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99 ERC SES 03 H: Pedagogies and Practices for Sustainability Learning
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99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Paper Application of Theatre-Based Methods in Fostering Sustainability Mindset in Primary School Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania Presenting Author:Discussions about sustainability are unfolding against the backdrop of increasingly alarming climate data. Recent observations indicate that global temperatures in the first quarter of 2025 were the second warmest on record (Hausfather, 2025). While such data suggest an urgent need for a unified response, phantasmagorical political rhetoric - such as the continued echo of “drill, baby, drill” (Trump, 2025) - highlights that sustainability discourse remains deeply divided. Education has long been identified as a key strategy for addressing the climate crisis; however, it has so far failed to provide a clear pathway out of it (Heggen et al., 2022). For educational systems to meaningfully respond, the focus needs to shift from the accumulation of competencies toward the cultivation of mindsets oriented toward transformation and change (Broo, 2022; Lees, 2021; Rimanoczy, 2020). In sustainability education, emphasizing mindset rather than competencies connects personal beliefs with collective responsibility by integrating cognition, values, and emotions in ways that guide action (Kassel et al., 2018; Rimanoczy, 2020). The concept of a sustainability mindset (SM) has been introduced to encompass both external dimensions (knowledge, systems thinking, skills) and internal dimensions (values, purpose, reflection) (Rimanoczy, 2020). However, existing SM models remain largely anthropocentric. They privilege human introspection and agency, while the more-than-human world is positioned primarily as context, resource, or moral obligation. This framing risks reproducing the very human exceptionalism that underlies unsustainable practices. Consequently, sustainability education requires a reconceptualization of mindset that foregrounds relationality, plurality, and nonhuman agency. Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) offers a promising theoretical pathway for such a reconceptualization. OOO advances a flat ontology in which all entities - human and more-than-human- exist on equal ontological footing, while retaining a degree of withdrawal beyond full human comprehension (Morton, 2016). When applied to sustainability education, OOO reorients SM toward humility, attentiveness, and ethical openness to more-than-human beings, expanding its ecological and moral dimensions beyond human-centred reasoning. Against this theoretical backdrop, the central research question guiding this study is: How can applied drama-based methods support the development of a sustainability mindset among primary school students by enabling engagement with complex, uncomfortable, and more-than-human sustainability issues? The study pursues four interrelated aims: 1. to redefine sustainability mindset through the lens of OOO, moving beyond anthropocentric assumptions; 2. to introduce and integrate three pedagogical approaches—Critical Pedagogy (CP), Dark Pedagogy (DP), and Applied Drama-Based Pedagogy (ADBP)—as pathways for cultivating such a mindset; 3. to develop a didactical model that supports the introduction of a redefined SM in primary education through drama-based practices; and 4. to explore adapted forum theatre as a concrete pedagogical pathway for SM development in primary school contexts. Each pedagogical strand contributes distinctly to the proposed framework. CP provides a transformative orientation, offering conceptual tools to interrogate oppression, power, and unsustainability (Freire et al., 2014). DP functions as an affective lens that legitimizes discomfort, grief, and uncertainty as integral dimensions of sustainability learning (Head, 2016; Author et al., 2019). ADBP serves as a methodological and pedagogical vehicle, enabling embodied, participatory, and collective engagement with sustainability dilemmas (Nicholson, 2005; Österlind & Hallgren, 2025; Sinha & Schmitz, 2024). Together, these approaches create conditions for cultivating an OOO-informed sustainability mindset that is simultaneously critical, affective, and experiential. Building on this framework, a didactical model inspired by forum theatre is developed and adapted for primary education. The model introduces a three-dramatic-mode system that supports teachers in engaging students with complex sustainability issues through drama-based classroom interventions. These interventions are implemented and examined to explore how theatre-based practices may contribute to the development of a sustainability mindset among primary school students. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The study is approaching the empirical stage. The study intends to employ qualitative instrumental case study design and follows the following design steps: 1. Based on the theoretical framework and the didactical model, three lesson plans (interventions) are developed, corresponding to the three stages of integrating forum theatre into primary education. 2. The interventions are evaluated by an expert group consisting of teachers, psychologists, and special education teachers (this is particularly important as the lesson content addresses complex and potentially discomforting topics). 3. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with the teachers participating in the study in order to explore their experiences of teaching sustainability-related topics. 