Analyzing a Collective Impact of Environmental Education and Outreach in Terms of Community Development
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Date
2015-05Author
Voss, Nicholas D.
Publisher
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, College of Natural Resources
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Show full item recordAbstract
Complex environmental issues are often intertwined with social, political, and cultural
issues. This complex dynamic calls for cooperative dialogue between environmental
organizations and their public stakeholders. This research project is based on the idea that
environmental education (EE) consists not only on education and outreach entities'
content and programming, but on their ability to develop authentic community that serves
as a learning space in which to situate content and programming. While many
organizations such as nature centers have strong local followings, there is a regional trend
of fragmented dialogue that allocates public involvement according to their various social
boundaries such as viewpoint, identity, and political ideology. Such fragmentation caters
to the public filtering knowledge and messages according to their view. In contrast, a
strategic effort between various EE organizations may allow for a more effective reach to
the public, improved interactions across social boundaries, and new approaches to
complex environmental issues. Such a strategy would require an understanding of the
organization's strengths, their commonalities, and their relationships with the public. This
project sought these insights and developed a consensus on how the Northern Wisconsin/
Southern Michigan Upper Peninsula collectively create a communal learning space. The
findings serve as a tool to support the evolution of public stakeholder outreach methods
in this region, and its conclusions serve as recommendations for collaboration.