Educative Outreach

One of the most prevalent comments communicated by the interview participants was that they felt that sometimes they do not have enough time to build a relationship with the pupils before they depart from the centre. This minimal socialization was felt to be a problem because students would not feel

comfortable in communicating to the environmental educator prompts that would enable them to better customize or energize their programming.

Ironically, educators and their centres do not regularly perform pre-visit and post-visit activities in the schools with the participating groups. Both pre- and post-visit activities could increase the social time between pupil and educator to build a shared understanding. Interestingly, the educators felt that having schoolyard or local programs within each community would be an important part of the education of a pupil.

“I would say that school greening would be the first step.” (EE-2) “Or into schoolyards to do lessons.” (EE-14)

Their determination that schoolyard programs would help increase the pupils’ environmental

consciousness was sadly not often followed by action to provide those programs. The lack of resources and time were stated in being the largest barriers to providing these programs to local communities and the schools they service.

Many interview participants also stated that it is only when the class steps off the bus that they begin to reassess the suitability of the program for that group. Table 6 below outlines some of the different types of information that could be vitally important for an environmental program’s suitability for a group:

Table 6 – Desired pre-visit formative information

Information Examples Reasoning

Available clothing issues

1. lack of appropriate clothing for weather

2. religious or ethnic norms e.g. (jilbab clothing)

1. Impossible to learn if primary comfort needs are not fulfilled 2. Cultural sensitivity

Previous experiences of students

3. overnight camps, camping or hikes with family previous 4. visits to centres

5. environmental consciousness level

3 – 5. A group with high comfort in natural environments can be trusted with more advanced concepts or activities Previous experiences of visiting teachers / adults

6. previous visits to centres 7. comfort with activities outdoors 8. enthusiasm with bringing class 9. fears with bringing class 10. environmental consciousness level

5 – 10. A teacher with experience in the outdoors and/or leading

students in the outdoors is more capable of engendering positive reinforcement toward the

experience of being within a natural environment.

Curricular

Positioning 11. current unit of study 12. previous units of study 13. future units of study

11. Direct integration with classroom instruction

12. Reinforcement and integration of previous knowledge

13. Priming of future classroom instruction

Medical 14. Medical considerations

(allergies, phobias, disabilities) 14. Risk management determination and inclusion measures As Table 6 indicates there are many considerations and compromises an environmental educator has to make during the first few minutes of a program.

4.3.3 Increasing Consciousness

The theme of Increasing Consciousness encompassed the sub-themes of immersion, etiquette, repetition, and emotional response.

4.3.3.1 Immersion

All the interviewed participants felt that it is the unstructured immersion in the natural world that truly increases a person’s environmental consciousness.

“So the best thing we can do is just get them outside and have them breathe and smell, and play… and get dirty… and at the same time connect the water to what they drink everyday.“ (EE-13)

“Umm… having them figure out… different things… explore the trees themselves, even if they do not know [what] the name is… just feel the tree, smell the tree… see if it

reminds them of anything… that sort of stuff.” (EE- 3)

The lack of structure was thought to enable the pupil to interact with the non-human entities

surrounding them in a manner that spoke of reciprocity and not power over the entity. Of course, the pupil has the ability to utilize the lack of structured activity, and supervision, to destroy or harm the entity, but then the pupil would have to deal with the consequences of their action. Not every plant or animal reacts equally to the same interaction (touching or ripping); some will react with noxious results for the pupil. In order to mediate the interactions between the pupil and the natural world, an

experienced person can be useful.

4.3.3.2 Etiquette

The participants all felt that by giving a person the chance to engage in the natural world, with the etiquette modelled by a person in love with that environment, environmental consciousness is increased.

“So I hope I can model a love of nature. How you act and being very respectful with the animals… modelling how to act…. They’ll remember you carefully holding or if they are out digging in the river… making sure that crayfish, every few seconds, you know, put it back into the river… then they begin to realize.“ (EE-4)

“They need to have the experience facilitated to them because [if] you let people loose in an area without understanding what they are doing… they’re either not going to do any exploring or they’re … going to be overwhelmed with what they are doing… particularly with people who do not come from backgrounds from where they’ve had opportunities to explore large environments on their own.” (EE-5)

The presence of an experienced person, modelling a personal etiquette and demonstrating the skills necessary to maintain respect for their environment was deemed to be very effective by the participants in increasing a person’s environmental consciousness.

4.3.3.3 Repetition

While immersion was deemed to be vital, another important factor revealed in the interviews was the incidence of experiences. The participants felt that consciousness building was best accomplished with the repetition of experiences that vary in depth and cognitive focus.

“I think immersion is important…. Just as important as the actual lesson plan. Once they connect multiple times to a similar area… then I think it gets more engrained. “ (EE-7) “It’s constant repeated exposure that they need in order to increase the environmental consciousness not just … most wonderful program in the world, you do it once… they are going to remember it, but they are not going to make the connection.” (EE- 5)

4.3.3.4 Emotional Response

The necessity for education to be repetitive and immersive was coupled by the interviewed educators with a belief that experiences which evoke an emotional response in the participant are superior in effectiveness.

“So for me, the first thing we have to do is to get kids to feel that they are a part of it… then eventually they will grow a sense that they have a responsibility for it, and

understand the power that we, we humans have… to alter change, affect, the world out there.” (EE-12)

“… so they develop that love with nature. Because without that love, without that connection, I don’t think there’s [awareness].” (EE-2)

The educators identified depth of immersion, repetition of experiences, and emotional response to be the characteristics that stimulate an increase in a person’s environmental consciousness.