4. Training sessions are provided for the participating teachers, during which the three-stage forum theatre method adapted for primary education is introduced; teachers are familiarized with the principles underlying the method as well as with the lesson plans corresponding to the three stages of the method. 5. Classroom observations are carried out to examine how teachers implement the intervention in practice. 6. Follow-up semi-structured interviews are conducted with the teachers to explore their experiences of using the intervention. 7. A qualitative thematic analysis is conducted, analyzing interview data, observation protocols, and artefacts from the intervention lessons (e.g., students’ work, drawings, and other materials). 8. The intervention lesson plans and the didactical model are refined based on the insights gained. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings Expected outcomes are deep insights into the development of sustainability mindset in primary school classrooms and how theatre practicess assists in revealing the complexity, discomfort and challenges of sustainbaility References Bogost, I. (2012). Alien phenomenology, or what it’s like to be a thing. University of Minnesota Press. Broo, D. G. (2022). Transdisciplinarity and three mindsets for sustainability in the age of cyber-physical systems [Article]. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 27, 100290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2021.100290 Dawson, K., & Lee, B. K. (2018). Drama-based Pedagogy. Intellect Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv36xw0wt Elwood, J., Andreotti, V., & Stein, S. (2019). Towards braiding. In Musagetes (pp. 13–21). Freire, P., Bergman Ramos, M., & Ramos, M. B. (2014). Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition (3rd ed.) [Book]. Bloomsbury Academic & Professional. Harman, G. (2011). The Quadruple Object. Zero Books. Head, L. (2016). Hope and grief in the anthropocene : re-conceptualising human-nature relation. Routledge. Heras, M., & Tàbara, J. D. (2014). Let’s play transformations! Performative methods for sustainability. Sustainability Science, 9(3), 379–398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-014-0245-9 Horsthemke, K. (2020). Non‐Human Animals and Educational Policy: Philosophical Post‐humanism, Critical Pedagogy, and Ecopedagogy1. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 54(4), 900–915. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12463 jagodzinski, jan. (2022). Cosmology and the Anthropocene: Speculative-Educative-Artistic Practices for a Planetary Consciousness. In Pedagogy in the Anthropocene (pp. 147–174). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90980-2_8 Kanpol, B. (1999). Critical Pedagogy (2nd ed.). Praeger. Kassel, K., Rimanoczy, I., & Mitchell, S. F. (2018). A sustainability mindset model for management education. In Developing a Sustainability Mindset in Management Education (pp. 3–37). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351063340-1 Lysgaard, J. A., & Bengtsson, S. (2020). Dark pedagogy – speculative realism and environmental and sustainability education. Environmental Education Research, 26(9–10), 1453–1465. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2020.1739230 Lysgaard, J. A., Bengtsson, S., & Laugesen, M. H.-L. (2019). Dark Pedagogy. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19933-3 Malone, K., & Young, T. (2023). Retheorising environmental sustainability education for the Anthropocene. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 55(11), 1200–1204. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2022.2152327 Misiaszek, G. W. (2023). Ecopedagogy: Freirean teaching to disrupt socio-environmental injustices, anthropocentric dominance, and unsustainability of the Anthropocene. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 55(11), 1253–1267. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2022.2130044 Morton, T. (2013). Hyperobjects : Philosophy and ecology after the end of the world. University of Minnesota Press. Morton, T. (2016). Dark ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence . Columbia University Press. Zembylas, M. (2013). Critical pedagogy and emotion: working through ‘troubled knowledge’ in posttraumatic contexts. Critical Studies in Education, 54(2), 176–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2012.743468 Zembylas, M. (2015). ‘Pedagogy of discomfort’ and its ethical implications: the tensions of ethical violence in social justice education. Ethics and Education, 10(2), 163–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2015.1039274 99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Paper Critical Biodiversity Education for the Sustainability Transition Tampere University, Finland Presenting Author:
Biodiversity loss and the accelerating degradation of ecosystems pose profound ecological, ethical and pedagogical challenges for contemporary societies. Despite its foundational role in sustaining life, biodiversity remains insufficiently addressed in educational structures that are expected to support sustainable futures. Within Finnish basic education, the current sustainability framework outlined in the National Core Curriculum (POPS 2014) does not fully prepare children to engage with the complex socio‑ecological realities that characterize the sustainability transition, particularly regarding environmental justice, multispecies interdependence, and the re‑evaluation of human–nature relations. This proposal develops critical biodiversity education as a transformative pedagogical approach that challenges anthropocentric assumptions, cultivates more‑than‑human awareness, and supports the formation of ethical responsibility at planetary scale.
