• Home
  • Search
  • Overlooked pathways into ecology and implications for representation, identity, and retention: A focus group analysis
  • https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70625Copy DOI Icon

Overlooked pathways into ecology and implications for representation, identity, and retention: A focus group analysis

Show More
  • Abstract
  • Literature Map
  • References
  • Similar Papers
Abstract

Abstract This research seeks to develop pedagogical approaches that shift away from “deficit” approaches to broadening participation in Ecology and Environmental Science (E&ES) higher education. Rather than emphasizing what underrepresented populations lack in E&ES awareness and experience, this “anti‐deficit” approach focuses on institutional barriers and student strengths. To inform strategies to broaden participation, we conducted focus groups to assess individual sense of belonging in E&ES fields. The focus groups were designed to investigate personal stories, shared experiences, and narratives of how individuals became practitioners in E&ES fields or not. Our 10 focus groups totaled 36 participants and included individuals typically represented and those underrepresented in E&ES based on ethnicity or race. Although outdoor experiences are frequently acknowledged as formative for developing an ecological identity, our analysis revealed additional pathways through which underrepresented students cultivated ecological identity. The less acknowledged pathways we highlight in this paper are subsistence/rural upbringing, personal experience with environmental change and disasters, and shifts in the generational zeitgeist around environmental care. In addition to identifying overlooked pathways for developing a connection with nature, we found that students' decisions about whether to choose ecology as a career pathway or not are influenced by their perceptions of whether ecological sciences embrace human–nature interactions, attend to issues of representation and identity, and put communities and care for others at their center. We conclude with implications for recruitment and retention in ecology and environmental fields.

Similar Papers
  • Research Article
  • Citations6

Medical and surgical nurses' experiences of modifying and implementing contextually suitable Safewards interventions into medical and surgical hospital wards.

  • Feb 27, 2024
  • Journal of advanced nursing
  • Lauretta Luck +4
  • PDF
  • Research Article
  • Citations2

2444 Development of an instrument to identify factors influencing point of care recruitment in primary care settings: A pilot study at University of Utah Health

  • Jun 01, 2018
  • Journal of Clinical and Translational Science
  • Teresa Taft +3
  • Abstract

Nutrition Experiences and Perceptions of Newly Arrived Youth

  • Jun 30, 2016
  • Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
  • Lauren Sastre +1
  • Research Article
  • Citations75

Contrasting Internet and Face-to-Face Focus Groups for Children with Chronic Health Conditions: Outcomes and Participant Experiences

  • Mar 01, 2010
  • International Journal of Qualitative Methods
  • David B Nicholas +8
  • Front Matter
  • Citations40

Chemical sclerochronology

  • Jun 19, 2019
  • Chemical Geology
  • David P Gillikin +2
  • Dissertation

Entrepreneurial Leadership in Higher Education: Does the Presidential Career Pathway Make a Difference? - WITHDRAWN

  • Dec 01, 2013
  • Phillip Daniel Byrne
  • Research Article
  • Citations14

Latino and Indochinese interpretive frames in negotiating conflict with law enforcement: a focus group analysis

  • Sep 01, 2002
  • International Journal of Intercultural Relations
  • Mitchell R Hammer +1
  • PDF
  • Research Article
  • Citations11

Evaluation of a longitudinal digital citizen science initiative to understand the impact of culture on Indigenous youth mental health: Findings from a quasi-experimental qualitative study.

  • Dec 21, 2023
  • PloS one
  • Susannah Walker +3
  • Research Article
  • Citations315

Focus groups as social enactments: integrating interaction and content in the analysis of focus group data

  • Feb 01, 2010
  • Qualitative Research
  • Bente Halkier
  • Research Article
  • Citations4

Qualitative Analysis of Interviews and Focus Groups Exploring Factors Contributing to Adherence to GnRH Agonists in Men with Prostate Cancer.

  • Aug 01, 2022
  • Seminars in oncology nursing
  • Gincy George +10
  • Research Article

The Social Construction of Congenital Deafblindness in relation to Education: Analysis of focus groups in East and Central Africa

  • Dec 28, 2021
  • Journal of Deafblind Studies on Communication
  • Ismael K Byaruhanga +2
  • Research Article
  • Citations6

Representaciones sociales de la prematurez desde la perspectiva de personas nacidas prematuras en la década de los noventa

  • Feb 01, 2015
  • Archivos Argentinos de Pediatria
  • Pía Leavy +3
  • Research Article
  • Citations90

Issues in the Analysis of Focus Groups: Generalisability, Quantifiability, Treatment of Context and Quotations

  • Nov 19, 2014
  • The Qualitative Report
  • Lilla Vicsek
  • PDF
  • Research Article
  • Citations13

A Decade for the Mathematics: Bibliometric Analysis of Mathematical Modeling in Economics, Ecology, and Environment

  • Jan 10, 2023
  • Mathematics
  • Monica Aureliana Petcu +3
  • Conference Article

Board 418: Understanding why some African American Students Chose Engineering Technology over Engineering and the Implications of this Choice

  • Aug 03, 2024
  • Lesley Berhan +1
Cactus Communications logo

Copyright 2026 Cactus Communications. All rights reserved.