Discoveries for wellbeing in and with the Project EXPLORE community
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Jennifer Knight (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Callie Schultz
Abstract: Project EXPLORE (PEX) is a nature-based learning (NBL) program designed by the NC Arboretum to help North Carolina K–12 teachers implement community or citizen science-based curricula in their classrooms. Teachers in the program receive materials and on-site coaching to facilitate the NBL curricula. PEX and similar programs are part of ongoing efforts to reconnect youth with the natural environment through formal curriculum initiatives (Jordan & Chawla, 2019; Williams & Dixon, 2013). Despite successes, many real and perceived barriers prevent the broader adoption of nature-based learning (NBL) in public education systems (Oberle et al., 2021; Waite, 2020). Teachers’ lack of confidence has been identified as critical to mainstream implementation (Jordan & Chawla, 2019). Furthermore, classroom stress and teacher attrition are symptoms of a crisis in teacher wellbeing, factors that negatively impact students (Lever et al., 2017). This study queries whether eacher stress and burnout may be mitigated by the same positive outcomes of NBL that students experience—like improved student-teacher relationships (Toropova et al., 2021), emotional regulation (Williams & Dixon, 2013), and enhanced motivation (Dettweiler et al., 2017). Few studies take teachers’ wellbeing or their perceptions of nature-based stress management into account. This study considers whether more teachers might incorporate NBL practices if we promoted outdoor education as much for teachers’ wellbeing as for students’. The purpose of this study is to explore how participating in PEX impacts teachers’ “wellbeing.” We specifically investigate how participating in Project EXPLORE impacts teacher wellbeing and what Project EXPLORE experiences teachers associate with their sense of wellbeing. Informed by critical feminist theory, we used an amended two-part collective memory work (CMW) design. The collaborative process of CMW centers individual experience and reality while locating these within societal and cultural contexts (Johnson, 2018). We invited all 200+ former PEX participants to share a short video narrative about a memory of the program’s impact on their wellbeing. Three teachers responded with videos and chose to participate as co-researchers in the focus group. As with traditional CMW, co-researchers analyzed the video diary entries for meaning. The group discussed ways PEX supported identity development, self-actualization, student-teacher relationships, and importantly, was a powerful tool for self-liberation within a neoliberal school context. The co-researchers elected for the results to be presented in a short video format.
Discoveries for wellbeing in and with the Project EXPLORE community
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Created on 2/1/2024
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2024
- Keywords
- Collective Memory Work, Nature-based Learning, Project EXPLORE, Teacher stress, Teacher Wellbeing
- Subjects
- Outdoor education
- Teachers
- Public schools
- Well-being
- Stress management