My Social Action Project

The Eco-Heroes Initiative aimed to reduce the amount of littering present on the host school's grounds and surrounding areas. Areas that were of most concern to the littering issue included the school field, corridors, and surrounding pavements along the outside of the school's gates. The recycling of PET (PolyEthylene Terephthalate) products was chosen as the recycling material as it was deemed the biggest contributor to the school's littering issue upon inspection of the litter on the school's grounds. For example, water and energy drink bottles, and plastic food containers such as yoghurt and fruit tubs. My project partner and I, along with the Grade 3 teachers and Deputy Principal, decided then that it would be best to create awareness regarding the littering issue at the school by combining it with the importance of recycling these PET products.

Effectiveness of the Eco-Heroes Initiative

Create Awareness

Numerous strategies were utilised to create awareness of the littering problem at the school. The first strategy was to have each Grade 3 class take turns collecting litter off the field every day after each break. This strategy was incidental and informal in nature as the learners were already asked by the Grade 3 teachers to fulfill this role from the start of the school year. It was only upon implementation of the Eco-Heroes Initiative that this component was made more formal, as learners were given reasons why they were picking up litter on a rotation basis in the first place. During TEXP7419 Block 1, learners would often complain about picking up litter despite not being the culprits for this cause. However, when using the second strategy - a PowerPoint presentation - during their Junior Assembly during Block 2, the learners quickly realised the importance of working together to create a greener environment. That is, being selfless enough to care about the quality of the natural environment and the sustainability of its resources without seeking acknowledgment or rewards. The PowerPoint presentation and continuation of litter collections at the end of break time were highly effective in raising awareness surrounding the littering issue at the school. This is because learners would gradually start collecting litter from the field and around the school grounds and disposing of it in the school bins provided without needing to be asked. by a staff member. There were also a few rare instances where the Grade 3 learners could be heard asking their peers to pick up litter which was a rather fulfilling experience to observe. Another strategy utilised to create awareness was designing individual posters to place around the school. The posters were colourful and used images appealing to a Grade 3 learner, such as superheroes. The name of the Social Action Project - the Eco-Heroes Initiative - also played a major role in the success of creating awareness of littering and recycling. Not only was it catchy to hear being said aloud, but the Grade 3 learners were often driven by the idea of becoming an Eco-Hero simply by collecting used PET products in their allocated recycling 'Hero Bins'.

Educate

As mentioned briefly above, a PowerPoint presentation and posters were used to create awareness for the initiative and its purpose for combating school litter and increasing PET product collections for recycling means. The PowerPoint presentation highlighted the phenomenon of food waste, which essentially occurs when good-quality food is thrown away for many reasons. For example, disease infestation due to food expiring, overproduction and underuse of fresh ingredients, and deliberate discarding of food products rather than giving the food to somebody desperately needing it (e.g., a peer who forgot their lunch at home or who cannot afford to bring their own lunch to school). The presentation also linked food wastage to littering, as many foods that do go to waste are still kept in their plastic containers (e.g., bread, cheese, sandwiches in sandwich bags, etc.). The presentation further included an explanation of what PET products are, examples of PET products found, and how they are recycled and refurbished using the 4Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink). This presentation was also highly effective in educating the Grade 3s because it linked their prior knowledge of the 3Rs in recycling and expanded on it by covering the improved version of the recycling process involving the 4Rs. The learners also showed great eagerness to learn more about the Initiative as they constantly asked questions throughout the PET product collection period. For example, "Can we bring in products without the number 1/PET sign?" and "Do cardboard boxes count for the collection competition?" Essentially, these questions based on the PowerPoint presentation discussion and the posters demonstrate the educate component being addressed because of the time that my project partner and I, and the Grade 3 teachers took to answer these questions and expand on them.

