Walking and Learning with the Poor

ABSTRACT LEARNING IN AN ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT: WALKING AND LEARNING WITH THE POOR Eliezer Colón-Rivera, Ed.D. Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education Northern Illinois University, 2018 Jorge Jeria, Director This autoethnographic study explores how participants in the environmental social movement in Cidra, Puerto Rico, learned and produced knowledge. The data was obtained through the narration of my personal experiences as an environmental activist and founding member of Comité Despertar Cidreño, eleven individual interviews with members and sympathizers of the group, and a collective interview in the form of a focus group. The autoethnographic narrative and interviews with the research participants illustrate a production of knowledge ranging from the skills and abilities necessary to organize the struggles to the experience and knowledge about the natural environment. The study suggests that the use of participatory action research (PAR) as a tool for research and transformation, as part of Freire’s popular education conceptual framework, encouraged participants to become aware that their experiences and practices produce knowledge. The study reiterates what research on learning in social movements has demonstrated: that most of the learning is informal learning Furthermore, the individual interviews and focus group helped participants become aware of the vast amount of learning that took place during the environmental struggles. This learning, generally incidental, was not recognized before as learning by them. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DEKALB, ILLINOIS MAY 2018 LEARNING IN AN ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL MOVEMENT: WALKING AND LEARNING WITH THE POOR BY ELIEZER COLÓN-RIVERA ©2017 Eliezer Colón-Rivera A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF COUNSELING, ADULT AND HIGHER EDUCATION Doctoral Director: Jorge Jeria ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to convey my sincere appreciation to Professor Jorge Jeria for his guidance and advice. It was a unique opportunity to have as an advisor a popular educator of international stature such as him. His help made easier the research and writing of this dissertation. I would like to recognize Dr. Laura Johnson for her methodological guidance on qualitative research and knowledgeable observations regarding community-based research. I would like to thank Dr. LaVerne Gyant for her encouragement and thoughtful advice in developing my dissertation proposal and Professor Cornelius K. Gilbert for his insightful comments and encouragement. My heartfelt appreciation also to the members of Comité Despertar Cidreño who enthusiastically embraced my research as their own and participated in the interviews and focus group. A posthumous recognition to Ana Julia Rodríguez and Francisco de Jesús, two distinguished grassroots leaders in the movement to close Cidra Landfill, who passed away before the completion of this study. I would also like to acknowledge Shelmey Diaz Cortés for transcribing the interviews and my brother Ezequiel Colón-Rivera for helping to proofread the manuscripts. My gratitude also to Arnaldo (Naldin) Rodríguez for helping with formatting and assembling the document. My gratitude to the congregation and pastors, Arturo J. Siaca Rentas and Dr. Jaime Rodríguez, of Cidra’s First Baptist Church for their encouragement and prayers throughout this endeavor. iii My appreciation also to Jackeline Partipilo, physical therapist, and Dr. Jon Whitehurst, orthopedic surgeon at OrthoIllinois in Rockford for their assistance and care of a severe frozen shoulder syndrome I suffered while working on the dissertation. Just as important, I would like to thank my family: my wife María Bustamante for her constant spiritual support and encouragement while writing this dissertation, especially during my illness and moments of uncertainty. Thanks as well to my sons Eduardo and Eliezer, Jr., who inspired me to overcome obstacles and finish this project. DEDICATION To my mother, Esther Rivera Figueroa, who inspired me to love nature and seek justice, and the late, Pablo Emilio Colón Chévere, my father who taught me that there is poetry in daily life TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. viii LIST OF APPENDICES .......................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Background ...................................................................................................... 1 Significance ...................................................................................................... 8 Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................ 9 Freire’s Popular Education Conceptual Framework ........................................ 10 Overview .......................................................................................................... 12 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................... 14 Learning ........................................................................................................... 14 Theories of Learning ........................................................................................ 15 Informal Learning ............................................................................................ 19 Knowledge Production ..................................................................................... 22 Social Movements ............................................................................................ 25 Social Movement Learning .............................................................................. 25 Popular Education ............................................................................................ 29 American Popular Education: Myles Horton ................................................... 32 Brief Synopsis of the Concept of Popular Education in Latin America .......... 36 vi Chapter Page Breaking with Orthodox Views of Social Transformation .............................. 39 Participatory Action Research (PAR) .............................................................. 39 Participatory Action Research in North America ............................................ 41 Flexibility and Diversity in the Application of PAR ....................................... 43 Youth Participatory Action Research and Popular Education ......................... 44 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................ 47 3 PUERTO RICO’S ENVIRONMENT AND POLICIES .......................................... 49 Emergence of the Environmental Social Movement ....................................... 51 The Boom of the Pharmaceutical Industries Under Section 936 ..................... 52 Laxness in Environmental Regulations ........................................................... 56 Vieques: A Milestone in the Environmental Struggle ..................................... 59 936 Companies Left a Contamination Trail in Cidra ....................................... 60 Shift in Puerto Rico’s Economic Model .......................................................... 62 The Fiscal Control Board (FCB) ...................................................................... 64 Hurricane María Aftermath .............................................................................. 67 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................ 71 4 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 73 Autoethnography .............................................................................................. 74 Autoethnographic Tools ................................................................................... 76 Data Collection ................................................................................................ 76 Research Questions .......................................................................................... 78 vii Chapter Page Data Analysis ................................................................................................... 78 Data Sources .................................................................................................... 79 Coding .............................................................................................................. 80 Trustworthiness ................................................................................................ 81 Biases and Assumptions ................................................................................... 82 Chapter Summary ............................................................................................ 84 5 FINDINGS ................................................................................................................ 86 Motivation to Participate .................................................................................. 86 Knowledge About Organizing ......................................................................... 97 Learning by Doing and Participating in the Struggle ...................................... 99 Findings and Types

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