Elly Walsh

Overview

Preparing a generation of citizens to respond to the impacts of climate change will require collaborative interactions between natural scientists, learning scientists, educators and learners. Promoting effective involvement of scientists in climate change education is especially important as climate change science and climate impacts are scientifically complex and are entangled in a persistent social controversy.  Despite the efforts of science educators and communication professionals, social movement to address the impacts of a changing climate remains slow.  While climate scientists who engage in education and communication endeavors are key actors in promoting societal change, they have also been critiqued for ineffective or inadequate methods. In this project, I leveraged my unique position as an oceanographer-turned-learning scientist to study the educational and communication work of climate scientists who were seeking to promote climate literacy and/or action. I investigated their practices and aims with the aim of demystifying their processes, identifying needed resources or training, and supporting outcomes that would be considered successful by scientists, learners and other relevant stakeholder groups.

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Role: Principle Investigator/Ethnographer

 

Questions

As an ethnographic study, research questions were developed emergently during the data collection and analysis process.  Analyses included examinations of scientists' practices, values and goals, as well as learner-scientist interactions, including the following questions:
 

1. What scientific and pedagogical expertise do scientists bring to their educational work and what are challenges and strategies for scientists’ inclusion in science communication and education?
 

2. What are challenges, strategies, and opportunities associated with scientists engaging productively in climate science education efforts?

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3. What are the implications of the social controversy for the teaching and learning of climate change science?  How do the political dimensions of this controversy affect learners’ attitudes towards and reasoning about climate change and climate science?

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Data was initially collected between 2010-2012. In 2016, a follow-up study was launched that extended this study longitudinally. Research questions for the longitudinal study include:
 

1. What is the landscape of education and communication efforts scientists participate in and how does that change over time?
 

2. How do scientists’ views of education and communication evolve over time and how is that informed by changing societal contexts and personal experiences?

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Analytical Approach
I used qualitative, ethnographic methods to examine climate scientists’ strategies and modes of participation in communication and education in three contexts over a two-year period from January 2010 to December 2011. I identified 21 key informant scientists and interviewed those scientists in September-October 2016 to allow for longitudinal analysis. In each context I acted as a participant/observer, though there is some variation in the modes of participation and observation in which I engaged (Emerson & Pollner, 2001). I used multiple data sources from these study contexts, including observations of classroom enactments, meetings and professional development workshops; interviews with teachers, students and scientists; curricular artifacts including scientist-created curricular materials, student work and scientist feedback on student work; qualitative field notes; teacher and scientist surveys from professional development workshops and weekly student engagement surveys. These data are used to elucidate scientist, student and teacher experiences with constructing and participating in learning experiences related to climate science and climate change.

 

In this analysis, I seek to provide a thick, nuanced and multi-layered description of scientists’ participation in the three contexts using ethnographic analysis techniques (Rosaldo, 1993; Geertz, 1973). Video- and audio- recordings were transcribed and these, along with field notes and artifacts were coded using an emergent coding strategy (cf. Lofland & Lofland, 1995) focusing on the aims and implementation of activities. I analyzed the projects via iterative passes through the data corpus to identify and describe emerging themes in the data relating to goals and strategies for science communication and education. Beginning with the data from the COG, I identified instances in which scientists discussed their goals, motivations and values relating to communication and education, or engaged in strategies to promote scientific epistemic practices, norms and understandings, as well as instances in which scientific or social values were mentioned or informed their participation.  I also identified instances of apparent challenge or apparent high-impact learning for any participant group (for example, where a participant expressed either frustration or success in a learning activity).  I then repeated the process with the entire data corpus, using memos to collect and analyze excerpts related to the two goals and four strategies that emerged and are discussed below. I iteratively reviewed and analyzed the data corpus several times, generating and testing assertions as described by Erickson (1986). Analysis included triangulating evidence from multiple data sources, searching for disconfirming evidence and speaking with various key informants as a member checking process.

 

Key Findings
 

Scientists' Strategies:

Four main strategies were identified: a) relationship building, b) purposeful content delivery, c) drawing on personally consequential, everyday experiences, and d) encouraging audience participation in scientific practices.  Strategies were utilized unevenly across contexts depending on the goals of the interaction and the characteristics of individual contexts that facilitated or inhibited certain modes of participation. In order to support scientists' participation, I developed a five-part framework for including scientists in communication activities (Walsh, 2012).

 

Over time, scientists' strategies shifted as they developed a fund of expertise in a specific area of interest. Based on this, recommendations are made for how to best support scientists' developing expertise and participation in educational activities (Walsh, in prep).

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