Empowerment through Female Mentorship: Strengthening Conservation Through Local Biocultural Education Among Women in the Peruvian Amazon (Summer 2020)

My project partner was Centro de Educacion, Ciencia y Conservación Tambopata (CECCOT). In coordination with my collaborators, I proposed a community-based female-centered mentorship program to support their newly developed forest school. I developed a series of best practices, which were organized under an indigenous knowledge framework in alignment with Peruvian concepts that were rooted in the local context. This framework included valuing, being, knowing and doing in a specific sequence of four steps-- respect, connect, reflect, and direct (Yunkaporta, 2020)(Table 1). My key findings were: (1) To create a decolonized program, it is vital that environmental education in a biocultural hotspot like Peru is considered from a plurality of perspectives, including traditional ecological knowledge (de la Garza, 2016; Haverkort, 2012; Kimmerer, 2002, Loh & Harmon, 2005), intra- and inter-science dialogue (Haverkort, 2012) and intercultural and bilingual education (Trapnell, 2003); (2) To democratize science education, we must champion biocultural diversity (Kulnieks et al., 2013) and intercultural learning (Aikman, 1994); and (3) Underutilized modes of learning include storytelling, engaging in focal land-based practices (Kulnieks et al., 2013), and oral know-how as a primary pathway for knowledge transmission (Aikman, 2002). 

Through this literature review methodology, I learned the importance of centering multiple knowledge systems in the classroom, which can be achieved by examining the synergies between traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and western science. TEK refers to ways of knowing, thinking, and doing in relation to the natural world (Berkes, 1993) and is tactile, multi-generational, collective, adaptable, and fixed to cultural practices through direct relationships with the land (Menzies, 2006). Kimmerer (2002) calls science educators to action to incorporate TEK into their curricula to support intellectual diversity, spur new insights, synergies, and models, and develop cross-cultural competencies and multicultural perspectives. These knowledge systems offer a bridge from locally oriented environmental stewardship to global citizenship, thus breaking down the distinctions in scale and offering a holistic approach. Yunkaporta (2009) refers to this bridge as contemporary local knowledge, which is at the confluence of traditional local knowledge and non-local knowledge. 

Through this project, I was able to continue engaging in conservation issues in Peru more broadly, as well as indigenous knowledge, TEK, and multiple knowledge systems. My key findings became central to the development of the learning materials I wrote simultaneously in the summer of 2020. It allowed me to link my direct experience in Peru to the existing literature, as well as learn about peer-reviewed surveys for understanding environmental identities. 

Live from the Trevor Zoo (Spring 2021)

I hosted a virtual event for the Trevor’s Zoo’s Great Backyard Bird Count. The virtual event consisted of a “Live from the Trevor Zoo” YouTube episode that was live streamed with a question and answer session at the end. In the video, I connected environmental stewardship to global citizenship (see quotation below). I then described how citizen science projects through eBird and iNaturalist are methods to connect the local and global. Students can learn about biodiversity monitoring in the Amazon and then get involved through projects in their own backyards. 

Citizen science projects that use technological applications are a key strategy in seamlessly linking the identities of stewardship and global citizenship. Because of availability and open-access, students can participate and expand their contributions, which ultimately serves to connect individual nodes and create a network of 21st-century stewards. Web-enabled tools, such as eBird and iNaturalist, provide a “superhighway to amassing digital records that can be proposed by big-data science” (Hannibal, 2017) and represent “Web 2.0,” which is characterized by user-generated content that allow students to virtually connect with a group of scientists and hobbyists (Hardy and Hardy 2018). Students took away that our seemingly small actions are magnified when we partner with people we may never meet in places we may never travel. When students participate in citizen science by using these technologies, their local actions can be understood in the context of a global network of stewards and citizens, who are committed to collective-action, community cohesion, and capacity building.

Previously, I might have framed this event around backyard biodiversity and local stewardship. Now, I made several changes in an attempt to infuse global citizenship into this student experience. These ranged from emphasizing our participation in an international collaboration to students juxtaposing their eBird list to my own in Peru through a virtual field trip. All of these points stem from being able to use a crowdsourced technology tool like eBird to expand students’ understanding of their efforts. Because of that availability, students can participate and expand their roles beyond local stewardship to also include global citizenship. In this way, technology is an essential tool in connecting individual nodes and creating a network of 21st-century stewards.


