Perspectives on Environmental Curriculum

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Perspectives on Environmental Curriculum

• Will Focht, Director
• Environmental Institute and
• Environmental Science Graduate Program
• Oklahoma State University
• Summit on Environment Studies
• UC Santa Barbara, February 2006

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Academic Discipline

• Definitional Elements
• Branch of knowledge that is formally taught and
  recognized by the academic journals in which
  research is published, and the learned societies
  to which their practitioners belong
• A subject area with distinct research methods,
  terminology, and styles of communication
• A canon that defines the field and its boundaries
• Is ES a discipline, a disciplinary combination,
  or an integrated meta-discipline?

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CEDD Study on Perspectives

• Revealed using Q methodology
• Obtain concourse of statements
• Sort in quasi-normal distribution
• From high negative salience through low salience
  to high positive salience
• Factor analyze sorts to reveal common
  perspectives
• Three orthogonal perspectives found

4
Consensus Areas

• Pragmatic Realism
• Environmental problems are both natural and
  sociopolitical (at the interface of society and
  nature)
• Solutions require multiple disciplinary
  approaches within fuzzy boundaries
• Tailoring to institutional strengths is necessary
• Science and technology are necessary but not
  sufficient
• Perspectives are different but not opposing

5
Environmental Citizen Perspective

• Orientation informed span
• Transformation through an increase in
  environmental awareness and scientific literacy
  (curricular infusion)
• Favors
• Inclusion of social science, humanities skills
  courses with natural science in a
  transdisciplinary curriculum
• Disfavors
• Professional orientation, certifications,
  undergraduate tracking, boundaries,
  individualized curricula, and client involvement
• Dominant among undergraduate liberal arts
  institutions with environmental studies programs

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Environmental Problem Solver Perspective

• Orientation applied span
• Systems-focused training, complex
  problem-solving, and professional development
• Favors
• Breadth over depth, institutionally tailored
  cores, program flexibility to deal with changing
  needs, internships, and client responsiveness
• Disfavors
• Deep disciplinary strength, boundaries, universal
  core
• Doctoral/research institutions dominate

7
Environmental Scientist Perspective

• Orientation monolith
• Anchor in a natural science discipline (more
  likely to be housed in departments)
• Favors
• Universal core grounded in natural sciences and
  engineering, boundaries, certification,
  accreditation
• Disfavors
• Breadth over depth, emphasis in social
  science/humanities, accommodation of all students
• Dominant among masters institutions

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Varimax Rotation Plot (AB)
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Judgmental Rotation Plot (A' B')
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Environmental Integrator Perspective

• Orientation span
• Synthesis of natural social sciences and
  humanities is important to understanding
  society-nature interactions
• Favors
• Breadth over depth, institutionally tailored
  cores, uncertainty measurement and reporting
• Disfavors
• Undergrad tracking, universal core, certification
  guidelines
• Dominant among both undergraduate and doctoral
  institutions

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Responsive Professional versus Science Literate
Perspectives

• Bipolar Disagreements
• Breadth versus depth, program structuring, client
  involvement
• Responsive Professional Orientation fixed
  span
• Broad preparation for varied and changing
  professional demands but with program structure
• boundaries, universal core, certification and
  accreditation, and client involvement
• Science Literate Orientation variable column
• Strong natural science foundation tailored to
  institutional constraints individual student
  needs

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Perspectival Groupings

• Monoliths Environmental Scientist
• Universal natural science core
• Columnists Science Literate
• Flexible natural science core
• Spanners Environmental Integrator
• Environmental Citizen (informed spanner)
• Awareness and responsible action
• Environmental Problem Solver (applied spanner)
• Applied systems focus
• Responsive Professional (fixed spanner)
• Structured program professional orientation

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One Size Fits All?

• Room for All
• All programs need not conform to same model
• We need monoliths, columns, and spans

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