Tackling the knowledge-action gap in sustainable consumption:

insights from a participatory school programme

Matthias Barth (PhD)

School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning,

RMIT University,

Melbourne, Australia

ph- +61 3 9925 3578

fax- +61 3 9925 1855

Email- matthias.barth@rmit.edu.au

Post- GPO Box 2476, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia

Abstract:

In the international policy discourse on sustainable consumption and production, education is considered

as a powerful tool in changing unsustainable patterns of consumption. Current educational policies and

programs have responded to the consumption challenge mainly by including and addressing consumption

issues in formal tuition in different subjects. This paper criticises such a perspective for neglecting

informal and non-cognitive consumer learning processes that take place outside the classroom. As a

more comprehensive approach to consumer learning in school settings, a whole-school approach is

outlined. The paper reports on some insights of an empirical study that examined the relevance of active

participation in and exposure to activities promoting sustainable consumption at schools.

Keywords: Consumer Learning, Education for Sustainable Consumption, Whole School

Approach, Participation

Article Type: research paper

Postprint,publishedas:Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in sustainable consumption: 

insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312.  

DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 2 -

Authors:

Matthias Barth

School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning,

RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

ph- +61 3 9925 3578

fax- +61 3 9925 1855

Email- matthias.barth@rmit.edu.au

Matthias Barth studied environmental science and holds a doctorate degree in educational science. He currently is a

research fellow at the School of Global Studies, Social Science and Planning, RMIT University, Melbourne. His

research focuses on education for sustainability with an emphasis on competence development and curriculum

change.

Daniel Fischer

Institute for Environmental & Sustainability Communication (INFU),

Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany

ph- +49 4131 677 2927

fax- +49 4131 677 2819

Email- daniel.fischer@uni.leuphana.de

Daniel Fischer was educated and trained as a school teacher and holds a master’s degree in education management

and school development. He is a research fellow at the Institute for Environmental & Sustainability Communication

(INFU) at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. His doctoral research is at the intersection of the fields of education

for sustainable development, sustainable consumption and sustainable school development and school/university

culture.

Gerd Michelsen

Institute for Environmental & Sustainability Communication (INFU),

Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany

ph- +49 4131 677 2802

fax- +49 4131 677 2819

Email- gerd.michelsen@uni.leuphana.de

Gerd Michelsen, economist, was co-founder of the Institute of Applied Ecology in Freiburg (Öko-Institut Freiburg) and

its first director. Since 1995 he is a professor at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg in the Faculty of Sustainability

Sciences, where he directs the Institute for Environmental and Sustainability Communication and holds the UNESCO

Chair “Higher Education for Sustainable Development”. He is a member of Germany’s national Committee “Education

for Sustainable Development” of UNESCO.

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 3 -

Claudia Nemnich

Institute for Environmental & Sustainability Communication (INFU),

Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany

ph- +49 4131 677 2701

fax- +49 4131 677 2819

Email- claudia.nemnich@uni.leuphana.de

Claudia Nemnich studied and trained to be a teacher at primary and secondary general schools. Since 2004 she is a

research fellow at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. Most recently, she was entrusted with the research

management of a large transdisciplinary research and development project. Her work focuses on teacher education

and school development processes in the context of education for sustainable development.

Horst Rode

Institute for Environmental & Sustainability Communication (INFU),

Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany

ph- +49 4131 677 2939

fax- +49 4131 677 2819

Email- horst.rode@uni.leuphana.de

Horst Rode is Senior Research Fellow at the INFU. Since 1988, he has done quantitative empirical research in the

fields of environmental education and education for sustainable development. He evaluated the German programme

BLK-21 (1999-2004) with 200 schools participating in classroom activities in the field of ESD. His current research

focusses on attitudes and perceptions of young people towards sustainable development, and ESD in non-formal

settings.

