Sustainability Education Through ICT-Supported Dialogue - Towards Transforming Adolescents’ Perceptions of Alcohol in Punjab, India

A potential health crisis looms large in the Punjab, India where alcohol consumption has risen dramatically. Adolescents are especially vulnerable to the toxic effects of alcohol. This empirical study presents a pedagogical intervention, Children as Agents of Social Change (CASC), which aimed to raise awareness about the effects of alcohol using an ICT-supported educational dialogue among adolescent students and alcohol-experts from multiple domains. Primary data consists of pre- and post-test questionnaires from the control and experimental groups (N=379) and an interview of the teacher-in-charge of one experimental school. Results indicate that the intervention significantly improved students’ scientific knowledge about alcohol; changed their attitudes towards media and celebrity promotion of alcohol; and enabled them to surmount the odds to spread information - acquired during the CASC intervention- to people outside the school, including adult drinkers. Learner-centric pedagogy combined with ICT clearly amplified transformative learning. CASC appears to be a promising approach in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). It can be used for multiple sustainability issues.