Exploring fifth–grade Turkish children’s solutions and future plans for environmental pollution through their drawings

Results

In order to reveal the meaning of each drawing, the solutions and plans were recoded into written language. The annotations were used to clarify the messages conveyed in the drawings. Then, each code was placed in one of the three thematic categories suggested by Erdogan (2009). Figure 1 is a drawing produced by one of the children participating in the study.

Figure 1. A sample drawing from the study

The drawing is entitled ‘Sensitive Robot’. The annotation at the bottom of the drawing reads ‘A robot which recycles, cleans the streets, warns people, plants saplings, and erects pro-environmental signboards’. From this annotation it becomes clear that (a) the signboard reading ‘extinguish fires’ is intended to encourage people to extinguish fires, (b) the plant is a sapling to be planted, (c) the sweeper and the dustpan are for cleaning the streets, (d) the four squares on the robot is for recycling plastics, waste cooking oil, glass and paper; and (e) the robot is able to warn people. This drawing is placed into two categories. The signboard encourages people to extinguish fires and the robot warns people to be responsible for the environment, so these two codes (i.e., a and e) are placed in the category of persuasion. The other three codes are related to different physical actions (i.e., planting a sapling, cleaning the streets and recycling), so they were placed in the category of physical action.

There was a reference to land pollution in 47 drawings. The same figure was 4 for water pollution and 3 for air pollution. Despite the fact that noise and light pollution were part of the science curriculum in 4th grade, none of the children in 5th grade referred to them in their drawings. Land pollution was the most prominent form of environmental pollution in the drawings. Ten of the children referring to land pollution were interviewed about their choice. They stated that they were aware of other forms of pollution, but the commonest form of pollution around them was land pollution. Because of that, they were not concerned about other forms of pollution. In other words, they stated, they did not consider them as pollution.

Solutions and Plans regarding Physical Action

There was evidence of physical action(s) in 36 out of 40 drawings (90%). In 44.4% of the 36 drawings (16 drawings) the children suggested collecting litter. In 10 of these 16 drawings a robot was doing the job. Figure 2 is a drawing in which two robots were collecting litter. The annotation reads ‘a flying skateboard entertains while it makes it easy to collect litter by sucking them in through the pipe beneath it. Robot grasses planted alongside a creek collect litter from it’. The robots in Figure 6 were both collecting and consuming litter. In these 10 drawings, the physical action of litter collection was carried out by robots instead of people. Figure 3 is one of the 6 drawings in which litter was collected by people. The annotation reads ‘a few people coming together and riding a bike with a broom attached to its back’. Unlike Figure 2, the agent in Figure 3 was a person, using a tool such as a broom to collect litter.

Figure 2. Robots collecting litter

Figure 3. People collecting litter

In 80.5% of the 36 drawings (29 drawings) the children suggested putting litter in a bin or recycling bin. Figure 4 depicts a person putting litter in a bin. The annotation reads ‘1) dispose of batteries in a battery bin, 2) dispose of plastic bottle lids in a bottle lid bin, 3) dispose of litter in a litter bin’. The second suggestion in the list is related to a campaign designed by the Turkish Paraplegic Association. In the campaign, the lids recycled are used to raise money to purchase wheelchairs for the paralyzed people who cannot afford them. In the 29 drawings, there was more than one type of recycling bin. For instance, the robot in Figure 1 is also a recycling bin. Another type of recycling bin was a device converting waste cooking oil into water. In the drawings, a child drew a robot charging batteries disposed in it. In other words, the recycling bins in the drawings were different; not only in the form they had but also in the way they functioned.

Figure 4. A person putting litter in a bin

In 30.5% of the 36 drawings (11 drawings) the children suggested planting saplings. Figure 5 depicts a robot designed to plant saplings. The annotation reads ‘This robot plants 10000 saplings everyday’. The saplings to be planted were drawn inside the robot. The people planting and watering saplings or trees were evident in the drawings, in which the agents were not robots but people (for example, see Figure 6). However, the reason for planting saplings was specified only in one of the 11 drawings (i.e., preventing landslides). In the 10 other drawings there was no reference to the form of environmental pollution to be addressed by planting samplings. Therefore, it was assumed that these 10 drawings were about reducing land pollution. Forests help to fight against global climate change and erosion. Reforestation played an important role in the drawings. In this study, it was not possible to conduct in-depth interviews with the children about their drawings, and the annotations were not enough to clarify the reason(s) for the physical action of reforestation. It appears that, in some instances, it is important to interview children about their drawings in order to reveal their various meanings. Therefore, the lack of in-depth interviews is a limitation of this study.

