Amplifying John Muir’s life: a third sector intervention in providing alternative narrative resources to secondary schools^*

* The research presented here was part of an evaluation of a Scottish Book Trust programme conducted by staff at the University of Edinburgh.

Abstract

In 2014, Scottish Book Trust (SBT) published and distributed classroom sets of a graphic novel about the life of pioneering environmental activist John Muir to all secondary schools in Scotland, where he is still relatively unknown. This paper outlines the collaborative process SBT used in producing the graphic novel and sets out to trace the impact of this intervention through teacher and pupil surveys. The former survey reveals that not all teachers were able to make use of the classroom sets but that those who did found it useful in bringing up environmental issues in a range of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary contexts. The book served as a narrative resource for some teachers in designing lesson plans and even in designing entire courses. The pupil survey found significant mean shifts in the New Environmental Paradigm Scale for Children and the Inclusion of Nature in Self Scale in participating classes and across all classes. Building on insights from narrative therapy and narrative ethics, we argue that shifting attitudes and values requires new narratives alongside new experiences and the space in which to dialogue about the two in community. Further research into reading and environmental education is advocated.

Keywords:

• Reading
• environmental attitudes
• values
• narrative ethics
• John Muir
• graphic novel

Notes

* The research presented here was part of an evaluation of a Scottish Book Trust programme conducted by staff at the University of Edinburgh.

1. Our overview of these studies ends in the late 1990s because we did not find subsequent studies that included books and authors as part of broad-based research into what influences people into becoming environmentalists, environmental educators or to engage in environmental behaviours.

2. Activities are not discussed in this paper, see Willis and Schmidt (2015).

3. https://www.johnmuirtrust.org/john-muir-award, accessed 14 February 2017.