Increasing Environmental Health Literacy through Contextual Learning in Communities at Risk

Leona F. Davis, Mónica D. Ramirez-Andreotta, Jean E. T. McLain, Aminata Kilungo, Leif Abrell and Sanlyn Buxner
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Leona F. Davis: Department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies, University of Arizona, 1430 E. Second St, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Mónica D. Ramirez-Andreotta: Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, 1177 E. Fourth St, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Jean E. T. McLain: Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, 1177 E. Fourth St, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Aminata Kilungo: Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, Health Promotion Sciences Department, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin Ave, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Leif Abrell: Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, 1177 E. Fourth St, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Sanlyn Buxner: Department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies, University of Arizona, 1430 E. Second St, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-23

Abstract: Environmental health literacy (EHL) has recently been defined as the continuum of environmental health knowledge and awareness, skills and self-efficacy, and community action. In this study, an interdisciplinary team of university scientists, partnering with local organizations, developed and facilitated EHL trainings with special focus on rainwater harvesting and water contamination, in four communities with known environmental health stressors in Arizona, USA. These participatory trainings incorporated participants’ prior environmental health risk knowledge and personal experiences to co-create training content. Mixed methods evaluation was conducted via pre-post participant surveys in all four trainings ( n = 53). Participants who did not demonstrate baseline environmental science knowledge pre-training demonstrated significant knowledge increase post-training, and participants who demonstrated low self-efficacy (SE) pre-training demonstrated a significant increase in SE post-training. Participants overall demonstrated a significant increase in specific environmental health skills described post-training. The interdisciplinary facilitator-scientist team also reported multiple benefits, including learning local knowledge that informed further research, and building trust relationships with community members for future collaboration. We propose contextual EHL education as a valuable strategy for increasing EHL in environmental health risk communities, and for building academia-community partnerships for environmental health research and action.

Keywords: environmental health literacy; environmental health risk; informal education; contextual learning; rainwater harvesting; program evaluation; hazardous waste sites; environmental justice communities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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