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 4 -

Tackling the knowledge-action gap in sustainable consumption:

insights from a participatory school programme

SustainableConsumptionasanEducationalChallengeConsumption patterns are now widely acknowledged as a major driving force causing

unsustainable development. A number of instruments and strategies have been put forward to

address this challenge (Gardner, Assadourian, and Sarin 2004; Lebel and Lorek 2008; Mont

and Power 2010). While there is no golden rule on how the somewhat enigmatic goal of

sustainable consumption can be best achieved on a global and temporal scale, broad

consensus exists that it takes a multifaceted approach comprising different forms of action,

instruments, and strategies (Kaufmann-Hayoz et al. 2001). It is also widely agreed that changes

in individual consumer behaviours play a pivotal role in achieving sustainable consumption, and

that the endeavour of bringing about such changes poses a tremendous challenge to well

entrenched synaptic patterns and associated behaviours resting upon an unsustainable,

expansionist myth (Rees 2010, 23). Nonetheless, a considerable number of approaches and

measures have been proposed to contribute to more sustainable patterns of behavior. These

comprise ‘hard’ instrumental measures, such as marketization and regulation approaches

(Jerneck et al. 2011), as well as legislative, regulatory and juridical, and financial and market

instruments (Dalal-Clayton and Bass 2007; Kaufmann-Hayoz et al., 2011). Most scholars

recommend complementing these approaches with ‘soft’ persuasive measures that aim to

change social norms and people’s willingness to adopt new attitudes and behavioural patterns

(Jackson and Michaelis 2003).

Sustainable development in general and sustainable consumption particularly involve and

require fundamental societal transformations and can only result from shared learning and

collaboration as a process of societal learning (Kates et al. 2001). In that respect it is education

that contributes to promoting sustainable consumer action and to transformative social learning

for sustainability (Wals 2011). Since the concept of sustainable development was introduced to

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

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a larger audience at the world summit in Rio de Janeiro twenty years ago, education has

featured prominently in international policy discourse on promoting sustainable consumption.

The Rio+10 summit in Johannesburg reaffirmed the importance given to changing

unsustainable patterns of consumption and initiated the so-called Marrakech Process, which

proposes a framework to progress globally towards more sustainable consumption and

production patterns. One of the task forces established dealt with “Education for Sustainable

Consumption”. The promotion of sustainable consumption features prominently in the “UN

Decade of Education for Sustainable Development” (ESD), too, where one of the strategic goal

set out is to educate “knowledgeable consumers who purchase goods with low lifecycle impacts

and who use their purchasing power to support corporate social and environmental

responsibility and sustainable business practices” (UNESCO 2005, 29).

While there is ample research on the effectiveness of different ‚hard‘ measures and approaches

(Jackson 2005), the evidence base on educational approaches to promoting sustainable

consumption is rather limited. In light of the rich variety of documented ‘good practices’ (e.g.

CCN 2010, UNEP & Marrakech Task Force on Education for Sustainable Consumption 2008,

UNEP 2007)it is indeed quite surprising how little empirical research has been carried out

related to analyse how educational organisations can fulfil their ascribed role as “one of the

most powerful tools for providing individuals with the appropriate skills and competencies to

become sustainable consumers” (OECD 2008, 25). While there is ample evidence accounting

for the wide array of external and internal factors (e.g., social norms, institutional infrastructure)

for our consumption behaviours (Kollmuss and Agyeman 2002), current consumer education

practices in national educational systems and consumer policy strategies are still characterised

by the tendency to conceive of education as mainly an instrument for disseminating consumer

information and enhancing students’ consumer knowledge (Fischer 2011).

In response to the search for more authentic and comprehensive educational approaches,

concepts have been advanced that take a broader view of educational organisations as settings

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

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and cultural environments in which students live and learn (Dooris 2009; Fischer 2011). In line

with this thinking, this paper presents some insights in a participatory whole-school approach to

promote sustainable consumption in educational organisations.

