Teaching invasive species ethically: using comics to resist metaphors of moral wrongdoing & build literacy in environmental ethics

Abstract

Invasive species outreach has long leaned on problematic and oversimplified messaging that narrowly frames the issue as binary: good-native vs. evil-invasive. Contemporary invasive species educational programming in the United States, as illustrated in this article, draw on this same approach that, while attention grabbing, both reinforces xenophobic rhetoric and fails to adequately educate on the complicated ethical decision-making processes that go into invasive species management. In response to this gap, I identify educational strategies using storytelling and narrative, specifically comics creation, as a productive way of deepening student engagement with invasive species management and building literacy in ethical environmental decision-making. Using comics without proper framing, however, might still reproduce good/evil binaries, as I exemplify using the Oregon Sea Grant WISE Program’s Aquatic Invasions! A Menace to the West invasive species comics curriculum. I suggest that improving comics-based invasive species curricula should include an emphasis on process-based learning and reflective practice to model the iterative nature of environmental management and provoke critical thinking about invasive species representation.

Keywords:

• Invasive species education
• moral frameworks
• critical reflective practice
• environmental comics
• environmental ethics literacy

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Drs. Katherine Kelp-Stebbins and Kirsten Vinyeta for their comments on drafts of this article.

Disclosure statement

The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.

Notes

1 For example, the barred owl’s movement into the pacific northwest of the United States might be considered a natural range expansion but for human changes in land use that allowed easier movement. In this case the bird was not moved physically by humans which caused some debate over its invasive status. See: Oregon Fish & Wildlife Office & U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 2013.

2 While the prevalence of materials focusing on threats to the state or nation is likely due (at least in part) to the state or federal funding for these projects, this does not alter the significance of how this framing impacts public understanding of the issue.

3 See their interactive newsletter online (www.fws.gov/pacific/iq/index.html) to “Get the Dirty Details on Some Notorious Invaders.”

4 While this study therefore focuses on U.S. curricula and programming and a more global assessment of curricula is beyond the reach of this paper, there is international literature suggesting comics make an excellent science education tool in many different contexts and therefore my final recommendations could be applicable in other regions.

5 One teacher and the blog host for Science Lessons that Rock even noted how common it is in her post exploring other options for teaching invasive species in the classroom (“Invasive Species Teaching Resources”).

6 Several versions of this activity exist on the Teachers Pay Teachers marketplace site (e.g. “Invasive Species Project” [Morpho Science] and “Ecology Lesson and Activity: Invasive Species!” [Mrs B’s Bookshelf]) and it is also freely available on the iExploreScience blog (“Teaching with Invasive Species”).

7 Images of student work could not be included due to copyright concerns, the example in question was identified on the Clifford School science class blog (Accessed 10 Nov. 2019): cliffordschool.weebly.com/online-newsletter/most-wanted-posters-invasive-species-project

8 It is later revealed that Pinchy is in fact a pregnant female crayfish, doubly a threat to native populations.

9 Furthermore, if anthropomorphic staging is employed by students in their comics, deeper consideration of all the character’s perspectives should be encouraged. For example: Would most species rejoice at being plucked from their homes and relocated somewhere unfamiliar? How might native species respond to or even use invasive species (how do they adapt to newcomers)?