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Brokering Opportunities in a Learning Ecosystem: A Case Study of a Regional Environmental Education Landscape

Tue, April 12, 8:15 to 9:45am, Convention Center, Floor: Level One, Room 103 A

Abstract

While enrollment in informal learning programs has risen dramatically in the past decade, research on access to these opportunities has revealed stark social-class and racial disparities in the amount of time youth engage with these contexts (Phillips, 2011). The recognition that youth learn both in and out of school, and that coordinated and aligned activities between contexts might facilitate more powerful and equitable learning pathways, has led to a growing number of emerging regional initiatives to coordinate networks of formal and informal learning contexts. These initiatives, such as the Providence After School Alliance and MacArthur Foundation’s Hive Learning Networks, support the design of networks that frame learning organizations and actors in regions as learning ecosystems that facilitate a series of learning pathways for youth.

Learning ecosystem frameworks have roots in the human ecology perspective, which conceptualizes human development as a dynamic process occurring across multiple settings (Brofenbrenner, 1979; Lee, 2010). Researchers in the learning sciences have produced conceptualizations of learning trajectories that shift away from a series of formal courses and tests and rather frame productive learning as engagement in a set of formal and informal experiences that increase possibilities for action in the world (Barab & Roth, 2006). Those interested in learning ecologies have constructed strong case studies of pathways from the point of view of the learner (e.g. Barron 2004; 2006; Bell et al., 2013; Crowley et al., 2015), but what of the learning ecosystem itself? Missing from this body of work is an examination of the landscape of organizations, the design of programs, and their interconnections across a region.

In our case study we approached learning ecosystems and pathways with an examination of the institutional resources of a region and the extent to which they represented a healthy learning ecosystem. Drawing on interviews, we examined a landscape of informal learning programs with an eye to two indicators of ecosystem performance: diversity and interconnectedness. Employing methods inspired by Falk et al.’s (2015) exploratory study on the UK’s science learning community, we identified program categories available to youth in one content area and conducted a niche analysis to analyze the diversity of learning experiences and targeted age groups. In our analysis of interconnectedness we focused specifically on cross-organizational partnerships that support learner access to informal learning opportunities or cross-context movement.

Our findings have implications for the ways that informal and formal educators could serve as more effective brokers of youth learning pathways. Very few of the informal educators we interviewed perceived themselves as learning brokers in a pathway, and there was limited knowledge of programs beyond their own organizations. We found that recruitment partnerships for OST programs were rare, and that most formal-informal partnerships hinged on individual teachers and were susceptible to teacher turnover and burnout. Although the ecosystem had many supportive niches, we observed inequity in access to robust informal learning programs across neighborhoods and schools. We will build on our findings to discuss strategies for effective brokering in the design of informal learning pathways across a region.

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