Addressingsustainableconsumptioninawhole‐schoolapproachAlthough there is broad agreement that changes in consumption patterns are crucial to reach

sustainable development, there is no recognisable general trend towards sustainable

consumption patterns in modern society. Addressing this knowledge-action gap, a research and

development project with an educational focus was developed and implemented, to examine

the potential contributions of educational organisations. By doing so, two overarching goals

were pursued. On the organisational level, the project aimed to establish a “culture of

sustainable consumption” in four participating schools (two secondary schools and two

vocational schools). On the individual level, the goal was to foster students’ sustainable

consumer competence, awareness, and behaviour within the organisational culture. These

goals were tackled in a transdisciplinary manner by a team of researchers (sociologists,

environmental psychologists, and educational researchers) and members of each school.

Theoretical Background

The approach of the school programme was underpinned by theoretical assumptions regarding

the role of active participation in the development, implementation, and evaluation of activities,

representing intervention measures to “perturbate” (in a constructivist sense) existing

organisational culture practices. The aim was to initiate learning processes by means of actively

engaging as well as exposing students to such intervention measures. There is ample evidence

in the change management literature suggesting that the active participation of organisational

members in activities seeking to contribute to organisational changes triggers learning

processes that increase their commitment to the intended change measures (Eckel and Kezar

2003; Kotter 1996; Senge 2006). Recent investigations into learning strategies that seek to

actively engage students with real world problems support the assumption that active

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

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participation in change measures has a positive effect on student learning (Brundiers, Wiek, and

Redman 2010). Consequently, approaches seeking to change the culture of an educational

organisation should concentrate on raising consumption from practical to discursive

consciousness and engaging the organisational actors in processes of collective learning

(Giddens 2008). Such a transformation process requires the involvement of key players,

multiple stakeholders, and the establishment of new partnerships both within the school

community and between the school community and external stakeholders (Henderson and

Tilbury 2004).

Research literature further suggests that a significant proportion of all human learning indeed

happens outside of structured teaching and learning contexts (Conlon 2004). Educational

organisations will have an effect on consumer learning by students in a twofold way. On one

hand they facilitate formal learning that allows students to reflect on and become more aware of

their own consumption patterns. On the other hand, educational organisations themselves are

consumption units and as such they are places in which their own members both consume and

communicate about consumption and thus learn informal. Through their dual character as both

a place of learning and a social environment in itself, schools can be conceived of as important

settings that have socialising effects on students.

Practical Approach

Based on this theoretical background, the programme BINK1 was designed as a participatory

whole-school development approach (Shallcross 2006). At each participating organisation,

steering committees were established that comprised representatives of all relevant groups of

actors (e.g. administration, management, teachers, students, parents, training companies), each

granted full voting rights. In workshops practitioners and researchers collaboratively planned

and designed intervention measures that would contribute to organisational changes by

1 A German acronym for “educational institutions and sustainable consumption”.

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 8 -

triggering formal and informal learning processes (Matthies and Krömker 2000; Nastasi et al.

2000). The selection of appropriate activities was informed by an analytical framework in the

context of the project that identifies relevant consumption-related formal and informal learning

contexts in schools (Fischer 2011).

The programme addressed students in two ways. On the one hand as active participants in the

development, implementation, and evaluation of intervention measures, and on the other as a

receptive target group for these activities. Broadly speaking, there were two types of

techniques: those focusing on students and those focusing on supporting organisational change

processes. In practice, these two types were often aligned with each other. For example, as an

organisation-focused intervention measure, a food advisory board involving students, teachers,

parents, and external experts was founded at one participating school to increase the

availability of sustainable foods in the school. The intervention was complemented with more

student-focused activities. A prominent television chef was invited to develop and test recipes

for sustainable snacks with students in order to enhance the attractiveness of the food offered in

the school cafeteria. In total, more than two dozens of such intervention measures were

implemented in the participating schools beginning from the second year of the project.

