Abstract
We often use juggling as an everyday metaphor for balancing multiple interests, which pertains to thinking about sustainability, yet to date its potential for environmental pedagogy has not been evaluated. Here, I provide some lessons learned while teaching students to juggle as part of a senior environmental studies course at the University of Waterloo over a 4-year period (2009–2012, n = 289 students). I begin by briefly reviewing four benefits of teaching environmental studies students how to juggle: (1) it embodies system thinking, (2) it grounds environmental metaphors, (3) it helps to transcend paradigms, and (4) it promotes well-being. I then provide preliminary support for these claims from a survey of my students in 2012. With these lessons and some caveats in mind, I conclude that learning to juggle is a wonderful embodied metaphor for nurturing students’ reflections about sustainability, so I encourage other environmental studies educators to consider it within their courses.
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Notes
I use the term juggling here in its most common everyday meaning of “toss juggling,” that is, keeping several objects (or props, whether balls, beanbags, rings, or chainsaws) in the air while tossing them back and forth (see www.wikipedia.com). People learn to juggle most easily if they progress through a sequence of foundational, easier steps with one and then two objects before adding a third to attain the “3-object cascade” (further details upon request, though some sources for learning how to juggle include Finnigan 1987; Gelb and Buzan 1994, and www.juggling.org).
I administered a brief survey to my students after the fourth time I taught the course, in April 2012. The survey was informal in that students were not compelled to complete it (e.g., with incentives), in accord with approval granted by the Office of Research Ethics at the University of Waterloo (ORE no. 18008). The response rate was thus about 55 % (60/110 students), and although this rate raises questions about non-response bias, it must be interpreted in the context of the general decline in response rates in recent years.
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Appendix: survey instrument
Appendix: survey instrument
Sex (circle one): | Female | Male |
I knew how to juggle three balls at the beginning of the course. | YES | NO |
I now know how to juggle three balls. | YES | NO |
Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements concerning the juggling assignment in this course:
Statement | Strongly disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly agree |
1. The assignment did not really provide me with any insights about sustainability. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
2. I feel more confident as a result of the assignment. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
3. I feel that the assignment was an effective way to ground the environmental metaphors discussed in the course. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
4. When the course began, I thought the assignment would be a waste of time. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
5. I found juggling to be relaxing and even meditative. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
6. In the end, the assignment was valuable for me. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
7. I thought that learning to juggle was an apt metaphor for seeking sustainability. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
8. I valued juggling as an experiential exercise. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
9. The assignment taught me about myself. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
10. This assignment provided insights into how I relate to time. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
11. I enjoyed this assignment as a fun, final challenge to my degree. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
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Larson, B.M.H. Embodying the path of sustainability: reflections on “learning to juggle” in environmental pedagogy. J Environ Stud Sci 6, 706–711 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-015-0246-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-015-0246-8