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Academic and government-directed research is generally portrayed as a benign problem-solving enterprise. There is a long record of important theories, discoveries, and solutions to sticky problems that research has produced. But alongside this list of important advances in knowledge, there has been a record of damage to individuals and to communities as a whole when place-based research has not been implemented thoughtfully. Researchers conducting community-facing projects are increasingly aware that place-based research may generate risks at a community level. This literature review identifies a set of dynamics through which place-based environmental research projects can undermine community autotomy where research takes place and offers a set of recommendations for researchers and institutions who wish to adopt research practices and institutional supports that honor community autonomy.

Environmental education would strongly benefit from a socioecological approach that encompasses the human-nature relationship in all its dimensions. Nature relatedness appears to be an essential trait to ensure effective approaches, promoting the development of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. but also, human well-being through nature-derived benefits. To our knowledge, there are no available instruments validated for the Portuguese population to assess nature connectedness. This study aims to fill this gap, by validating the short and full versions of the Nature Relatedness Scale for the Portuguese population. The translation and adaptation of the questionnaire comply with international guidelines in this field and validation was conducted with 456 Portuguese participants with a mean age of 32.95 (SD = 11.45, age range = 18-77) years, mostly female (n = 328; 71.9%). Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the original three-factor latent structure of the full Nature Relatedness Scale, and the short version of the instrument with six items, obtained an adequate fit. These two versions of the instrument showed adequate validity to be used with the Portuguese population.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in academic routines. These changes have also contributed to an increase in the number of papers submitted to journals, citations and, ultimately, to changes in metrics. This study aims to address a gap between theory and practice, analysing the changes in the impact factor (IF) of a sample of 30 environment/sustainability-related journals, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The study used an expert-driven literature analysis and an assessment of a selected sample of 30 environment/sustainability-related journals' increased trends. Findings: The unprecedented trend observed when analysing the results obtained in the IF of environment/sustainability-related journals contribute to the body of knowledge on this topic, allowing us to understand how specifically the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced scientific publishing, despite the restrictions imposed by lockdowns and access to research knowledge and facilities. Research limitations/implications: Based on a sample of 30 environment/sustainability-related journals, this study can highlight lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting specific measures which may be addressed to contribute to upkeep levels of publishing in the environment/sustainability field covered in this study. Practical implications: This study will contribute to setting the stage for additional research on the influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientific publishing's impact in environment/sustainability areas of knowledge. The implications of this research will allow us to set the basis for more extensive research in other areas of knowledge. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is unique, as it addresses the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic in 30 considered exemplary environment/sustainability-related journals, the main research area of all the authors involved in this publication.

Purpose: This study aims to diagnose the perception, knowledge, awareness and position of the bioeconomy in university education and research. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a questionnaire survey conducted at universities in Poland, the Czech Republic, Spain and Portugal (n = 464). The questionnaire consisted of open-ended, dichotomous and Likert-type questions. Variable frequency distribution methods and the non-parametric chi-square test were used to test the independence of the characteristics. The Cramer's V contingency coefficient was used to determine the degree of dependence between the variables. Findings: The researched academic community is dominated by a traditional approach to the bioeconomy, which relates to agriculture and ecological aspects. Respondents believe in the positive environmental impacts of the bioeconomy, while less often being aware of its importance from a socio-economic perspective. Insufficient teaching and research in the field of the bioeconomy can be widely observed. The presumed link between the existence of a bioeconomy strategy at national level and awareness of the bioeconomy was not confirmed. Research limitations/implications: The limited sample, the narrow geographical scope of the study does not allow for a comprehensive analysis of the topic. Another limitation is the lack of representativeness of the results in relation to all university representatives in the countries studied and the uneven composition of the samples. Originality/value: This study fills the knowledge gap about the status of the bioeconomy in European academic communities by analysing its perception among both teachers and students of social, natural and applied sciences.

