Botanical Garden conversations: epistemology in an informal environmental education activity

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Monday I)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Approaches for implementing environmental sustainability education

Proposal

International treaties have identified botanical gardens (BGs) as important centers for plant conservation and education (Glowka et al. 1994, 69). Specifically, the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity, article 13, stresses the importance of BGs’ informal education function (United Nations, 1992). Traditionally BGs have served as collections and spaces for entertainment and contemplation (Galbraith et al. 2011) but recent literature has revealed that they can have broader social goals such as building people’s connections with nature (Peddretti and Soren 2006); fostering reflection and discussion on the roles of “culture” in relation to “nature” (Sanders 2007); remediating plant blindness (Wandersee and Schussler 1999); changing people’s attitudes about environmental issues (Reading 2005); correcting nature-deficit disorder, or the human costs of alienation from nature (Lauv, 2008, p.36); and engaging learners with concepts such as sustainability (Romano 2008), and global climate change (Forrest 2008). In addition, botanical gardens can function as bridges to relationships of attachment, relationship and holism between humans and non-humans (Neves, 2009). The pedagogical function of BGs implies that educators’ have an important role in these organizations, particularly providing visitors with varying experiences and information about humans-nature relationships (Zhai 2011).
The goal of this study is to explore educators and visitor’s perspectives (Neves, 2009) about people’s relationships to natural environments by observing what constitutes environmental learning, knowledge and teaching in botanic garden tours. This is an ongoing study employing ethnographic methods during eight, one-hour tours in a botanical garden in a large city in Southwest United States between September and November 2018. I have collected data about what topics are discussed by the trained volunteers conducting the tours and about the questions and comments made by visitors to understand what is important both to the botanic garden volunteers and to the visitors. Preliminary results suggest that all guides emphasize plant adaptations for survival and reproduction in the desert as well as common uses of plants by humans. Guest in all tours have been interested in desert animals, whereas only two guides have mentioned them and always in relation to a desert plant, either as shelter or food. Preliminary analysis of the results indicate that BG’s volunteers assume visitors would expect plants not to do well in the desert, hence the emphasis on how they manage to thrive in such conditions. Results have also suggested that visitors that attend the tours are interested in private matters regarding desert plants such as gardening and culinary use. Finally, the garden tours encompass more traditional roles associated with botanical gardens such as entertainment and contemplation (Galbraith et al. 2011) whereas contemporary values presented in recent literature such as sustainability and plant agency are not so prominent.

Author

• Esther do Lago e Pretti, Arizona State University