Meeting Global Challenges through Families and Community Environmental and Sustainability Education: Generating Action Competence

Global environmental crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss and resource depletion disproportionately affect communities in the Global South, where environmental vulnerability intersects with social and cultural inequalities. In rural North Sindh, Pakistan, these pressures shape everyday livelihoods and community practices through which environmental knowledge is transmitted across generations. Yet formal environmental education often overlooks these informal learning spaces. This study examines how family and community-based environmental and sustainability education cultivates action competence by integrating knowledge, motivation and action skills in a non-Western agrarian context. Guided by the Action Competence Approach as a theoretical and conceptual framework, the research employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design within participatory action research. Data from 120 participants in Sukkur and Shikarpur were collected through surveys, interviews, focus groups and workshops. Findings show moderate-to-high action competence (M = 3.82/5), with strong environmental motivation and knowledge fostered through intergenerational storytelling, while action skills remain constrained by infrastructural and rural–urban disparities.