Category Archives: conservation

New paper: Assessing Children’s Stewardship Competence Development from a Transformative Learning Intervention

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Picture comes from the school greening programmes in Kasese, Uganda, supported by the Intl. Tree Foundation (note: this program was not studies in the research referred to in this post)

This weekend (11/12 July, 2026) the third study led by Dr. Doreen Misanya was published in the Journal for Education for Sustainable Development (JESD).

The study finds that environmental stewardship necessitates collective action from all stakeholders, yet children are often alienated. This third publication from Doreen´s dissertation conducted through Wageningen University, investigated the contribution of an environmental education programme, based on the participatory integrated planning approach, to developing stewardship competence attributes of pupils in rural Ugandan schools. Pupils (34) participated through surveys, semi-structured interviews, observations and focus group discussions.

Findings indicated that pupils developed competence attributes in interrelated dimensions of environmental knowledge, connection with nature and ecological behaviour. The development of attributes was influenced by the learning environment, learning content, facilitation approach, learning activities, participatory integrated planning visioning and action-planning tools, learning activities, learning materials and facilitator capacity. Competence attributes are necessary for children’s participation in stewardship. These attributes should be developed simultaneously by exposing children to context-specific/relevant learning content, nature-based/outdoor activities and methods that stimulate reflection, participation and collaboration. Education policies should integrate environmental with formal curricula to enhance pupils’ environmental awareness and participation in stewardship.

THe full citation is: Misanya, D., Tassone, V. C., Kessler, A., & Wals, A. E. J. (2026). Children as Environmental Stewards: Assessing Children’s Stewardship Competence Development from a Transformative Learning Intervention. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, 0(0).

The link to the article is here

Creating LivingLabs for Nature-Based Solutions – ENABLS Takes Off

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We are about to end the first year of an EU-funded project on developing LivingLabs for Nature-Based Solutions and will soon ‘implement’ / unfold 7 LivingLabs in the participating countries. Below some basic information that you can also find on the ENABLS Website. Together with Mieke de Wit, ouise van der Stok and Lian Kasper, I am representing Education & Learning Sciences of Wageningen University in this major project.

ENABLS is also on LinkedIn and Instagram

T-learning in Times of Transition Towards a Sustainable World – Keynote held for Learning for Sustainability Scotland

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I was invited to give the closing keynote of the 2020 Annual General Meeting and Networking of Learning for Sustainability Scotland. The event was held online for the first time on 12th January 2021. More than 150 members gathered to explore the theme Building Forward Better: The role of Learning for Sustainability – What role does Learning for Sustainability play in making the world a better place, and how can we make this a reality? You can find a summary of the event and link to each of the programma elements here: https://learningforsustainabilityscotland.org/2021/01/28/report-from-the-lfs-scotland-jan-dec-2020-agm/

My talk titled ‘T-learning in Times of Transition Towards a Sustainable World’ presented an ultimately hopeful perspective on the role of new forms of learning and more ecological approaches of education in overcoming global systemic dysfunction – outlining some principles, perspectives and sharing international practice. You can see the 40 minute talk introduced generously by Rehema White, here: https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/1_gcmxxtyz The talk is followed up by some responses to questions raised by the participants.

The Case for Transformative Public Education: Responding to Covid-19 now while addressing long-term underlying inequalities

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Last Fall a consortium of which I am proud to be a part, along with the Education & Learning Sciences Group of Wageningen University received funding from the UK-government to a so-called GCRF Network Plus on Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures. The network is co-ordinated out of the University of Bristol and includes partners in India, Rwanda, Somalia/Somaliland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. TESF undertakes collaborative research to Transform Education for Sustainable Futures. We have just released an introductory video (see above) and just released a timely paper:

TESFBriefing

Here is the link to the briefing paper:

The Case for Transformative Public Education: Responding to Covid-19 now while addressing long-term underlying inequalities

This paper addresses the following topics:

  • What is Transformative Public Education
  • Why Transformative Public Education matters to the COVID-19 response
  • Why Transformative Public Education matters for addressing long-term underlying risks to communities
  • Examples of Transformative Public Education responses to COVID-19
  • Suggestions for governments and state welfare actors seeking to work with Transformative Public Education
  • Suggestions for community leaders working with Transformative Public Education
  • Transformative Public Education in times of physical distancing
  • Key readings and resources

On the TESF website you will also find other resources you may find of interest. Have a look here TESF Home Page

This is TESF’s first response to the C-19 situation, and we would like to see it widely distributed, given the timely nature of this topic.  Please do all you can to share it widely across your networks. https://tesf.network/resource/transformative-public-education/

Moving from Citizen Science to Civic Science in Tackling Wicked Conservation Issues

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April_Front_Full

(note the cover page above is not the one of the current issue).

Together with good friends and colleagues, Justin Dillon and Bob Stevenson I was given the opportunity to edit a Special Section for one of the key journals in the field of Biology and Nature Conservation – ‘Conservation Biology’ – on Citizen Science.

We were invited to do so shortly after our paper on using sustainability and citizen science as a bridge between science education and environmental education that was published in Science (see: ScienceWalsetall2014) well over a year ago. In the paper we use a heuristic that Bob Jickling and myself developed a while ago to position different strands of citizen science – from more science-driven ones to more policy-driven ones to more transition-driven ones. The later strands we refer to as CIVIC Science, rather than Citizen Science. The Special Section included 11 interesting papers from authors and places from around the world. What is clear is that the Civic Science, transition-driven strands are rare but represent a very important niche that is likely to grow in the years to come. Here’s the link:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.12689/abstract

Some of the papers are open-access for all to down-load – but some you may need to pay for or get through your library. Our introductory paper presently is not listed as open-access but we trust that the publisher Wiley will make this open-access shortly. UPDATE: WILEY HAS DONE SO NOW! YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE PDF FOR FREE NOW FOR PERSONAL USE.

Feel free to share with interested colleagues – also those working in conservation.