The study is grounded in transformative learning—learning as a deep change in one’s relation to world and nature (Mezirow; Sterling; Wals). It combines ecological pragmatist humanism (Honnacker) to critique anthropocentric humanism while maintaining moral responsibility, and mobilises education otherwise (Stein et al.) and unlearning (Zembylas) to question habitual, growth‑centric imaginaries. Together, these frames orient pedagogy toward building “macro‑ethics” for planetary citizenship (da Silva). Substantively, the project responds to the Finnish Nature Panel’s and related reviews’ calls to strengthen biodiversity content, move beyond a purely natural‑science focus, and develop pedagogies that address attitudes, values, and action for environmental citizenship. It critiques how neoliberal and growth‑oriented logics in education displace ecological values and narrow sustainability to instrumental goals.
Objectives:
Conceptually, the project advances a meliorist stance: resisting both nihilism and naive progressivism by committing to long‑term (un)learning that constructs new affective infrastructures for alternative modes of thinking, feeling, and acting amid ecological crises. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The empirical design is action research in collaboration with Tampere Taidekaari’s “Taidemetsä” (Art Forest) programme, complemented by limited pilots in regular school environments (eco‑social education network schools) and with primary teacher students at Tampere University. The action‑research cycle iteratively codesigns, implements, documents, and analyses a four‑part pedagogical model with children in Grades 1–6: (1) biodiversity observation via citizen‑science and mobile apps (e.g., species identification; co-operation with Luontokoulu Korento for natural‑science analysis); (2) inquiry into selected indicator species and multispecies interdependencies (3) exploration of nature–culture interfaces, tracing human impacts and mitigation; and (4) arts‑based (un)learning processes to initiate and sustain transformation in nature relations. Data include children’s artworks; app‑generated artefacts; visual documentation (photos/videos); the researcher’s field diary; and semi‑structured interviews with children and key stakeholders (Taidekaari facilitators, partners). Analysis proceeds dialogically with participants and stakeholders across cycles, guided by the project’s theoretical framework (transformative learning, ecological pragmatist humanism, education otherwise, unlearning). A complementary document analysis examines the Finnish core curriculum for basic education and derived learning materials focusing on nature/biodiversity education, extending prior work conducted on climate education. This yields policy‑relevant insights and recommendations. Ethics: The study follows national ethics guidelines for research with children; informed consent (guardians/children) is obtained; continuous ethical monitoring is built into playful, arts‑based, and dialogic participation options to minimise potential harm and recognise participant benefit. University ethical review will be sought (spring 2026). Partnerships & reach: Municipal and regional collaborations (e.g., City of Tampere’s climate/environment policy unit; Ekokumppanit; eco‑social education network) and ECIU partner universities support broader impact and methodological exchange—especially around citizen‑science and educational technology. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings -A validated transdisciplinary pedagogical model for critical biodiversity education that blends outdoor learning, arts‑based inquiry, and citizen‑science‑supported technology for Grades 1–6. -Empirical insights into how (un)learning processes (affective, ethical, cognitive) shift children’s nature/world relations, fostering environmental citizenship oriented to macro‑ethics and planetary responsibility. -Documentation of how arts‑based practices help children work through eco‑emotions (e.g., anxiety) to sustain engagement without defaulting to technosolutionist optimism—thus strengthening constructive hope and agency. -A critical analysis of curriculum and learning materials that identifies gaps and misalignments (e.g., growth‑centric or individualised framings) and offers policy recommendations to centre biodiversity, justice, and collective responsibility within Finnish basic education. -Transferable concepts and tools for education policy and teacher education, including guidance for urban school contexts and teacher‑education courses. Cumulatively, the project contributes to theory by specifying how ecological pragmatist humanism operationalises in primary education; to methodology by integrating arts‑based and citizen‑science approaches within action research; and to practice by offering implementable designs for biodiversity‑centred environmental citizenship education. References Becht, A., et al. (2024). Climate anxiety and adolescents’ pro‑environmental behaviour. J. Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 65(10), 1270–1282. da Silva, M. L. (2011). Information, Communication, and Planetary Citizenship. In Handbook of Global Communication and Media Ethics (Vol. 1), 41–53. Haraway, D. (2015). Anthropocene, capitalocene… Environmental Humanities, 6(1), 159–165. Honnacker, A. (2020). Pragmatic Humanism and the Posthumanist Challenge. Contemporary Pragmatism, 17(1), 70–84. Kallio, K. P., Bami, N., & Sulonen, M. (forthcoming, accepted 5 Oct 2025). A glaring shortage of climate mobility education. EERJ. Laininen, E. (2019). Transformative learning and eco‑social civilisation. Ammattikasvatuksen aikakauskirja, 20(5), 16–38. Mezirow, J. (1997). Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice. NDAACE, 1997(74), 5–12. Ojala, M. (2012). Hope and climate change in youth. Environmental Education Research, 18(5), 625–642. Pihkala, P. (2020). Eco‑Anxiety and Environmental Education. Sustainability, 12(23), 10149. POPS (2014). Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education. Finnish National Agency for Education. Stein, S., et al. (2023). Beyond colonial futurities in climate education. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(5), 987–1004. Sterling, S. (2011). Transformative learning and sustainability. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 5, 17–33. Väkkärä, V., et al. (2024). Research‑based Environmental Citizenship (Finnish Biodiversity Panel Report 3B/2024). Wals, A. E. J. (2010/2015). On relativism, uncertainty, democracy…; Critical interpretation of value‑laden environmental relations. Environmental Education Research; various. Zembylas, M. (2024). Unlearning emotional imperialism in education. Discourse, 45(4), 569–582. 99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Paper From Project to Education: Pandora’s Project Box* Middle East Technical University, Turkey (Türkiye) Presenting Author:The average global temperature has increased very rapidly over the last 50 years due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Generally, this increase in human-caused greenhouse gas emissions continues to rise along with the consumption habits of today’s world. Climate change, resulting from global warming caused by this increase, is a global problem threatening future generations (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2023). According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to act in many areas such as poverty, inequality, health, justice, and planetary protection, were created to make the world habitable in the future. In line with these developments, the importance of climate change education has been emphasized under Sustainable Development Goal number thirteen, Climate Action (United Nations [UN], 2015) The aim is to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to adapt to and combat climate change through the awareness that is planned to be gained by utilizing the vital role of education in change and impact. United Nations (UN, 2015) Sustainable Development Goal 13 states that the integration of climate change education into national education policies, curricula, teacher training, and student assessments is a key objective. Research on climate change education has revealed insufficient integration in teacher knowledge, teacher training techniques, curriculum, and curriculum applicability (Anyolo et al., 2018). As in the rest of the world, the Turkish national education system also requires new, innovative, and contemporary practices that are appropriate to the changing climate change agenda and technologies, in line with the needs and problems related to adapting to and combating the increasing effects of climate change. In Türkiye, technical, social, and socio-scientific projects on adaptation and combating climate change have been and are being developed under the leadership and support of TÜBİTAK (Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Institution). These projects, which have very important and valuable content on combating and adapting to climate change, do not include educational parts at the primary, secondary, high school, or even university levels due to the advanced levels of their content. However, proposed solutions to climate change can be transformed into educational materials for students at all levels through collaborative work between educators and researchers. Adapting these projects to educational materials that school children can understand easily has a great potential to become important resources for them to understand reasons, results, and recent technologies for combating climate change. Therefore, we believe that evaluating and adapting the scientific and technological content of the completed projects related to climate change as educational materials will enhance the vision of young generations in the fields of global issues, science and technology and support their 21st-century skills. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop the criteria and the framework for finding best suitable projects to be transferred to education materials and to develop project – to – educational material framework. Based on this perspective, the research question of the study is 1) “How science projects related to climate change can be transformed to educational materials?”
