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National Environmental Education Advancement Project
Toward De-Mystifying "EE Capacity Building"
by Abby Ruskey, co-Director, NEEAP
Taken from RockEE News (Summer 1999)
I find it ironic that at the same time that this country has a proud legacy of environmental awareness and protection, it also has an education system full of barriers for those who wish to teach quality environmental education throughout the curriculum. Those who provide professional development in EE, or publish curriculum and other EE resources know that this is not because there is a lack of interest among educators; in fact many school teachers and nonformal educators are simply "nuts" about environmental education.
I first came into contact with this reality while serving as National K-12 Coordinator for Earth Day 1990. Within six months of being open, the Earth Day office had over 5,000 unsolicited requests from teachers for curriculum materials and activities for their classrooms. My desk was piled high with letters and phone messages from educators requesting EE materials for use in their schools and centers. To say that the tone of many of these messages was "desperate" is no over exaggeration. One teacher from south-central Texas summed it up for everyone else, "We want to teach in and about the environment, but we have resistance from administrators, no funds for field trips, no room in our schedules, no EE curriculum to teach from, and no teacher training opportunities to improve by. Anything you can provide will make a big difference." This comment has stuck with me through the years and has been a barometer against which I compare our progress in building capacity for EE.
What is this term "EE capacity building" and what is it doing to further environmental literacy? For some, EE capacity building represents the second most significant trend in the history of the field of EE. The first was the development of an internationally agreed upon set of goals for EE and the impressive body of objectives, guidelines, materials, programs and research that followed. As I worked to develop Earth Day K-12 curriculum for teachers, others met to find avenues of support for environmental education in both formal and nonformal educational arenas. One important meeting took place here in the Rocky Mountain states. The first Snowmass Summit on Education, Wildlife and the Environment was held in 1990 in Colorado and was a national gathering of the chiefs of state natural resource and education agencies and environmental education leaders. A keynote speaker at this summit, Jay Hair, then President of the National Wildlife Federation stated, "We have ten to fifteen years to make some fundamental changes in the way we go about the process of living on this earth in order to have any expectation of saving the global life support systems two or three centuries from now. The only way that goal is ever going to be reached is through a new, inspired level of environmental education."
This statement was not only timely but representative of the sense of urgency and the need for networking and organization felt by many of those working in the EE field. Many people committed to teaching EE —including K-12 teachers, naturalists, college and university professors, EE specialists in state and federal agencies, education personnel in conservation organizations and sustainable businesses, along with others—knew they were making a positive impact on individual students and teachers, but questioned whether or not this was enough. How was this "new, inspired level of EE" Jay Hair referred to going to be achieved? How were students and citizens not exposed to EE programs going to be reached? How could high quality EE be incorporated throughout the curriculum and educational programs? In this sea of questions there was one certainty; by working in isolation, those committed to EE were not going to achieve our common goal of an environmentally literate citizenry.
In order to become more organized as a field several efforts got underway in the early 1990’s. The National Wildlife Federation funded a nation-wide study of effective state and local EE programs and this led to the creation of the National EE Advancement Project (NEEAP). State EE associations that were affiliates of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) began meeting together and mobilizing around issues of mutual concern. The State Education and Environment Roundtable (SEER) formed and provided a forum for EE specialists in education agencies. All of these efforts and others were built upon and supported through existing networks such as Project Learning Tree (PLT), Project WILD, and NAAEE. In 1995 a consortium of 12 national EE organizations called the EE and Training Partnership (EETAP) was formed and funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
As might be imagined, all efforts listed above have intersected and produced impressive results including more synergy, access to resources, quality control, and organizational capacity for EE. Across the U.S., state, local and national organizations have become much more networked and have produced far reaching capacity building resources such as the NAAEE Guidelines for Excellence, SEER’s Environment as an Integrating Context workshops, and the NEEAP/NAAEE Leadership Clinics. Recent research by NEEAP shows that since 1995, state EE programs have grown. In 1995 there were 263 state-level EE initiatives (such as EE grants programs, EE trust funds, EE centers, preservice EE teacher training, etc.) in place and by 1998 there were 327. Indeed, the underpinnings of a coordinated and effective EE field are coming together, but we’re not out of the woods yet.
According to Jay Hair’s timeline we have approximately six more years to achieve a "new, inspired level of EE". By joining up with efforts like those listed below you can channel your enthusiasm for environmental education into the growing network of EE capacity building organizations and individuals. Through our combined efforts we will achieve environmental literacy and preserve our global life support systems. Here’s how you can help:
1. Join your state EE association. If you haven’t joined yet, now is the time to make that commitment. Your state EE associations needs your support if only in membership (if you can be an active member, all the better). Take your passion for EE and focus it on the one organization in your state that is there to serve EE professionals and lead the way toward stronger EE programs. Help your organization grow and develop, get others to join too. Contact NAAEE below if you don’t know who to contact in your state.
2. Join your national EE organization, the North American Association for Environmental Education. Like your state EE association, NAAEE needs your membership and your input. The Affiliates partnership is working on a way to have reciprocal membership between NAAEE and the state EE associations. Until then, please support both if possible. You’ll be informed about and connected to capacity building efforts if you join-up. http://www.naaee.org
3. Stay involved with efforts like the Rocky Mountain States initiative. The RMS effort takes EE capacity building to a new level by providing leadership clinics, newsletters, mentor state support and other services to more EE practitioners working at the state and local level in EE. Become part of the growing EE capacity building network.
4. Contact organizations like NEEAP (715-346-4748, neeap@uwsp.edu, http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/neeap) and NAAEE (202-884-8821, cclevela@smtp.aed.org, http://www.naaee.org) if you need organizational and leadership development support services. Our organizations exist to provide these services specifically to the EE field. We have developed many helpful resources in partnership with EE practitioners at the local, state and national levels.
5. Visit EE-Link (http://eelink.net) and Ed Gateway (http://www.edgateway.net) to find out about resources and opportunities in the field of EE. EdGateway has started pages that are interactive and give you a chance to voice your thoughts on important initiatives in the field of EE. Through these sites, you can get contact information for any of the organizations mentioned above and much more!
A Capacity Building Recipe for Achieving Environmental Literacy
1. Mix together two parts personal passion for EE with two parts strategic planning and a dash of organizational and leadership skill development for a strong "sustainable EE mortar" (e.g.: your EE association or other EE capacity building organization).
2. Use this mortar to cement together the building blocks of an effective EE program at the state and local level.
(Optional ingredients at the state level---these components vary from state to state: training in EE for teacher candidates, EE grants program, inservice EE teacher training, EE advisory board, EE master plan, state and regional resource centers for EE, environmental literacy assessments, EE model schools programs, K-12 curriculum instruction requirement, EE curriculum standards, EE interagency committee, EE resource guides/networks, and more…)
(Optional ingredients at the local level---these components vary from community to community: network of local EE facilities, staff and programs; K-12 EE scope and sequence plans; EE model schools; locally developed EE curriculum; parent/community EE programs; local EE resource center; local EE advisory committee; community EE board of directors; EE coordinator and staff, and more…)
3. Once your state and local EE program foundation is complete, enjoy the results of increased environmental literacy as EE practitioners at all levels are supported and have access to resources. For maximum results, continue to mix and apply batches of "sustainable EE mortar" to new EE building blocks.