Environmental education (EE) programs strive to develop an environmentally literate citizenry capable of addressing the world's environmental problems. However, environmental concerns have become increasingly politically polarizing. As middle school-age youth are developing their own identities, they are likely becoming aware of the dominant political attitudes and environmental messages within their own communities. This thesis investigates the influence of sociopolitical context on student learning outcomes following participation in EE field trips and whether particular approaches produce more positive learning outcomes for students from different contexts. We used a quantitative approach employing pre-existing databases and geographic information systems to create measures of sociopolitical context for each school in our sample based on political partisanship and socioeconomic status. I have organized my research in three chapters: Chapter 1 presents a more comprehensive introduction to the field of EE and extended literature review regarding the question this research intends to address. Chapter 2 presents a quantitative study exploring the influence of sociopolitical context on student outcomes following participation in an EE field trip. Chapter 3 presents a reflection of my graduate learning experience and what I hope to achieve in the future. Results suggest that EE field experiences lead to less positive outcomes for students from wealthier Democratic contexts. While we also found some differences in program characteristics associated with outcomes for each sociopolitical subgroup, effect sizes were small and thus warrant further investigation. We discuss potential explanations for these trends and call for further research on the influence of sociopolitical context and socioeconomic status with relation to EE. / Master of Science / Environmental education (EE) programs strive to develop an environmentally literate future citizenry capable of addressing the world's most pressing environmental problems. However, these environmental concerns have becoming increasingly political polarized in recent decades. As adolescence is a critical period for identity development, middle school-age youth are likely aware of the political attitudes and environmental messages that dominate within their own communities. This thesis investigates the influence of sociopolitical context on student learning outcomes following participation in EE field trips and whether particular approaches to EE produce more positive learning outcomes for students from these different contexts. We used a quantitative approach employing pre-existing databases and geographic information systems to create measures of sociopolitical context for each school in our sample based on the political partisanship of a particular geographic area, as well as its interaction with socioeconomic status. Results suggest that EE field experiences lead to less positive outcomes for students from wealthier Democratic contexts; however, the authors call for further research on which approaches lead to better outcomes for students from different contexts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/110318 |
| Date | 24 May 2022 |
| Creators | Thorpe, Emily Grace |
| Contributors | Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Stern, Marc J., Bell, Shannon Elizabeth, Powell, Robert B. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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