In recent years, as globalization has taken a toll on North Americans’ “sense of place,” there has been a swelling interest in the identification of bioregions: spaces delineated by their natural borders and shaped by the cultures that arise within them. Bioregionalism, the movement that arose from this scalar shift, emphasizes the “reinhabitation” of bioregions through a deep understanding and attachment between residents and their watershed and habitat. This thesis argues for a shift to bioregional-scale environmental governance in the Cascadian bioregion (the Pacific Northwest) via an interstate compact. Using the Great Lakes bioregion as a comparable case study, this thesis goes on to examine the effects of neoliberalization on two resulting cross-border institutions, the Great Lakes Commission and the Council of the Great Lakes Region. It ultimately concludes that a shared ecological identity is imperative for preserving the ethos of bioregionalism in future policymaking, rather than just the scale. In an effort to create a tangible path towards the shaping of this identity, a communications framework is presented. Based on lessons from the Great Lakes case studies, this framework utilizes “condensation symbols” and the “triple appeals principle” as possible tools for Cascadian activists to leverage moving forward.

In trying to understand ecological identity within adult environmental education, I embarked on an arts-informed exploration of my life history. I realized that everything I know about the environment grew from what I experienced as a child. My childhood experiences are most vivid in my memories of the natural world. I wanted to know more about the relationship between childhood experiences and ecological identity. Based on a personal transformation, and journey toward restoring awareness of the senses and how we know as human beings, I chose my life as the focus of this research. Had my childhood experiences influenced how I relate to the environment? How had they done that? What was it about those childhood experiences? This thesis is the culmination of my inquiry. It is my story and an offering to travel with me to my childhood and make sense of your own experiences in the natural world.

In trying to understand ecological identity within adult environmental education, I embarked on an arts-informed exploration of my life history. I realized that everything I know about the environment grew from what I experienced as a child. My childhood experiences are most vivid in my memories of the natural world. I wanted to know more about the relationship between childhood experiences and ecological identity. Based on a personal transformation, and journey toward restoring awareness of the senses and how we know as human beings, I chose my life as the focus of this research. Had my childhood experiences influenced how I relate to the environment? How had they done that? What was it about those childhood experiences? This thesis is the culmination of my inquiry. It is my story and an offering to travel with me to my childhood and make sense of your own experiences in the natural world.

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By asking, “Is Circle (also known as “council”) an effective methodology for environmental education?”, this thesis explores the significance of creating Circles of learning as a communication process with implications for environmental education and personal transformation. From a phenomenological perspective, I have positioned my research as an autobiographical narrative of what it is to be both researcher (observer) and research instrument (facilitator & participant) as well as creating the conditions for a case study of Circle participants. Further, I held interviews with Circle practitioners and instructors. The premise of Circle is to create an intentional listening space for each person to have a voice and be witnessed as they tell their stories. This paper provides some insight here, and explores how Circle can become an effective means of exploring ecological identity, self-awareness, relationship-building, a sense of community, emotional connections to nature and a sense of wonder within the process.

I explore how recreational canoeists develop sense of place developed and ecological identity through experience. The intersection between artefact and narrative is the entry-point of exploration of understandings of how recreational canoeists learn through experiences. There are three structural elements. A factional narrative arc of a canoe trip frames the work. Fragments of collective narratives: weave into this story and add richness and depth of experience. Participants’ interwoven narratives form the second element of this work. Finally, footnotes underpin this text to explain and support the research. They emerge to reflect the complexity of telling, and understanding, experience. This is a story of stories. This is a story of a trip that never happened. It holds real participants’ narratives based in lived experiences that shape this story. Narratives emerge between artefact and experience, between experience and ecological identity, between ecological identity and place, and between place and story.

I explore how recreational canoeists develop sense of place developed and ecological identity through experience. The intersection between artefact and narrative is the entry-point of exploration of understandings of how recreational canoeists learn through experiences. There are three structural elements. A factional narrative arc of a canoe trip frames the work. Fragments of collective narratives: weave into this story and add richness and depth of experience. Participants’ interwoven narratives form the second element of this work. Finally, footnotes underpin this text to explain and support the research. They emerge to reflect the complexity of telling, and understanding, experience. This is a story of stories. This is a story of a trip that never happened. It holds real participants’ narratives based in lived experiences that shape this story. Narratives emerge between artefact and experience, between experience and ecological identity, between ecological identity and place, and between place and story.

