What is community-level environmental literacy, and how can we measure it? A report of a convening to conceptualize and operationalize CLEL

Abstract

Environmental education research often emphasizes the importance of community context, but conceptualization and measurement of environmental literacy has mostly occurred at the individual level, often focusing on individual behaviors. The environmental problems facing the world today require collective action—communities coming together to address large-scale problems. Accordingly, understanding and encouraging collective action requires a shift in focus from individual to community-level environmental literacy (CLEL). Despite its importance, CLEL has been left largely undefined and unmentioned in environmental education literature. To understand the field’s current conceptualizations and measurement strategies around CLEL, the authors held a convening of 24 researchers to discuss the topic. Here, we report the findings of this convening and present a series of tensions that emerged in conceptualizing and measuring CLEL. We see this area of research as rich with opportunity for innovation and offer considerations for researchers engaging in this work.

KEYWORDS::

• Environmental literacy
• community-level
• collective impact

Acknowledgements

We thank the following individuals for their thoughtful participation during the convening event: Dr. Alison Bowers, Dr. Kwesi Brookins, Lynn Chesnut, Jenna Hartley, Archana Kannan, Dr. Marianne Krasny, Dr. Danielle Lawson, Anna Lee, Aparajita Rajwade, Caitlin Reilly, and Dr. Michael Reiskind.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

Funding was provided through the NC State University College of Natural Resources’ Faculty Research and Professional Development Program. The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.