Read more about Ava's work with citizen science here and student research here. (Photo credit: Millbrook School)

Intercultural Empathy as a Pathway Toward 21st-century Stewardship (Summer 2021)

The purpose of this synthesis paper was to explore how intercultural empathy can be leveraged as a learning tool to bring environmental stewardship education solidly into the 21st-century. Environmental stewardship education can maintain its relevance by incorporating empathy literacy (Calloway-Thomas, 2009) through intergroup dialogue (Nagda et al., 2009), empathy thinking routines (Harvard University Project Zero, 2021), and authentic capstone projects (Tichnor-Wagner et al, 2016). Intercultural empathy can be understood as a “tool for humanity” to navigate a complex world in which we obtain the emotional capacity to adjust our worldview to the vantage of another. This ability to call forth the emotional state of others or transpose themselves through imaginative placement suggests a higher level of empathy, beyond the basic recognition of human-to-human connection (Calloway-Thomas, 2009). Ultimately, this interpersonal disposition, expanded group, and care perspective has the power to guide and inspire action beyond the local level through a felt responsibility to act within and across communities (Zappile et al., 2016; Zeyer and Dillon, 2018). Empathy, in concert with sympathy and compassion, can be seen as a causal agent and primary condition, leading to agency, prosocial attitudes, and altruistic behaviors (Hayward, 2012; Zeyer and Dillon, 2018). 

21st-century stewardship can borrow the intercultural empathy component of global citizenship education, as a mechanism to participation (Reysen and Katzarska-Miller, 2018; Tam, 2013). If empathy can expand one’s in-group to include the natural world and the human family (Reysen and Katzarska-Miller, 2018), then participation can occur at a range of levels from the local to global, creating a sense of global membership. Through this project, I developed a new skill set that had not been included in my previous professional development as a science teacher. These skills in socio-emotional learning would be vital heading into the 2021-2022 academic year.

Photo credit: Millbrook School

Infusing environmental stewardship education with global citizenship (Fall 2020)

I wrote and published a 50-page series of interactive case studies, as a model for how global citizenship learning objectives can be used to infuse local stewardship education (available here). The storytelling-style text immersed readers in the conservation success story of the indigenous Maijuna of Peru through vignettes, multimedia extensions, interdisciplinary connections, reflective and research questions, and citizen science applications. The citizen science projects took place in a canopy walkway, pollinator garden, and marsh boardwalk. These solution-oriented materials created a rich picture that put human faces to abstract problems and went well beyond oversimplified facts and figures. Pessimism was replaced by urgency and a compelling call to collective action that inspired readers to join a global effort to better steward the places we call home. Importantly, these materials didn’t ask students to directly fix complex international problems, which can be alienating, disempowering, and overwhelming (Burningham & Thrush 2001; Sobel 1996). Similarly, the materials avoided the problematic pattern around the global north attempting to unilaterally solve problems in the global south (Yanniris, 2021). Rather, the materials offered stories from across the globe to spark a deeper understanding of one’s own place in a new context. This exposure allowed students to return their gaze inward toward themselves and their community in an effort to recover and re-story their own landscape in the context of the collective question— “how can we learn our way toward sustainability” (Cameron 2007)? All told, stewardship practices around place-making and place-meaning (Kudryavtsev 2012) served to move global issues out of abstraction and into vivid, illuminated, and meaningful connections, creating a sense of planet (Heise 2008), expanding the notion of place to the planetary level. Twenty first-century stewardship education reimagines and re-situates teaching and learning to incorporate multiscalar motivations without losing its power at the local level. 

Given that not all students can travel to Peru to directly interact with the Maijuna, the case study series provided a medium for intercultural engagement with the hope of creating a bridge to connect across cultures, places, and worldviews. The multiple dimensions of the case studies, incorporating both content and process, cognitive and affective engagement, reflection and dialogue, were designed to catalyze collective action (Maxwell et al., 2011).  

At this time, I received IRB approval to collect qualitative and quantitative data to understand learning outcomes pertaining to environmental stewardship and global citizenship. I delivered these case studies in high school science elective courses over 3 semesters. I gathered formal student feedback, qualitatively analyzed student responses, recorded classroom observations, and delivered a pre- and post-survey in an effort to understand learning outcomes and further refine these learning materials for subsequent semesters. In short, this pilot semester suggested that many students had a transformative experience, as students described their increased awareness, multidimensional understanding of complex issues, intention to take action, and increased identity as environmental stewards and global citizens. This process honed my ability to listen to and observe students, and to adjust my approach based on their engagement, feedback, and portfolios of work.

Read more about Ava's experience with hands-on science teaching and learning here and here (page 18). 

Case study support materials (Summer 2021) 

These materials and findings were shared with teachers through the workshops mentioned below.

An Introduction to the Natural World: A program evaluation to assess environmental stewardship (Fall 2021) 

In order to gain experience with pre- and post-surveys, I performed a quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness of a different program involving environmental stewardship. This program was a high school outdoor education program titled, “Introduction to the Natural World” (INW). The pre- and post-survey was composed of four anonymous, validated, and reliable psychometric tools- Inclusion with Nature, Nature Relatedness Scale, Environmental Stewardship Index, and  Learning Activities Survey (Cartwright and Mitten, 2018; Salazar et al., 2020). Inclusion with Nature (Schultz, 2002) and Nature Relatedness Scale (Nisbet et al, 2009) were intended to measure the attitudinal domain of environmental literacy (Bissinger and Bogner, 2018). Both tools assessed connection to nature, which is considered a precursor of pro-environmental behavior and actions (Kleespies et al., 2021; Roczen et al., 2014). The Environmental Stewardship Index was intended to measure the behavioral domain of environmental literacy (Stern et al., 2008). I also used the Learning Activities Survey to examine transformative learning (King, 2009).

