Environmental education in an English primary school: A case study to explore Year 5 children’s experiences of ‘Operation Buzz’: a bumblebee conservation project

The environment is almost irreversibly damaged by Anthropocene activity. Today’s children
will be the people most affected by the ongoing environmental crisis and their education is
vital to long term sustainability. However, in mainstream schools in England, teachers of
children of all ages are reluctant to integrate sustainability into their practice because it is not
on the curriculum, and they lack training and resources. This research aimed to increase
understanding of how sustainability education (more specifically environmental education
(EE)) can be effectively included into mainstream education. The research centres around
students' perspectives of their experiences during a school-based EE project. During April –
July of 2019, a bumblebee conservation project was developed with a Year 5 class (9- and
10-year-old children) in a small, semi-rural primary school in a northern city in England. The
project pedagogies drew on Dewey’s theory of Experiential Learning and Freire’s Critical
Pedagogy. Qualitative data were collected throughout and analysed thematically.

Findings demonstrated the children’s fear of bees (and other insects) reduced whilst their
knowledge, understanding and positive affect towards bees and insects increased.
Participating in the project increased the children’s pro-environmental attitudes and
behaviours; some children ‘didn’t really care but now… do’. Pedagogies of choice,
questioning, researching, and hands-on activities increased individual empowerment. The
children described sharing their learning with their families and encouraging pro
environmental behaviour at home. Recognising social and emotional aspects of learning
supported the children to engage in positive learning and behaviour cycles. The children
expressed how participation in the EE project resulted in them developing increasingly
positive attitudes to learning more generally and how they felt ‘more into doing …work’ and
‘not giving up’. Findings showed that EE is an adaptable, cross-curricula subject that can
easily include curriculum requirements and can be woven throughout a school’s daily
activities. How EE and experiential learning pedagogies can be developed and made
accessible to classroom teachers is a rich area for further research.