Prioritizing Soil Literacy: An AHP-Based Approach

Soil plays a fundamental role in terrestrial ecosystems, acting as a medium for plants and other organisms while supporting all terrestrial life by providing essential conditions for growth and development. Despite its critical importance, the role of soil is often undervalued. The CURIOSOIL project aims to ignite curiosity about soils, enhance soil literacy, and foster meaningful connections between people and soil. CURIOSOIL focuses on improving soil education, addressing the pressing need for a stronger connection with soil amidst increasing human pressures on this vital resource. The project seeks to bridge gaps in soil knowledge among pupils, students, teachers, citizens, policymakers, and practitioners, thereby addressing soil illiteracy, a significant barrier to sustainable soil use. A key part of CURIOSOIL is the development of the Soil Literacy Assessment Framework (SLAF) for five target groups: primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, teachers, and lifelong learners. To achieve this, we identified the core main domains and subdomains of soil literacy in consultation with soil experts and stakeholders in soil education and lifelong learning. Four main domains have been defined: soil diversity, soil services, soil threats, and soil solutions.

This study prioritized these main domains and subdomains for designing a valid soil literacy assessment framework (SLAF) in diverse target groups. Furthermore, understanding the relative importance of these main domains (and subdomains) enables educators and policymakers to focus on the most impactful areas, ensuring that soil education efforts address the unique needs of both children and adults. By establishing these priorities, resources can be allocated efficiently, and targeted educational activities can be developed to enhance soil awareness and literacy. In this study, we employed the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize soil literacy's main domains and subdomains for SLAF. AHP is a widely recognized method that provides a systematic framework for pairwise comparisons of variables, enabling a detailed evaluation of their relative importance. Using this approach, soil experts, researchers, and educators assessed the significance of various domains for children and subdomains for adults, yielding valuable insights into the main domains and subdomains priorities.

The AHP analysis was facilitated by specialized software, such as Expert Choice. This study demonstrated its utility in designing an assessment framework and prioritizing the main domains and subdomains of soil literacy for diverse target groups. By utilizing the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in this study, soil experts contributed valuable insights into the prioritization of soil literacy the main domains and subdomains for designing valid questionnaires. This input ensures that the resulting assessment framework and educational activities are scientifically robust and practically applicable.

Keywords: Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), CURIOSOIL, environmental education, Soil Literacy Assessment Framework (SLAF), sustainability