So, our target for the long term is to inspire Climate Change Education researchers for a new trend and the project funding agencies to consider an “From Project to Education – Pandora’s Project Box -” section to call for proposals. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used This study utilizes qualitative research methods, which focuses on more social phenomena by examining human experiences rather than analyzing numerical data of real-life problems (Tenny et al., 2025). Also, the project contains document analysis method that is used for interpreting written documents (Chanda & Armstrong, 2021). Within the scope of the research, scientific projects containing the keywords "climate change”, “global warming”, “sustainability”, “renewable energy”, “greenhouse gas emissions”, “fossil fuels”, and “carbon footprint” in TÜBİTAK archive that formed between 2022-2024 were examined, and the process of transforming these projects into educational materials was set up. Document analysis first applied for listing the projects according to the keywords assigned; we focused on the abstracts of the projects while listing. After having the list of 189 projects, they were analyzed for their features suitable to transform as educational materials through a rubric developed by the writers. The documents taken as a background for developing the rubric are SDG 13, UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development Goals Learning Objectives and GreenComp the European Sustainability Competence Framework. As well, Bloom’s taxonomy and 21st Century science process skills were also considered for the target audience’s cognitive level. Accorddingly, cognitive learning, emotional-social, and observable skills together with embodying sustainability values, understanding the complexity of sustainability, imagining sustainable futures, and taking action for sustainability were determined to be used as the criteria to grade the scientific research projects in the TUBITAK archive. According to the grading system, among the graded projects the ones with grades > 50 were accepted as suitable for adaptation as education material. The five projects having such potential are being re-examined for their content. Following the re-examination, design of educational material will be initiated. Thus, the researchers are now working on developing a frame for designing education materials from projects. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings Although the education material design phase is not yet complete, the expected outcome of this research is to contribute to the science education literature by converting academic data on climate change and sustainability into educational sets using various science education methods. Accordingly, each of these five planned materials is designed to incorporate different science teaching methods. Research has revealed that projects retrieved from the TÜBİTAK archive possess the potential to be adaptable and functional educational resource compatible with the science education curriculum. The educational materials are planned to be designed using methods such as problem-based learning, project-based learning, STEM, and gamification. These science education methods will enhance students’ inquiry-based learning skills, their understanding of the nature of science and their science process skills. Additionally, the multidisciplinary subject of climate change and sustainability will enhance students’ multidisciplinary perspectives. Furthermore, it is anticipated that these educational materials will increase students’ awareness of SDG 13, climate action. The aim is for students to understand the seriousness of climate change as a problem, the importance of its local and global impacts, and to develop the awareness to act within the framework of SDG 13. In short, this study aims to contribute to the applicability of climate change education, one of the SDG 13 objectives, by making complex and abstract scientific information more understandable and concrete for students. This will facilitate the dissemination of complex scientific knowledge to the public and reach a wider audience for climate change action. Finally, the aim of this project is to serve as a model in climate change and sustainability education, to be integrated primarily into the national education system, and subsequently to inspire the integration of education system policies in other countries. *This project is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK 2209-A). References Anyolo, E. O., Kärkkäinen, S., & Keinonen, T. (2018). Implementing Education for Sustainable Development in Namibia: School teachers’ perceptions and teaching practices. Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, 20(1), 64–81. https://doi.org/10.2478/jtes-2018-0004 Calvin, K., Dasgupta, D., Krinner, G., Mukherji, A., Thorne, P. W., Trisos, C., Romero, J., Aldunce, P., Barret, K., Blanco, G., Cheung, W. W. L., Connors, S. L., Denton, F., Diongue-Niang, A., Dodman, D., Garschagen, M., Geden, O., Hayward, B., Jones, C., … Ha, M. (2023). IPCC, 2023: Climate change 2023: Synthesis report, summary for policymakers. