Ecology of environmental education: Feedbacks, education, and resilience

Background/Question/Methods   The ecology education community has focused on the suite of knowledge and competencies that constitute environmental literacy, including self-knowledge, evidence-based habits of mind, and ecological concepts and connections (Jordan et al., 2009) Whereas the environmental education (EE) community also is concerned with knowledge, it further embraces goals related to changing attitudes and behavior. In both of these sub-disciplines, educational researchers most often focus on outcomes of specific interventions. Less attention has been paid to the interrelations among the ecological or environmental education activities themselves and the larger social-ecological system. This poster will explore the notion of an ecology of EE, and will attempt to situate EE within a social-ecological framework, such as those proposed by Grimm, Pickett and other ecological researchers who focus on coupled human-natural systems. Using civic ecology education as an example, we will explore the interrelations among an educational program and the social and bio-geo-physical components of a larger system. Civic ecology education refers to youth programs where learning is situated in community gardening, community forestry, habitat restoration, and similar small-scale, emergent environmental stewardship or civic ecology practices, which have both social and ecological outcomes. When an educational program is situated in these practices, it may become part of a virtuous feedback loop, in which youth and adult stewardship actions contribute to natural capital, which in turn produces ecosystem services. Social capital may also be enhanced through multiple mechanisms, e.g., youth and adult participation in the civic ecology activity, and through the green spaces created through their activity, both of which provide opportunities for people to socialize, build trust, and participate in the civic life of their community. In addition to viewing EE's role in feedback loops, we will consider EE as a driver of human behavior, as a mediator of human impact on the social and biophysical environment, and as a mediator of the way in which humans use ecosystem services.

Results/Conclusions   Should EE situated in civic ecology practice contribute both directly and indirectly to social and natural capital and ecosystem services, then it may play in social-ecological systems resilience. We will conclude by showing management and educational applications for a conceptual framework focusing on EE's role in social-ecosystems and their resilience.