Empirical Study

The assumption underpinning the participatory whole-school approach was that both the active

participation in and awareness of the development, implementation, and evaluation of activities

promoting sustainable consumption is correlated to individual consumer attributes and

behaviours (Matthies and Krömker 2000; Nastasi et al. 2000). Thus, we assumed that students

who actively participate in the BINK programme show higher levels of perceived consumer

effectiveness, perform better in transferring and applying school knowledge to everyday life

consumption decisions and report more sustainability oriented consumer behaviour than those

students who do not actively participate in the BINK programme. Furthermore we expected that

students who do not actively participate in the BINK programme but are aware of BINK

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 9 -

programme activities show higher levels of perceived consumer effectiveness, perform better in

transferring and applying school knowledge to everyday life consumption decisions and report

more sustainability oriented consumer behaviour than those students who were neither actively

involved in the BINK programme nor aware of BINK programme activities.

To empirically investigate these assumptions, a study was conducted in the participating

schools, examining the relationship between student perceptions of the project activities and

aspects of their consumer competences and consumer behaviours. A questionnaire was

compiled that addressed individual consumption orientations and practices, as well as student

perceptions and evaluations of different activities and structures of the ‘culture of consumption’

in their school. Four variables were operationalized with different items and used as dependent

variables (Table 1). The first is perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE), a concept that

“captures the person’s perception of his or her ability to do something about a social problem”

(Thøgersen 1999, 446). In the context of this study, student PCE was understood to comprise

both inner school and general effectiveness expectations. Students were further asked to

evaluate the relevance that school knowledge has for their everyday consumption decisions

(perceived relevance of school knowledge) regarding the purchase of food, clothes and textiles,

as well as technical devices. Finally, sustainability oriented consumer behaviour was measured,

covering the purchase of regional fruits and of products with low environmental impact, the

boycott of products from environmentally unfriendly companies, the avoidance of packaged

products and the appeal to parents to buy organic fruits and vegetables.On top of that, data was

collected about active participation in the development, implementation, and evaluation of

programme activities as well as about awareness of such activities.

The readability and scope of the questionnaire was initially tested as a two-stage pre-test, by

way of a retrospective think aloud protocol: after answering a question, selected respondents

were asked to put into words their thought processes as they were answering the question

(Someren, Barnard & Sandberg 1994). The modified questionnaire was then tested in

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 10 -

two classes. After a rephrasing of individual items and the exclusion of ambiguous items, the

final, machine-readable version of the questionnaire was drawn up.

Table 1: Dependent variables

Scale Exemplary Items

min max α

Sustainability Oriented Consumer Behaviour

5 30 .77 - I try to buy fruits that come from my region - I boycott products from companies that harm the

environment. - I avoid packaging materials wherever possible.

General Perceived Consumer Effectiveness

5 30 .81 Consumers can exert an influence on... - the working conditions under which goods are

produced - the environmental pressures that are caused

during production - where goods are produced

Perceived Relevance of School Knowledge

3 18 .86 When you think of things that you considered buying recently: how important was what you have learnt at school to make a decision? - when buying technical appliances (e.g. mobile

phone) - when buying clothe - when buying food

Inner School Perceived Consumer Effectiveness

6 36 .86 When you have an idea to change something at your school: regarding which of the following issues do you think you can change something? - food outlet and provision at school - reconstruction of school buildings and premises

The questionnaires were answered by students in the classroom during a regular lesson of 45

minutes. At that time, BINK programme activities had been consecutively implemented for

approximately six months. Questionnaires were distributed among students in grade seven

(n=201, response rate RR=75.2%), grade eleven (n=267, RR=63.9%), and in vocational

education classes (n=312, RR=69.4%). In total, 780 questionnaires were returned.

ResultsThree groups of students could be identified. The first group comprised of students who actively

participated in the programme (Active, N=148). The second group were those students who did

not actively participate in the programme but were aware of at least two programme activities

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 11 -

(Inactive-Exposed, N=99). Finally, students in the third group did actively participate in the

programme and were only aware of less than two such activities (Inactive-Unexposed, N=475).

Data analysis focused on group distinctions with respect to a number of dependent variables.

The comparative analysis was made using an ANOVA and Fisher’s Least Significant

Differences (LSD) procedure for post hoc testing. Table 1 shows the mean scores of the three

groups (Active, Inactive-Exposed, and Inactive-Unexposed) across the four scales of

sustainability oriented consumer behaviour, general PCE, perceived relevance of school

knowledge, and inner school PCE.