This arts-informed, phenomenological, and heuristic inquiry focuses on what it means to immerse deeply into experiences within the natural world. Through attention and reflection on emotional and somatic aspects of my own ocean SCUBA diving experiences, and those of beginner and practiced divers, a method and the significance of learning through personal experiences and others’ shared stories is illuminated. Readers are invited to imagine or revisit what it is like to be enveloped by ocean life through an artful narrative account of the ocean diving experience. Crafted in meandering ways, through the aesthetics of photographic images, divers’ evocative descriptions and poetic text, and interspersed with remembrances and imaginations and contemplations of self and world, the narrative reflects the diversity, richness and resonance of divers’ shared stories, and the reverberating and nurturing beauty and mystery of the ocean world. Through five narrative sections that embody a sense of movement deeper into the experience – into relations with the natural world, (‘Immersing’ ‘Opening Pathways of Exploration’, ‘Widening Circles of Compassion’, ‘Nature Reveals Her Open Secret’ and ‘Surfacing’), I encourage readers to wander amongst ocean life to expand ways of experiencing the natural world. It is important to look for new, creative ways that allow space for explorations of self and world, to uncover new ways to reconcile both the mind-body connection as well as the human-nature connection. This inquiry brings the notion of connectedness with nature to the forefront as humans’ alienation from the natural world is recognized as a significant contributor to the present ecological crisis. The exploration of ocean experiences was also a search for ways to encourage and sustain a lifelong inquiry into the relations with the non-human world as a way to continually build and reinforce a strong bond with the natural world for psychological, social and ecological wellbeing. The immersive nature of research methods and representation illuminated how ocean life and artful expressions of remembrances and imaginations build lasting impressions, further adding vitality to what is perceived in both aquatic and terrestrial worlds – enhancing a sense of connectedness with the natural world.

This arts-informed, phenomenological, and heuristic inquiry focuses on what it means to immerse deeply into experiences within the natural world. Through attention and reflection on emotional and somatic aspects of my own ocean SCUBA diving experiences, and those of beginner and practiced divers, a method and the significance of learning through personal experiences and others’ shared stories is illuminated. Readers are invited to imagine or revisit what it is like to be enveloped by ocean life through an artful narrative account of the ocean diving experience. Crafted in meandering ways, through the aesthetics of photographic images, divers’ evocative descriptions and poetic text, and interspersed with remembrances and imaginations and contemplations of self and world, the narrative reflects the diversity, richness and resonance of divers’ shared stories, and the reverberating and nurturing beauty and mystery of the ocean world. Through five narrative sections that embody a sense of movement deeper into the experience – into relations with the natural world, (‘Immersing’ ‘Opening Pathways of Exploration’, ‘Widening Circles of Compassion’, ‘Nature Reveals Her Open Secret’ and ‘Surfacing’), I encourage readers to wander amongst ocean life to expand ways of experiencing the natural world. It is important to look for new, creative ways that allow space for explorations of self and world, to uncover new ways to reconcile both the mind-body connection as well as the human-nature connection. This inquiry brings the notion of connectedness with nature to the forefront as humans’ alienation from the natural world is recognized as a significant contributor to the present ecological crisis. The exploration of ocean experiences was also a search for ways to encourage and sustain a lifelong inquiry into the relations with the non-human world as a way to continually build and reinforce a strong bond with the natural world for psychological, social and ecological wellbeing. The immersive nature of research methods and representation illuminated how ocean life and artful expressions of remembrances and imaginations build lasting impressions, further adding vitality to what is perceived in both aquatic and terrestrial worlds – enhancing a sense of connectedness with the natural world.

The purpose of this study is to better understand how the natural environment influences who we have become as adults. Recognizing the importance of childhood experiences, with and within nature, the intent of this study is to interpret the essential meanings associated with these experiences and how these, in turn, are situated in our beliefs and relationship with nature. The targeted respondents for the study were all K-12 educators teaching in schools in Central California. The driving research question is stated as In what ways do childhood experiences with and within the natural environment impact who we are as adults? Three sub-questions were also explored: What personal meanings are associated with childhood memories and experiences of being with and within the natural environment? In what ways do individuals assimilate childhood experiences of the natural environment into their adult beliefs about their relationship with nature? In what ways does the exploration of early childhood nature experiences affect the decision to become environmental advocates? Moustakas' (1990) six-stage heuristic inquiry process was adhered to. The initial data collection began within myself, the researcher. Aspects of the experience, which became the collected data by means of conversations with co-researchers, journal writing, and other personal documents, were filtered by way of my own self-inquiry, sense of eco-literacy and experience with my childhood experiences with and within the natural environment. From the organization and analysis I have derived the essential elements of the experience. Nature as the common denominator, Nature awakens inner passions, Nature as lived through a relational awareness, Nature experiences support and guide our every day lives, and Nature stimulates a child's potential were the key thematic elements that embraced my own experience and that of my co-researchers.