Enhancing 4DEE ecology education through the development and implementation of human-centered, place-based pedagogy to broaden the diversity of ecologists

Carmen R. Cid, Biology, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT and Maria N. Miriti, Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH

Background/Question/Methods
The Ecological Society of America-endorsed four-dimensional ecology education curricular framework (4DEE) includes a goal to elevate the human dimension in ecology pedagogy. An important component of the human dimension is the diversity of ecologists. The RCN-UNIDE, Undergraduate Network for Increasing Diversity of Ecologists, established in 2020 and comprised of ecologists, social scientists and educators, aims to address how cultural and social barriers impact human diversity in ecology and environmental disciplines (EE). Our approach builds from recent efforts in pedagogy and scientific communication that challenge “deficit” approaches to diversity enhancement because they do not address cultural and social barriers that contribute to the isolation and marginalization that is documented to reduce diverse retention in STEM academic programs. Our first-year objective is to conduct focus groups to investigate the personal stories, shared experiences and narratives of ethnically diverse STEM students and environmental professionals to identify the extent to which culturally value-laden concepts are foundational in EE. Here we share how the five-year UNIDE network can facilitate implementation of 4DEE pedagogy by contributing data on best practices to attract and retain diverse student populations.
Results/Conclusions
Several elements of the four 4DEE dimensions are synergistic with UNIDE’s framework. These include integrating social justice with environmental research in human-environment interactions, connecting students’ field research experiences to their cultural ways of knowing, promoting project-based learning with diverse student teams, and focusing on student communication skills needed for co-production of environmental knowledge with diverse human communities. We share how these synergisms can enhance the citizen science efforts in conservation and restoration initiatives, and promote more socially equitable access to natural resources and ecosystem services. UNIDE’s focus group data will be incorporated in strategies to improve ecology curricula to aid in multicultural expansion of the 4DEE course and program transformations to build comfort, connection, confidence and capacity in all students. UNIDE network’s interdisciplinary approach can further test and refine ESA 4DEE multidimensional emphasis in the development of pedagogical materials that attract diverse students into EE career exploration. Both 4DEE and RCN-UNIDE face challenges in getting a broad group of faculty to modify the traditional ways of teaching ecology, which often excludes integration of the human dimension. Integrating UNIDE with 4DEE working groups can increase the number of human-centered, place-based case studies known to facilitate increasing diversity of environmental professionals. Collaboration will facilitate building a community of practice that integrates the social sciences in ecology pedagogy.