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change [core writing team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland. IPCC, 2023: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (Eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland., 1–34. https://doi.org/10.59327/ipcc/ar6-9789291691647.001 Chanda, S., & Armstrong, A. (2021, 29 Aralık). Key methods used in qualitative document analysis. SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3996213 Tenny, S., Brannan, J. M., & Brannan, G. D. (2025). Qualitative study. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470395/ United Nations. (2015). Goal 13 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal13#targets_and_indicators World Health Organization. (2015). Sustainable development goals. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/europe/about-us/our-work/sustainable-development-goals#:~:text=The%20Sustainable%20Development%20Goals%20 99. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)
Paper Middle School Students’ Environmental Mental Models in an Industrial “Sacrifice Zone”: Insights from Drawings and Narratives Middle East Technical University, Turkey (Türkiye) Presenting Author:The rapid industrial expansion of the 21st century has fostered “sacrifice zones”: areas where ecological integrity is compromised for economic growth, and pollution risks are disproportionately borne by local communities (Lerner, 2010). The Ergene Basin in northwestern Turkey, a textile and chemical industry hub, represents a striking example. While the region is notorious for Class IV water pollution (Tokatlı, 2020), industrial emissions and factory chimneys constitute a visible, everyday reality for residents, particularly in urban centers like Çorlu. Situated within this context, this study explores how middle school students in this high-risk environment perceive and represent environmental problems through drawings and narratives. Rather than simple illustrations, drawings are conceptualized as meaningful indicators of how children cognitively and symbolically construct environmental issues (Kozma, 2003). The objective is to identify how living in a “sacrifice zone” shapes children’s environmental mental models and to contribute to a localized framework for environmental education. The central research questions are:
The study is grounded in Mental Models Theory (MMT), the Draw-An-Environment Test (DAET) methodology, and Place-Based Education (PBE). MMT provides a foundation for interpreting drawings as externalizations of internal cognitive structures, allowing insight into how learners organize complex environmental phenomena experienced through sensory exposure (Johnson-Laird, 1983; Greca & Moreira, 2000). The DAET-R (Rubric) serves as the primary analytical framework to elicit dimensions of environmental mental models, including concern, responsibility, and agency (Moseley et al., 2010). Analyzing drawings alongside written narratives supports a grounded interpretation of symbolic choices. This triangulation reduces researcher bias and increases analytical validity (Strauss 1987; Patton 2002). Finally, PBE emphasizes that environmental literacy is most effective when rooted in learners’ immediate surroundings (Sobel, 2004). In the Ergene Basin, students’ representations are inevitably shaped by direct encounters with degradation, enabling connections between local experience and broader ecological transitions. Although situated in Turkey, the study addresses shared European challenges related to the ecological transition of industrial heartlands. Pollution in the Ergene Basin is a transboundary issue; it carries industrial waste into the North Aegean Sea via the Maritsa (Meriç) River, affecting waters shared with Greece and Bulgaria. This connects the study directly to the European Green Deal’s ‘Zero Pollution’ ambition (European Commission, 2021). Understanding how children in this shared basin perceive such risks is crucial for Europe’s collective ecological transition. Furthermore, while European research underscores how school-based policies and contact with nature shape student outcomes (Boeve-de Pauw & Van Petegem, 2018), this research explores the inverse: how intense industrial degradation in 'sacrifice zones' influences the formation of environmental mental models. This comparative perspective contributes to a broader European understanding of how industrial landscapes shape children’s environmental understanding. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The study adopts a qualitative case study design to enable an in-depth, context-sensitive exploration of students’ environmental perceptions within a specific socio-ecological setting (Yin, 2018). This approach is particularly suitable for examining how environmental meanings are constructed in regions characterized by long-term industrial pollution. Purposeful sampling was used to select 11 seventh-grade students (n=11) from the Ergene Basin (Çorlu), an industrial “sacrifice zone” where ecological integrity is systematically compromised by textile and chemical production (Lerner, 2010; Tokatlı, 2020). Prolonged exposure to these conditions is expected to shape students’ internal cognitive and emotional structures, conceptualized here as