Figure 5. A robot planting saplings

Figure 6. A building with a chimney filter

In only 8.3% of the 36 drawings (three drawings) the children suggested using a chimney filter. One of these three drawings is presented in Figure 6. The annotation written on the building in the upper left corner reads ‘filter’. This drawing also refers to the other three sub-categories of the category of physical actions, namely, collecting litter, putting litter in a bin or recycling bin and planting saplings.

Children’s solutions and future plans for environmental pollution are affected by their understanding of it. In a study investigating children’s understanding of the pollution process, Brody (1991) found that 4th graders needed to see, feel, smell, or taste pollution for it to exist since these children were sensory in their approach to the world. In the drawings produced in the present study, littering, a form of land pollution, caught their attention. Many children were aware that the most effective way to reduce littering was not to litter in the first place, and suggested putting litter in a bin or recycling bin. It seems that they were able to identify the cause of the problem, which is throwing objects on the ground, and the solution was proper disposal of litter. However, there were already lots of objects lying on the ground, waiting to be disposed properly. Therefore, some children focused their attention to litter collection. Both solutions required physical action on a personal level.

In Brody’s study, 8th graders had a more conceptual understanding of pollution, and 11th graders had a more complex and interconnected vision of pollution. The findings of Rodríguez, Kohen and Delval (2015) are also consistent with that of Brody (1991). Therefore, the characteristics of children’s solutions and future plans for pollution are likely to change with time as children’s understanding of pollution processes develops. For example, in their drawings 5th graders used robots (a) to collect litter, (b) to recycle and (c) to plant saplings. It would be interesting to know if this tendency to use robots in reducing environmental pollution continues to exist as children grew older.

Solutions and Plans regarding Persuasion

Erdogan (2009) divided the category of persuasion into three sub-categories: warning, individual persuasion and public persuasion. In the sub-category of warning, children give verbal warnings to the people polluting the environment. In the sub-category of individual persuasion, children encourage people not to pollute the environment. In the sub-category of public persuasion, children encourage people not to pollute the environment through signboards, slogans, brochures, environmental non-governmental organizations, etc. In this study, there was evidence of persuasion in 14 out of 40 drawings (35%). In 92.9% of the 14 drawings (13 drawings) there was public persuasion. Figure 7 is an example of this sub-category. The annotation on the robot-like figure reads ‘the materials which can be recycled are not litter’. The other annotation is a slogan and reads ‘a litter means a life. Let’s put our litter in the litter bin’. Erdogan (2009) reported that some children in his study suggested encouraging people to be a member of environmental non-governmental organizations. He placed this suggestion in the sub-category of individual persuasion. However, in this study, some children suggested setting up an environmental non-governmental organization. This suggestion was placed in the sub-category of public persuasion since such non-governmental organizations encourage the public not to pollute the environment.

Figure 7. Examples of public persuasion

Figure 8. Examples of the sub-category of persuasion

In 14.3% of the 14 drawings (2 drawings) there was individual persuasion. The same figure was 21.4% (3 drawings) for the sub-category of warning. Figure 8 exemplifies all three sub-categories of persuasion. On the left side of the drawing, a teacher seems to be talking with the children. This part of the drawing is placed in the sub-category of individual persuasion. In the lower right corner, a person is warning another not to litter. This part of the drawing is placed in the sub-category of warning. The signboard in the upper right corner reads ‘do care about yourself and the environment’. This part of the drawing is placed in the sub-category of public persuasion. Compared with the sub-category of public persuasion, the sub-categories of individual persuasion and warning were less frequent. Perhaps 5th graders found it more difficult to produce drawings related to these two sub-categories. Maybe they would have felt more comfortable if they had been asked to express their thoughts related to these sub-categories in written or verbal form.

Solutions and Plans regarding Political Action

This category was evident in only one out of 40 drawings (2.5%). The suggestion was imprisonment for littering (see Figure 9). On the left side of the paper, the drawing depicts a person littering. On the right side of the paper, the person is jailed and says ‘I wish I did not litter’. In Turkey, people are not jailed for littering. Therefore, the drawing may be seen as a call for legislators to take the offense of littering more seriously. The category of political action was the least frequent category in this study. Perhaps 5th graders found it difficult to visually express their political thoughts about reducing environmental pollution. Therefore, it may be better to explore children’s ideas about political action verbally and/or in writing.

Figure 9. An example of the sub-category of political action

Some children in this study were aware that they needed the help and cooperation of other people in the community in order to reduce litter, and consequently tried to persuade them not to litter. Even the option of imprisonment was on the table. It appears that many children in this study knew that littering was an environmental problem, needing more than one strategy to be dealt with. These strategies mostly required physical action and public persuasion.