have shared are adult higher education centered; however, there are many ongoing community education projects in other contexts such as family service learning projects in family literacy programs (Cramer & Toso, 2015). Learners make significant gains in their understanding of how community and education work together by exploring local efforts.

EJ communities engaged in addressing environmental contamination often struggle with perceptions that they are incapable of engaging in scientific inquiry and problem-solving (Corburn, 2005). However, this project is an example of equitable process in which community-identified solutions can emerge from a blend of community science learning and locally held knowledge (Schenkel et al., 2019). Projects such as these that engage community members in science and technology provide opportunities to develop such skills through active learning. Gaining competency and confidence in science/technology language, knowledge, and skills (particularly when centered in ones lived experience) disrupts deficit perceptions (both internal and external) and can lead to the development of critical science agency (Schenkel et al., 2019). For example, some volunteer air monitors began to see how their data collection efforts could be used to mobilize their neighbors to engage with government and businesses to develop equitable approaches to development, such as developing projects in collaboration with communities, rather than presenting completed plans for community input. This illustrates how EJ community learners connected an environmental issue with its systemic social and economic roots, providing an example of how Education for Sustainability can be melded with attempts to address inequity (Leach et al., 2018). More opportunities to engage learners in equitable processes are needed for such practices to become the norm, rather than the exception.

Conclusion

The focus of this study was to explore how and what VAMs learn during a community-based PAR air monitoring project. Participant learning focused on new and existing skills related to science/technology, interpersonal communication, and local environment. They learned through engaging with other VAMs and neighbors not involved in air quality data collection. They applied their learning to develop new understandings of community problems, engage in scientific thinking, and re-envision their communities’ relationships with the business sector. The findings of this study mark a contribution by the field of adult and community education to the literature of both Critical Science Agency (Schenkel et al., 2019) and low-cost air monitoring (Durkin et al., 2020; Matz et al., 2017; Wong et al., 2020). It also contributes to the Education for Sustainability literature, addressing the lack of focus on sustainability and equity (Leach et al., 2018) by highlighting a community-based PAR project focused on developing local capacity of marginalized communities to address air quality issues.