Engaging faculty and students in developing inclusive ecology pedagogy for increasing diversity of ecologists (RCN-UNIDE)

Background/Question/Methods

The NSF-funded project UNIDE (Undergraduate Network for Increasing Diversity of Ecologists) is in its second of a five-year project, engaging a diverse U.S. team of ecologists, environmental scientists, social scientists and students to achieve the following goals: 1) identify the barriers and challenges that must be overcome to support participation of underrepresented people in the study and practice of ecology, 2) characterize the factors that affect development of an ecological identity, or sense of social belonging in environmental career fields, and 3) to learn how to include the values of underrepresented people. The desired outcomes are to: 1) develop effective interventions to address the identified disciplinary/institutional challenges, 2) revise current environmental curriculum to include broader values and 3) build a sustainable and interdisciplinary network of faculty, students and practitioners in ecology/environmental science, educators, and social scientists. To date, the UNIDE network has conducted focus groups with environmental practitioners, social scientists, and science students to determine similarities and differences in how they connect to nature and explore career paths. We explored the groups’ perception of barriers and approaches to overcome those to further evaluate how to address factors affecting student participation, resilience, and retention in the field sciences.

Results/Conclusions

We learned that positive appreciation of the natural world and a broad interest in science were not sufficient reasons for students to pursue environmental careers. We further investigated 1) how students learned about environmental careers, 2) evaluated the relative importance of comfort with field work and connection to cultural values, and 3) evaluated the impact of confidence-building exercises to facilitate pathways into ecological study. Our results were used to develop criteria for a Student Advisory Board to determine the effectiveness of interventions and pedagogical tools to be tested. Our literature and focus group research indicates that the network needs to target how students connect understanding ecological principles to their cultural perspectives, and to skills needed in today’s environmental careers. Students need a clearer understanding of the importance of these principles in solving today’s global environmental problems, especially since they affect people of color disproportionately. One factor to prioritize in developing pedagogical content is that students want to make a difference in society in connection with their career path. We plan to continually involve students for understanding what needs to be modified pedagogically to achieve the UNIDE goals and broaden our faculty network to provide a testing ground for teaching modules.