Table 2: Descriptive statistics for scores between groups

Inactive-Unexposed

Inactive-Exposed

Active

Sustainability Oriented Consumer Behaviour

M 12.66 14.23 15.32

N 474 99 148

SD 5.348 5.065 5.874

General Perceived Consumer Effectiveness

M 15.38 15.44 17.32

N 465 99 145

SD 5.651 5.513 5.863

Perceived Relevance of School Knowledge

M 8.32 7,85 9.18

N 463 98 147

SD 4.608 3.857 4.790

Inner School Perceived Consumer Effectiveness

M 15.93 15.44 17.25

N 464 99 146

SD 7.249 6.190 6.906

The pattern of differences on scores between the three groups was significantly different

between sustainability oriented consumer behaviour (F (2/718) = 14.861, p = .000) and general

perceived consumer effectiveness (F (2/706) = 6.629, p = .001).

Concerning inner school PCE, data show that students who had actively participated in the

programme differ significantly from the two groups of inactive students who were either aware of

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 12 -

the programme activities (p = .049 (≤0.05)) or who were not even aware of any such activities (p

= .047 (≤0.05)). The latter two groups did not show significant differences. Similarly, Actives

also differ significantly from these two groups concerning the perceived relevance of school

knowledge (p = .025 resp. p = .048 (≤0.05)) and with respect to general PCE (p = .012 resp. p =

.000 (≤0.05)). Finally, regarding self-reported sustainability oriented consumer behaviour, data

show significant differences between inactive and unexposed students and both inactive, yet

exposed and active (p = .009 resp. p = .000 (≤0.05)).

As significant differences and higher mean scores can be found across all four scales for

Actives compared to the two groups of students not actively participating, the results of the

study largely support the expectation that participation makes a difference. With respect to self-

reported sustainability oriented consumer behaviour, significant differences can only be

observed between Actives and Inactive-Unexposed. The general expectation still tends to be

supported though as Actives show an (insignificantly) higher mean score than Inactive-

Exposed. We also expected to find such differences between inactive students who were either

aware or unaware of BINK programme activities. According to our results, significant differences

between the two groups of inactive students can only be observed with respect to sustainability

oriented consumer behaviour. While inactive, yet exposed students still show an (insignificantly)

higher mean score in their general PCE than inactive and unexposed students, our expectation

is not met for the other two variables. On the contrary, the assumed tendency is even reversed

in the mean scores of perceived relevance of school knowledge and inner school PCE.

Consequently, this expectation is only partially fulfilled with respect to consumer behaviour, and

must be largely discounted.

DiscussionThe results of the study need to be discussed in light of a number of restrictions. First, the study

was designed as a one-time cross-sectional study. As a result, data does not account for

developments in (groups of) individual respondents between differing measuring times. Hence,

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 13 -

its focus is on the description of relationship rather than on causal attributions. In the

interpretation of the results, it must also be taken into account that data collection took place

shortly (six months) after the programme activities were consecutively implemented. Hence, a

realistic expectation was to find only moderate effects in the analysis of the data. Finally, more

than 80% of the inactive and unexposed students reported no activities at all. Within this group,

about half of the respondents did not answer other open-ended questions in the questionnaire.

As awareness of programme activities was measured with open-ended questions, this high

proportion of respondents who avoided answering open-ended questions must be taken into

consideration when interpreting measured exposure to programme activities. In particular, it is

possible that a number of respondents who did not answer any open-ended question did in fact

belong to the group of Inactive-Exposed. Therefore the results of the comparison between the

two groups of Inactive-Exposed and Inactive-Unexposed can be biased.

The results suggest an interpretation based on a conceptual distinction made in the theory of

ecological systems (Bronfenbrenner 1996). According to this, a school represents a distinct

micro system to students that can be distinguished from other micro systems of, for example,

family or peer life worlds. Within the micro system of the school sphere, active participation in

the development, implementation and evaluation of activities promoting sustainable

consumption at their school is the relevant criterion that accounts for significantly higher

differences in mean scores on inner school PCE and perceived relevance of school knowledge.

