Promoting environmentally responsible citizens in peri-urban territorial contexts, Chimbas Department, San Juan

Abstract

University extension practices and environmental education constitute a strategic field for addressing socio-en
vironmental issues in complex territorial contexts, particularly in peri-urban areas characterized by processes of
unplanned urbanization and environmental degradation. In these territories, the presence of dumpsites and infor
mal waste disposal areas represents a persistent problem that affects environmental quality, the living conditions
of the community, and the ways in which people relate to their surroundings. Within this framework, the present
study describes and analyzes a university extension experience aimed at fostering environmentally responsible
citizenship, carried out between 2022 and 2024 in a secondary school located in the department of Chimbas, San
Juan Province, Argentina. The proposal was based on a qualitative, participatory, and place-based approach, struc
tured in three stages (awareness, understanding, and intervention), through which classroom activities, participato
ry workshops, environmental mapping, household surveys, and territorial intervention actions were implemented,
involving the educational community (students, teachers, and families). This place-based experience showed that
the critical problematization of the local territory, when articulated with participatory methodologies and processes
of co-construction of knowledge, promotes the development of environmental citizenship from a reflective and
transformative perspective. Finally, intervention actions, such as the production of outreach materials and the cre
ation of a mural, evidenced the appropriation of learning outcomes and the active participation of students in com
municating the issue, as well as progress toward understanding the problem from a socio-ecological perspective.