It isn’t About Traditional Environmental Education
Not everyone identifies as an “environmental educator.”
My conversations with guests and others during the past three years confirm this over and over again. There is more than one way to do environmental education (EE) and EE in other fields looks different than what might be called traditional environmental education. Browse the podcast’s playlist to learn from dedicated independent professionals who serve as examples that EE in communities happens in many different ways and many different locations.
Today I share with you an interesting paper that takes a look at the field from an organizational perspective. Researchers at Stanford University in California conducted a social network analysis to identify the kind of organizations doing environmental education work in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The authors took a broad look at the field and considered large EE organizations, as well as those that do not identify as being environmental education providers. Through their survey and conversation, they identified 950 organizations whose work supported environmental education efforts in the Bay Area.
Researchers discuss social-ecological systems and relationship building in their paper and recommend that traditional EE organizations consider building coalitions in their region and make an effort to connect with organizations that are not considered as “typical” EE organizations — that is, organizations that, while not traditional EE providers, support environmental learning.
I would like to add to this and encourage EE organizations to also consider the independent environmental education professionals in their area. I also encourage organizations to consider independent professionals from outside of their region.
To learn more about this study, download it through the link below.
To discuss this paper with colleagues, join the inaugural session of BEAM: A Book Club for Environmental Professionals. Hope to see you there.
For Your Library
Deborah J. Wojcik, Nicole M. Ardoin & Rachelle K. Gould (2021) Using social network analysis to explore and expand our understanding of a robust environmental learning landscape, Environmental Education Research, 27:9, 1263-1283, DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2021.1905779
