This paper explored the dynamics of inculcating environmental care discourses in a peri-urban village in the Philippines. The project involved mobilizing the whole village to revive its biologically dead river and implement waste segregation in every home. What environmental care discourses were found in the community and where did they come from? What representations did they create? How were they enacted and inculcated? To answer these questions, ethnography was employed along with deconstruction and critical discourse analysis. It was found that the state-led environmental care programs privileged techno-managerial and economic discourses, presented as expert knowledge belonging to scientific communities. The techno-managerial discourse normalized people as deficient and needy and the environment as an objectified helpless captive. Environmental care as an economic concern was about making money out of waste and providing lucrative profit to owners of waste-management businesses. Such discourse normalized people as consumers and potential recipients of loans for waste infrastructure projects. The village did not fully accept the state-led discourses and instead critically examined and melded them with their own discourse of environmental care -- spirituality-inspired and communitarian. The spirituality-inspired environmental discourse viewed environmental care as a battle between good and evil and learning is typified as a “conversion” process. Communitarian discourse cast environment as a nurturing place where people connect with their collective past. These endogenous discourses were inculcated and reproduced through compelling folklore and cultural symbols. The educative processes were informal, embedded in the daily activities in the village, mediated by unlikely teachers like garbage collectors and student volunteers. In the end, this study argues that environmental education is a critical and agentic process of navigating through multiple discourses. It is also process of identifying and locating endogenous discourses as the major point of departure.

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LOCATING AND RE-ORDERING DISCOURSES, AN
IMPERATIVE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
DECEMBER 2-4, 2013; NEW ZEALAND DISCOURSE CONFERENCE, AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY
OF TECHNOLOGY
Maria Mercedes “Ched” Arzadon
mearzadon@upd.edu.ph
University of the
Philippines
University of the Philippines
My pedagogical lens
 Nonformal Education, Critical Pedagogy,
Emancipatory and Participatory Learning
 Beyond transmission and schooling model,
education as collective and dialogical action and
social change (La Belle 1976, Freire 1972, Morrow&Torres
2002)
 Deals with power, inequity and marginalization
o How are they construed, normalized/legitimized,
resisted, inculcated through discourse
o Environment related inequities

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University of the Philippines
Aim of the study
 This paper explored the dynamics of environmental
care discourses in a peri-urban village in the
northern part of the Philippines. Teachers, students
and local leaders mobilized the whole village to
revive its dead river (dumping site of industrial and
household waste)
 What environmental care discourses were found in
the community and where did they come from?
What representations did they create? How were
they enacted and inculcated?
University of the Philippines
Data set
 Ethnographic data (one year)
o Participant observation
o Interviews with community leaders, teachers,
residents, government officials, NGOs
o Documentary analysis
 Critical Discourse Analysis -Fairclough’s three-
tiered framework

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University of the Philippines
Managerial and Populist
 Managerial discourse -blames local people,
poverty, and overpopulation for environmental
degradation and for solutions, looks up to
international environmental pacts and regulations,
market initiatives, compensation payments,
technology and knowledge transfer.
 Populist discourse -blames the root of
environmental problems on imbalance of power
perpetuated by postcolonialism, globalization, and
capitalism.
(Adger et al 2001)

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University of the Philippines
Waste life cycle analysis
 end-of-pipe – waste management, energy recovery
 back-end-of-pipe – waste minimization
University of the Philippines
It started with a dream to revive a
biologically dead river
 Bued River was once used for
bathing, fishing and recreation
 1965 – a multinational cola bottling
plant began polluting the river.
Residents followed
 Signature smell
 Collective action – cleaning the river,
pressuring the cola plant, teaching
household waste management
 Village council, teachers, HS students

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University of the Philippines
Don’t bother, it’s only for the
expert
 “The pollution officer of the Cola company said
so many things to us, very technical-sounding;
we could not understand anything since we are
not chemical engineers.” (a village official
narrating about their confrontation with the
Cola company).
 “You should not bother to understand the
meaning of the water sample testing
procedure, that is only for the chemist.”
(Environment office personnel)
University of the Philippines
Environmental Care as techno-managerial
discourse
 Compliance to national and international (ex: ISO)
standards (facilities, systems, tools)
 Market-based instruments - “There’s cash in trash”
 “Consultants from Manila (capital city)”