environmental mental models. Ethical approval was obtained, and informed consent was secured from participants and parents. The primary instrument was the Draw-An-Environment Test (DAET), a child-centered method that enables participants to externalize mental models difficult to articulate verbally (Moseley et al., 2010). Students were prompted: “Draw the environmental problems in your surroundings and explain your drawing in writing on the back.” A combined visual–narrative approach has been widely used in environmental perception research, where children’s drawings are analysed alongside verbal or written explanations to uncover their conceptual and affective understandings of environmental issues (Barraza, 1999; Alaçam, 2025). Such approaches enable researchers to interpret symbolic choices in drawings in conjunction with participants’ own narratives, strengthening depth and credibility of qualitative interpretation (Strauss, 1987; Patton, 2002). Data analysis followed a two-stage qualitative procedure. First, interpretive thematic analysis identified recurring visual symbols (e.g., factory chimneys, polluted rivers), grouped into meta-themes. Second, the DAET-R (Rubric) assessed the structural complexity of representations across four dimensions: human, biotic, abiotic, and artificial environments. Each was scored on a 0–3 scale based on the level of interaction depicted, evaluating students’ systems thinking (Moseley et al., 2010). To ensure methodological rigor, the study followed Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) trustworthiness criteria. Credibility was established through data triangulation and peer debriefing. Transferability was supported via thick description of the industrial context. Dependability and confirmability were ensured through an audit trail and inter-coder reliability checks, with a second researcher independently coding a subset of data. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The findings reveal that students in the Ergene Basin appear to hold predominantly catastrophic mental models, characterized by risk-dominated and loss-oriented representations rather than solution-oriented imaginaries. Air pollution emerged as the most oppressive theme, with drawings saturated by factory chimneys emitting dense smoke, frequently labeled as CO₂. The widespread use of dark, monochromatic color palettes signals underlying environmental anxiety and functions as a visual counter-narrative to the “reassurance discourse” often promoted by industrial institutions (Malchiodi, 1998; Phillimore, 1998). Using the DAET-R as an analytical scaffold to interpret the structural complexity of students’ mental models, the study found that students’ representations were dominated by artificial and abiotic dimensions in strong interaction with human behaviors, while biotic elements remained marginalized. Higher-level representations (scores 2–3) demonstrated causal reasoning, whereas lower-level drawings relied on isolated depictions. The recurring “black river” motif, often accompanied by dead fish, suggests that industrial pollution has become an internalized ecological reality for these children. Notably, responsibility was not attributed solely to industry. Students emphasized everyday behaviors such as littering cigarette butts or chewing gum, linking these to harm inflicted on wildlife. This indicates a critical awareness of social responsibility alongside structural critique. Furthermore, several drawings displayed spatial bridging, connecting local pollution to global consequences like melting polar ice. Although some links reflect conceptual inaccuracies, such as associating deodorant use with the greenhouse effect, they reveal strong biocentric empathy and attempts to reason across ecological scales. Overall, these findings underscore the need for restorative, place-based environmental education (Sobel, 2004) that balances risk awareness with ecological agency and action-oriented hope (Ojala, 2012). Such an approach offers an important contribution to environmental justice-oriented pedagogy for industrial heartlands across Europe, informing context-sensitive climate interventions in regions facing similar ecological transitions. References Alaçam, N. (2025). Environment in the views of preschool children: an investigation of children’s drawings and narratives in Turkey. Oxford Review of Education, 51(4), 614–631. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2024.2359978 Barraza, L. (1999). Children’s Drawings About the Environment. Environmental Education Research, 5(1), 49–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350462990050103 Boeve-de Pauw, J., & Van Petegem, P. (2018). Eco-school evaluation beyond labels: the impact of environmental policy, didactics and nature at school on student outcomes. Environmental Education Research, 24(9), 1250–1267. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1307327 European Commission. (2021). Pathway to a Healthy Planet for All: EU Action Plan – Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil. European Commission. Greca, I. M., & Moreira, M. A. (2000). Mental models, conceptual models, and modelling. 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