Harnessing homophily to improve climate change education

Abstract

The Cooperative Extension Service (Extension) in the United States is well positioned to educate the public, particularly farmers and foresters, about climate change and to encourage responsible adoption of adaptation and mitigation strategies. However, the climate change attitudes and perceptions of Extension professionals have limited Extension’s involvement. A survey of Extension professionals (n = 2758) in eight southern states found several statistically significant factors correlating to different attitudes and perceptions about climate change, such as demographics and program area. Willingness to engage with climate change-related programs varies with climate change perceptions, program area, and perceptions of institutional support. This assessment explores the extent to which the climate change issue suggests different needs among Extension professionals – needs that could be addressed by diverse professional development programs. We discuss these results in the context of homophily and provide recommendations to improve climate change education.

Keywords:

• climate change
• professional development
• capacity building
• assessment
• audience analysis

Acknowledgments

We thank the Extension professionals who responded to this survey and the Cooperative Extension Directors in each state who supported this project; William Hubbard (Southern Regional Extension Forester) who offered several survey items, members of the PINEMAP Extension Aim who provided comments; Stephanie Hall and Molly McGovern who assisted with the survey. This work was supported by The Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation, and Adaptation project, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture [grant number 2011-68002-30185].