Heterogeneous Networks and Local Learning: How We Collaborate in the Informal World

• In Event: 44.064 - Fostering Networks and Collectives in the Out-of-School Sector: Achieving Equity, Innovation, and Learning Ecosystems Through Large-Scale Collaborations

Abstract

In this study, we describe how a natural history museum organized a collaborative network for mounting a city-scale climate change education effort. The study recognizes that informal learning is best approached from the standpoint of learning ecologies (e.g. Barron, 2004, 2006; Gutiérrez, 2008) and explores what it might mean for networks to intervene at the level of the learning ecology itself. An ecological perspective highlights how culture and society influence learning and participation (Lee, 2008; Knutson, Crowley, Russell & Steiner, 2011; Russell, Knutson & Crowley, 2013), which is particularly salient for learning to respond to climate change, because it requires a society-level response, and people’s responses are governed by their social situations (Kahan et al., 2012).
The network we studied was anchored by a natural history museum, but included a wide range of informal learning organizations. The organizations ranged in size, scope, and the extent to which they had explicitly educational missions, stakes in local climate change issues, or advocated for particular communities. What tied the network members together was their willingness to join a collective informal education effort to help their city adapt to the coming impacts of climate change.
Our analysis draws from three approaches to networks and networked interventions: communities of practice (e.g. Wenger, 1998); networked improvement communities (e.g. Bryk et al., 2015); and collective impact (e.g., Kania & Kramer, 2013). We identify four core features that characterized the network’s success: an adaptive hub; intentional use of boundary objects; a shared system of iterative development; and actively facilitated, heterogeneous niches within the multi-sector network. We provide evidence that these features supported learning and change within the network and that the city-scale learning ecology for climate change became more connected and robust through diverse organizations adopting informal climate change education as a more central part of their work. These findings have implications for the design of networks for informal education intended to be interventions at the level of whole (i.e. city-scale) learning ecologies.

Authors

• Lauren B Allen, University of Pittsburgh

• Kevin Crowley, University of Pittsburgh