Appropriateness and use of civic engagement, advocacy, and behavior change techniques in environmental education across the United States

Abstract

Recent research suggests that many environmental education (EE) programs for youth in the United States focus on meeting educational standards rather than using civic engagement and advocacy techniques to promote environmental literacy. We distributed a survey to members of several EE organizations to identify which civic engagement, advocacy, and behavior change techniques a sample of EE providers feel are appropriate to use for youth at different developmental stages (grades 4–5, grades 6–8, and grades 9–12), as well as the extent to which they use them. Educators rated many techniques as less appropriate and were less likely to use them with younger age groups. We also conducted an appropriateness/use analysis to identify techniques that were deemed highly appropriate but were not used as often. The techniques related to civic engagement and advocacy for diversity, equity, and inclusion appeared underutilized. Implications of these findings for policy and practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• environmental education
• civic engagement
• advocacy
• behavior change
• pedagogy
• youth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The funding for the study was provided by the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM Education program (DRL 1906610).