Concerning the less school-specific variables, it can be assumed that general PCE also benefits

from in school PCE and the experiences students make while engaging with real world

consumption issues and problems at their organisation. In light of this assumption, the minor

differences in mean scores between inactive students with and without exposure to programme

activities can be partly attributed to the lack of activating experiences.

As research results from youth studies in the field of consumption suggest, most of the

consumption decisions and actions usually happen outside the school sphere (Tully and Krug,

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 14 -

2011). The variable of self-reported sustainability oriented consumer behaviour can be

perceived as the only one accounting for an ecological system outside the school system. The

results of the study indicate that in this respect mere awareness of BINK programme activities

(as opposed to active participation) accounts for comparatively significant differences in mean

scores. Further research would be needed to explore to what extent this can be attributed to the

effects of social learning and observation.

ConclusionThis study investigates how participation in an intervention programme seeking to change

schools’ “culture of consumption” contributes to students’ formal and informal consumer

learning. By doing so the potential of such an approach to function as an educational response

to narrowing the knowledge-action gap was explored. The results show that students actively

participating in activities targeted at promoting sustainable consumption in their organisation

have higher mean scores on all four dependent variables included in this study (i.e.

sustainability oriented consumer behaviour, general perceived consumer effectiveness,

perceived relevance of school knowledge, inner school perceived consumer effectiveness). The

study also indicates that students who were only aware of such activities report more

sustainability oriented consumer behaviour than others.

The findings of this study give some insights in how to promote action for sustainable

consumption not only in formal but as well in informal learning. Three aspects seem especially

worth to be considered:

First, it emphasises the need to provide adequate opportunities for local school actors to

engage with sustainable consumption issues both inside and outside the classroom. Whether

current education reform as experienced throughout Europe today effectively advances the

actors’ opportunities is contested both in the literature and in public discourse. In Germany as

the place where the described school-programme took place, the recent shift from prescribed

centralised syllabi (input) to centralised testing of learning outcomes and the respective “new

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 15 -

conceptualization of the German school as a self-managing organization” (Grek 2009, 30) offers

“doorways” (Department for Education and Skills (DfES) 2008) for the integration of sustainable

consumption into the school’s programme and its operations. But at the same time, the narrow

focus of centralised testing on learning outcomes in core subject areas and condensed curricula

increases the pressure on schools to focus on formal learning and severely threatens the

allocation of essential time and resources for extracurricular and informal learning activities.

Second, the findings suggest there is a need to further develop and disseminate consumer

education programs that broaden the narrow focus on teaching consumption issues in formal

learning settings like classrooms still predominant in current consumer education policies and

programs (European Commission 2007, OECD 2009). Education for sustainable consumption

goes beyond the provision of consumer information and entails action learning, experimental

learning and situated learning in local school development processes. This notion is supported

by previous research on education for sustainable development in schools that underlines the

crucial importance of innovative learning settings (Rode 2005).

Third, educational and consumer policy need to be constructively aligned in order to activate

education’s full potential to contribute to socialising tomorrow’s sustainable consumers. For

example, the findings suggest that both consumer policy and educational policy should seek to

enable students to actively exert an influence on making the inner school food supply more

sustainable. In the case of Germany, current practices show that school food provision systems

“seem to follow the low price concept” (Harper et al. 2008, 10) and are mainly organised by

external caterers and thus beyond the control of school actors. It requires concerted cross-

sectoral policy efforts to reclaim these inner-school consumption premises as learning settings

in which sustainable consumption can be experienced and experimented with.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Barth, M.; Fischer, D.; Michelsen, G.; Nemnich, C.; Rode, H. (2012): Tackling the knowledge‐action gap in 

sustainable consumption: insights from a participatory school programme. In: Journal of Education for 

Sustainable Development 6 (2), 301–312. DOI: 10.1177/0973408212475266. 

- 16 -

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