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University of the Philippines
Discursive strategies
 Use of English technical terms
 Official version of the truth is determined by water
test sample results, invalidating what the residents
can see and smell
 Discourse of blame and anxiety
o People as waste generators
o Unable to control urges to procreate
University of the Philippines
Waste processing facilities

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University of the Philippines
Zero-waste and zero machines
 “It was so hard to make the people understand the
real meaning of ecological waste management.
They thought that it means having to buy
machines right away. What is more important is
that people learn to manage their waste at home”
(teacher)
 “Building the material recovery facility should
come later. It is not even necessary. What is crucial
is that people learn how to manage their waste”
(village council head)
University of the Philippines
Environmental Care as Eco-Spirituality
 “Our environmental education is different because
we provide a spiritual foundation.” (teacher)
 “We are successful because people have
internalized…I hope that it will do its work in their
hearts.” (village council leader)
 “Nuong nag-environment ako” (The moment that I
became environment) – (high school students)
 Anthropocentric vs eco-centric environmentalism

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University of the Philippines
Eco-Champions
Teacher Janet, Kapitan Dion, Teacher Lyn
University of the Philippines
Environmental Care as
Communitarian discourse
 “When we were young, we used to play at the river
at all times. After going to church, we would
immediately proceed to the river. We would not
play along the way; we would wait until we reached
the river… Crabs, frogs, shrimps and milkfish were
abundant… It was in 1965 when it started to get
dirty” (the year the cola plant was erected)
 “Now people are planting vegetables by the river,
they also built huts for picnics.”
 Tree planting, community clean-up

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University of the Philippines
DOMINANT DISCOURSES
TECHNO-MANAGERIAL
COUNTER-DISCOURSES
ECO-SPIRITUAL -COMMUNITARIAN
Environment Objectified
Sinkhole /dumpsite
For sale to the highest bidder
nurturing place/ rendezvous
co-equal with humans
People in the
Community
“waste generators”
Consumers of expensive technology
Needing directives from agencies,
incapable
Protectors of the environment
Knowledgeable and capable
One with the environment
Enactments
Policies, standards “ISO Certified”
Waste facilities/machines (sanitary
landfills)
Industrial structures
Waste
CO2 emission targets
Household-based zero waste lifestyle
collective action
Environmental Care Discourses
University of the Philippines
Educative Process
DOMINANT DISCOURSE
TECHNO-MGRL /ECONOMIC
COUNTER-DISCOURSES
ECO-SPIRITUAL /COMMUNITARIAN
Sites of
learning You come to us
Seminar halls
Occurs in school and community
We come to you (homes,
neighborhood)
Informal (“just like chatting”)
Pedagogy “Is it implemented?”
Top-down
Environmental concepts in
English, use of technical terms
Only accredited trainers
Study tours to examine showcase
“Is it internalized?”
Dialogical (connecting to local
realities)
Uses the local language
Shares teaching function with
students, garbage collectors,
community leaders

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University of the Philippines
Concluding thoughts
 New climate change related inequities /climate
change justice / solidarity
 Need to problematize UNESCO’s “Education for
Sustainable Development” (Kopnina 2012)
o Obscures the environmental issue
o ESD does not fully recognize how economic development is
affecting the ecological health of the biosphere”
o Anthropocentric
University of the Philippines
Thank you for helping the Philippines!

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University of the Philippines
Sources
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Svarstad,H. (2001) H. Advancing a political ecology of global environmental
discourses. Development and Change 32: 681-715.
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 Kopnina, Hellen (2012): Education for sustainable development (ESD): the turn
away from ‘environment’ in environmental education?, Environmental Education
Research
 La Belle, Thomas J. Goals and Strategies of Nonformal Education in Latin America.
Comparative Education Review 20 (October 1976): 328-45. 219
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http://community-wealth.org/content/stop-trashing-climate
 Ryerson, William (2003). Sixteen Myths About Population. Population Media
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http://www.populationmedia.org/issues/sixteen_myths/myths3.html