Unite

The Grade 3 learners were the most united I had seen them since commencing practicals this year and this is an ode to the Eco-Heroes Initiative. During Block 1 practicals, the Grade 3 learners displayed numerous occasions of unhealthy class rivalry, particularly when playing team sports on the field during break time. The learners would often call each other names or hit, punch, and kick their peers when team sports got a bit too competitive. This often resulted in learners getting hurt physically and emotionally and the suspension of ball games on multiple occasions as punishment on behalf of the Grade 3 teachers' decision. However, once learners were tasked with working together as a class and as a grade to collect as many PET products as possible, the unhealthy rivalry turned into healthy competition between each class. Each week, each class had been reminded to collect as many PET products as possible to earn a weekly prize for their peers. They were also informed of a grand movie prize on the last day of the final collections week that would be enjoyed by the class who brought in the most PET products overall. The weekly and grand prizes, therefore, served as the tool for uniting the learners to advocate for this Social Action Project. The attitude that each class had when bringing in their collections was positively infectious from the first day collections commenced right through to the end of this 4-week period. Learners across the classes would constantly check in with their teachers, myself and my project partner, and their friends in other classes to see who brought in the most PET products. The effectiveness that the weekly count announcement and prize-giving had on the amount of plastic products collected showed a positive correlation. This is because if one class won the first week's prize, the other two classes would make it their mission and motivate one another to bring in more products for the next week. This competitive spirit shared amongst the learners was impeccable to experience and was proof for the learners that working together helps to achieve a common goal. From a smaller, class perspective, the goal is collecting PET products for a weekly and grand prize, but from a larger, communal perspective, the goal is reducing litter and enhancing and conserving the natural environment and its resources. The teamwork displayed by the Grade 3 learners transferred to the rest of the school, further enhancing unity and advocation for this initiative as older siblings of the Grade 3 learners and other teachers from the school began collecting PET items to contribute to class collections.

Parent and Community Involvement

Both electronic (d6 notifications) and hardcopy (homework reminders) communications were used to inform primary caregivers of the Eco-Heroes Initiative, including its purpose and specifications for products to be collected (e.g., must be plastic and consist of a number '1' or 'PET' symbol). The impact that these communications had on involving parents and the greater community were met with positive outcomes. Learners would source PET items from secondary family members, friends, and neighbourhoods, while parents and teachers would use their work colleagues and mutual friends to contribute to the collections too. The initiative and genuine interest in collecting these products for the improvement of the natural environment and its resources is a true reflection of the importance of community work and involvement in service-learning. Without parental and external community involvement, the learners may not have realised the dire circumstances the environment is in and the urgency that is required to recycle to save the planet. Essentially, having learners and their family and community members participate in the Eco-Heroes Initiative allowed them to witness first-hand experience into and awareness of the severity of littering in South Africa and the world as a whole. Furthermore, this component allowed the learners, their parents, and the initiative's organisers and creators to recognise the significant role that free, voluntary work has on ensuring the progression and greater good of a society. This means that all participants in the initiative realised that to solve a problem, one cannot rely solely on their own efforts or the financial and labour support of education stakeholders such as the Department of Education. Instead, it is up to private recycling companies such as mPact, the homeless, and local business to aid in ensuring a safer and cleaner environment for future generations.

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How Service-learning Changed Me

Service-learning has taught me to rely more on my colleagues and surrounding community members to achieve specific goals. Before this year's service-learning component, I favoured independent work because I could not trust people to contribute an acceptable quality of work for group projects (according to my personal standards). However, being able to collaborate with another VC student and listening to the creative and informed inputs of more experienced educators familiar with the littering issue at the school helped me to exceed my own expectations. That is, I realised that working together on a community project like this one is the greatest key to ensuring the initiative is a success. I have also become more conscious of my own use of plastic products, taking extra care to separate and recycle products whenever I finish using them. While I do not go to the extreme extent of recycling plastics according to their recycling number, I do make an active effort separating all plastics, tins, glasses, and cardboard before placing them in separate bins at home. Service-learning has also made me more involved in my own community, in that I have become more aware of the various local shops and initiatives that help collect plastic PET products for recycling. Before the Eco-Heroes Initiative, I never considered why many homeless people dig in dustbins. I was ignorant, assuming that they did this just to find leftover food and make a mess. Service-learning has made me less ignorant in this regard, however, because I came to realise after giving these bottles to the homeless that they do this in exchange for money to feed them and their families. It helped me realise that even the most unassuming of people, like the homeless, are willing to save the planet and survive in exchange. This is also why I have continued to recycle plastic bottles post-service-learning - I always leave an extra bag or two for the homeless to collect to exchange for money or food at local shops or recycling plants like mPact.

