Education for climate resilience, action- research with a community focus in Mella, Santiago de Cuba
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5377/elhigo.v15i2.21829Keywords:
Environmental education, participatory action research, climate resilience, traditional knowledge, community governanceAbstract
The global climate crisis exacerbates socio-ecological vulnerabilities in rural communities of Cuba, revealing the inadequacy of traditional environmental education models, which are often decontextualized and top-down. This study focused on the municipality of Mella, Santiago de Cuba, an area severely affected by soil erosion and deforestation. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of an environmental education program based on Participatory Action Research (PAR) to strengthen climate resilience capacities among local actors. A sequential-explanatory mixed-methods design was implemented over 12 months with 50 participants, developing four cyclical phases: participatory community diagnosis, dialogic co-creation workshops, implementation of pilot projects, and reflective evaluation. Quantitative results showed significant improvements in agroecological knowledge (72.3%, p<0.001) and the application of conservation techniques (58.3%, p=0.002). Qualitatively, the emergence of community environmental governance networks and the creation of a Local Knowledge Bank that scientifically validated 18 ancestral practices were documented. Biophysical measurements in pilot plots confirmed positive environmental impacts, including a 79.2% reduction in soil erosion and a 290.9% increase in organic matter. It is concluded that PAR is a robust pedagogical framework for generating contextualized solutions and promoting epistemic justice, recommending its integration into public policies for environmental education and risk management.
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