Children’s explanations in at-risk zones: fostering hope through science education in Quintero-Puchuncaví Bay

Considering the increasing severity of environmental disasters and the scarcity of studies centered on children’s perspectives, this article explores context-based learning to create spaces of hope. Constructing explanations fosters meaning creation and knowledge integration. Fourth graders’ self-explanations about contamination in a degraded area, known as an “environmental sacrifice zone”, were analyzed. The educational research design within a humanistic paradigm aimed to be responsive to participants’ needs. Children’s explanations were gathered through interviews and images. The qualitative thematic analysis identified three types of explanations and six causal factors. Some students did not recognize the local contamination despite its relevance to their daily lives. In contrast, others associated and contrasted the phenomena with earthquakes and tsunamis that could lead to disasters. The participants expressed socioscientific reasoning, revealing causal relationships, involving agents of damage, and highlighting environmental injustice as a consequence. Facilitating dialogues with children living in at-risk areas is interpreted as a restorative action in education and advocating for their right to be heard on matters that affect them. This article discusses the role of responsive research in context-based science learning, emphasizing the opportunities to mediate human actions and foster spaces of hope and awareness in connection with environmental justice issues.