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Impact of Service-learning on Professional Development

This year's service-learning component has helped me develop my time management skills. I had to ensure that all of my contributions to the successful running of the Eco-Heroes Initiative are designed, created and completed on time. For example, ensuring the movie day classroom decorations and ingredients (i.e., popcorn kernels and seasoning) are planned and organised well in advance before the actual movie day. This also helps my project partner to continue with her roles and responsibilities as co-organiser of the initiative. For example, I needed to ensure all my class's PET items were accounted for and recorded before the announcement of the weekly and grand prize winners so that we could both compare the figures brought in by each class for each week. This being said, service-learning has further developed my ability to prioritise tasks associated with being a full-time teacher. While the Social Action Project was important for the school and community, it needed to take a backseat when it came to lesson planning and resource preparations for learning and teaching to occur. The primary responsibility of a full-time teacher is ensuring teaching and learning is effective in achieving curricular and developmental outcomes. Any other school-related interests outside of the teaching and learning of content, such as the Eco-Heroes Initiative, is therefore reserved for after-school attention only. I also experienced an improvement in my communication and collaboration skills, simultaneously developing an appreciation for and awareness towards the importance of open communication and compromise when working with fellow colleagues. Because the Social Action Project required the collection and storing of many plastic bottles, it was absolutely crucial that I discussed and finalised set days in the week to count and collect bottles without disturbing teaching and learning. At the beginning of the project's implementation, plastic bottles started taking up too much space in the classrooms that learners could not complete their group-guided readings and so to solve this, it was organised that one to times a week each class would be visited to count and clear out bottles for recycling. Communication was also important when it came to issuing weekly prizes. As the first few prizes were an additional 15 minutes of breaktime, teachers needed to be consulted and approve of this reward beforehand to ensure teaching and learning time after break is not compromised. There were also occasions when learners would have additional subjects such as isiZulu or computers after break, and so these teachers would also need to be consulted before taking up their lesson time. Finally, I developed a deeper understanding of littering in South Africa and its causes and impact on the community. This occurred during my research sessions when planning the PowerPoint presentations and posters to share with the learners and their primary caregivers. If in-depth research had not been carried out, it would have been difficult getting the Grade 3s excited for and educated on littering as the main focus for the initiative. Furthermore, it would have been difficult to convince the school's Deputy Principal of the effectiveness and reliability of this initiative and therefore carry out the initiative as successfully as it was. Moreover, being well-informed of the effects and impact of littering on the environment, including ways to combat it in a financially-sound manner also showed the Deputy Principal and staff at the host school the passion driving the Eco-Heroes Initiative.

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Sustainability and Benefit to the School

The Eco-Heroes Initiative was highly beneficial in creating awareness surrounding the issue of litter both at a school and communal level. By continuing with this initiative, the school develops a desire within the learners to take pride in their surroundings, therefore upholding the pre-existing reputation of excellence of the school. Not only will the school look cleaner, but learners will be more cognisant of their current recycling patterns and encourage recycling at school on a greater spectrum. Thus, the Eco-Heroes Initiative has opened the door for the school to become even more environmentally friendly, in that they can extend recycling by providing learners with bins around the school property for different recycling purposes (e.g., glass, tins, cardboard and paper). In addition, the school has benefitted from this project in that it has experienced an increase in parent-teacher and community-school relationships, which is crucial in establishing a positive school climate and school culture. The sustainability of this project, is therefore, fairly promising provided a few slight changes to its implementation. For instance, counting bottles individually one to two times a week can be a time-consuming task for teachers to carry out. Therefore, if the school is to continue with rewards to drive interest and involvement in this initiative, they may need to consider weighing each bag and spacing rewards out to a monthly or even termly basis. They may also need to rely on a single service-provider to remove each collection on a regular basis (e.g., mPact) and at a reasonable price. During Block 2, provisions were made to personally drop off or take home PET items, however this is unsustainable for a full-time teacher in the long run due to additional after-work priorities (e.g., marking, report comments, extra murals, etc.).

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Overall, the Eco-Heroes Initiative was a great success. It attended to all four components of the service-learning log requirements, in that it created awareness and stimulated education and interest in littering and recycling in the context of an environmental issue, while uniting the Grade 3 learners and their parents as weekly prizes and a grand prizes were awarded to the class with the most PET product collections. This further improved parent and communal involvement and in turn, reduced the level of unhealthy competition at the school prior to the project's implementation.

Figure 1: Reduce Reuse Recycle Symbol #1987961. [s.a.]. (Clipart library, [s.a.].).

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Reference list

Clipart library. [s.a.]. Reduce Reuse Recycle Symbol #1987961. [Online]. Available at: https://clipart-library.com/clipart/AibKn9jBT.htm [Accessed 29 October 2023].

List of figures

Figure 1: Reduce Reuse Recycle Symbol #1987961. [s.a.].