Results revealed that students did not make significant gains in the outcomes of interest, suggesting that INW was not associated with significant increases in student scores pertaining to two domains of environmental literacy-- environmental attitudes and behaviors. These results informed an evaluation of the program’s strengths, challenges, and future opportunities in an effort to learn from past efforts and initiate an iterative process of growth toward fulfilling the program’s mission and goals.

I performed this study to further engage with the literature surrounding place-based education, transformative learning, and environmental stewardship. Additionally, I gained skills in survey delivery, data management, and statistical analysis. I used the four surveys mentioned above plus a global citizenship survey (Reysen and Katzarska-Miller, 2013) in a similar analysis of the case study series. After two semesters of seeing no changes in the pre- and post-survey before and after the case study series, the Fall of 2021 analysis in fact revealed statistically significant changes, using these metrics. However, my sample size was very small (10 students) and would need to be replicated at other schools with more students and different teachers to be more meaningful.

I shared the case study research project in two professional development webinars hosted by the Morpho Institute and participated in a panel discussion for World Rainforest Day about education for Amazon conservation. These events were opportunities to share evidence-based teaching methods and materials to support students in their pursuit of 21st-century stewardship. 

The body of work described in this portfolio was distilled in a formal scientific paper and is under review with the Journal of Environmental Education Research. This paper offered the concept of 21st-century stewardship to the scientific community and focused on a qualitative analysis of students' responses to the simple, yet powerful, final prompt of the case studies– I used to think; Now I think. This publication showed leadership by offering a fresh perspective on the invaluable and longstanding fields of environmental stewardship and global citizenship education. Results of this study suggested a trajectory beyond knowledge comprehension and toward empowered action, progressing from a cognitive understanding to behavioral shifts in students. 

There is a meta story to be told that gets to the universals through the specifics. This story is about the people and places most vulnerable to today’s rapid socio-ecological changes and their resilience and fortitude. This story and the lessons it holds can be translated to students through innovative curricular materials. To this end, a case study series on the Indigenous Maijuna’s conservation success story was developed and shared with high school students. These learning materials were the culmination of my personal experience in the Tropics dating back to age 14 and professional expertise as an educator spanning a decade. To be able to share that experience with students and other teachers was rewarding and empowering.  

Student feedback has always been foundational to my craft as a teacher. However, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of learning outcomes pertaining to the case studies supported a new level of professional growth. They allowed me to pursue a clear target, supported meaningful reflections, and have a point of comparison for iterative changes to my approach over time. All together, this has allowed me to understand my students in a new way and see their learning in greater clarity.

From this process, the concept of 21st-century stewardship took shape. This approach reimagines teaching and learning to incorporate multiscalar motivations without losing its power at the local level through place attachment. Through 21st-century stewardship, students come to intimately know their place in the world, alongside far off places, as a node nested in a global-change community of stewards. Merging multi-culturalism and place-based education through global citizenship and environmental stewardship provided a unique opportunity to leverage the strengths of both approaches. Place-based education’s stewardship practices serve to move global issues out of abstraction and into vivid, illuminated, and meaningful connectedness. 

My master’s program through Miami University’s Global Field Program allowed me to connect my professional experience and teaching practice to its theoretical underpinnings. Through coursework and independent projects, I became both the researcher and the practitioner. The feedback between these two roles expanded my abilities and gave me a clear sense of purpose— to inspire learners to become environmental stewards and global citizens. My previously stand-alone units were connected through one driving purpose, and my separate place-based activities merged through a new social and global dimension. My quantitative and qualitative analysis suggested that student learning experiences had a transformative impact, as their identities shifted toward local stewards and global citizens. In retrospect, there is no doubt that this experience had an inspirational and transformative impact on me as well. In short, I found my voice as a writer and educator in a way that helped others find theirs. 

(Photo credit: Millbrook School)
Listen to a series of student quotations from the case study's final prompt, "I used to think...Now I think" in this video. 

I would like to thank the Maijuna community for sharing their story with me and so many others. Thank you also to OnePlanet and the Morpho Institute. I would especially like to extend acknowledge Brian Griffiths, Michael Gilmore and Elizabeth Benson from OnePlanet for their leadership in community-based biocultural conservation, as well as Christa Dillabaugh, Nancy Trautman, and Kelly Keena from the Morpho Institute for their dedication to rainforest education and stewardship.