Research and Development of Environmental Awareness about Water in Primary Education Students through Their Drawings

Abstract

Drinking water is a scarce resource and the problems associated with its poor management and conservation are generating significant imbalances in the well-being of society, human health, and the environment. This research paper aims to determine the level of environmental awareness of primary school students in Spain (n = 95) of the management, use, and sustainable care of water, before and after applying a training program that allows working on the contents of water, from the different dimensions and shortcomings of environmental awareness identified in the paper. The study was undertaken from a mixed Research and Development approach (R&D), with an exploratory sequential design [QUAL(quan) → QUAL(quan)], in which, initially, a qualitative content analysis of the students’ drawings was carried out, to subsequently apply a number of complementary quantitative analyses. The qualitative phase involved the elaboration of a mixed category (deductive-inductive) system that allowed for the organization and interpretation of the information obtained. The results of this work reveal low levels of knowledge about the integral water cycle. Primary school students also show a low degree of responsibility towards water issues. The conclusions of this study point to the need to address content related to water care and conservation in the educational curriculum from a multidimensional and interdisciplinary approach, in order to understand the origin and impact of water problems.