Researchers and research organizations are under increasing pressure to demonstrate that their work contributes to positive change and helps solve pressing societal challenges. There is a simultaneous trend towards more engaged transdisciplinary research that is complexity-aware and appreciates that change happens through systems transformation, not only through technological innovation. Appropriate evaluation approaches are needed to evidence research impact and generate learning for continual improvement. This is challenging in any research field, but especially for research that crosses disciplinary boundaries and intervenes in complex systems. Moreover, evaluation challenges at the project scale are compounded at the programme scale. The Forest, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) research programme serves as an example of this evolution in research approach and the resulting evaluation challenges. FTA research is responding to the demand for greater impact with more engaged research following multiple pathways. However, research impact assessment in the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) was developed in a technology-centric context where counterfactual approaches of causal inference (experimental and quasi-experimental) predominate. Relying solely on such approaches is inappropriate for evaluating research contributions that target policy and institutional change and systems transformation. Instead, we propose a multifaceted, multi-scale, theory-based evaluation approach. This includes nested project- and programme-scale theories of change (ToCs); research quality assessment; theory-based outcome evaluations to empirically test ToCs and assess policy, institutional, and practice influence; experimental and quasi-experimental impact of FTA-informed 'large n' innovations; ex ante impact assessment to estimate potential impacts at scale; and logically and plausibly linking programme-level outcomes to secondary data on development and conservation status.

Agriculture is one of the main industries of Kazakhstan, especially in the Kyzylorda Region. Before the reforms, agriculture in this region was better developed than the manufacturing industry; this is no longer the case. The main crop grown on the irrigated land of the region is rice. Inefficient distribution of cultivated areas, their excessive use, and the growing volume of fertilizers used in the soil increases the salinization of the soil on arable land. This necessitates the investigation of the soil on irrigated land through environmental and geographical monitoring. This research analyzes the current reclamation state of irrigated cultivated land in the Kyzylorda Region located in the Kazakhstani part of the Eastern Aral Sea region, in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River. The causes and level of soil salinization in said areas were determined. In addition, the factors that affect land salinization in the Shieli-Zhanakorgan, Kyzylorda, and Kazaly-Aral irrigation sectors were determined. The research classifies the arable land in the Shieli, Zhalagash, Karmakshy, Kazaly, and Aral Districts in terms of salinization type, characterizes its peculiarities, and investigates ways of improving the salt regime of soil on irrigated arable land.

Most forensic chemistry experiments focus on the usual suspects involving criminal scenarios: illicit drug identification, gunshot residue detection, blood and fingerprint analysis, and arson investigations. However, environmental forensics involves chemical techniques that can expand the breadth of experience for forensic chemistry students. An experimental case study was designed to determine the potential source of groundwater contamination along a series of treatment steps designed to mitigate the environmental effects of an abandoned mine drainage site. Simulated drainage samples representing each treatment step are analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopy to quantify the metals present, a gravimetric method to determine the concentration of sulfate, and a pH meter to measure relative acidity of the drainage water. Using the data obtained from the simulated samples, students can determine the effectiveness of each treatment step as well as identify the location along the drainage treatment series that is the most likely source of the groundwater contamination.

Interdisciplinarity is often framed as crucial for addressing the complex problems of contemporary society and for achieving new levels of innovation. But while science policy and institutions have provided a variety of incentives for stimulating interdisciplinary work throughout Europe, there is also growing evidence that some aspects of the academic system do not necessarily reward interdisciplinary work. In this study, we explore how mid-career researchers in an environmental science research center in Sweden relate to and handle the distinct forms of uncertainty that arise from conflicting institutional and policy impulses. Our material suggests that interdisciplinary academics are often confronted with and at times themselves operate with a surprisingly dichotomous, value-laden view of their research practice. Disciplinarity is primarily associated with the ideals of scientific rigor, while interdisciplinarity becomes conflated with application-oriented work and a lack of 'theory.' We also draw attention to the underlying practical dynamics that reproduce this tension and entangle it with the very process of academic socialization. Specifically, we analyze the ambivalent consequences of the various work-arounds that researchers rely on to carve out opportunities for ongoing interdisciplinary research within heterogeneous funding landscapes. These tactics turn out to be undermined by the overriding normative power of formal career incentives at universities, which continue to emphasize the ideals of the individual high-performing academic who publishes in disciplinary journals and attracts the most selective grants. Under such circumstances, the work-arounds themselves become an insidious mechanism that allows researchers to stay in academia but systematically marginalizes their voices and epistemic ambitions in the process.

A senior within a spatial science Ecological Planning capstone course designed an undergraduate research project to increase his spatial science expertise and to assess the hands-on instruction methodology employed within the Bachelor of Science in Spatial Science program at Stephen F Austin State University. The height of 30 building features estimated remotely with LiDAR data, within the Pictometry remotely sensed web-based interface, and in situ with a laser rangefinder were compared to actual building feature height measurements. A comparison of estimated height with actual height indicated that all three estimation techniques tested were unbiased estimators of height. An ANOVA, conducted on the absolute height errors resulting in a p-value of 0.035, concluded the three height estimating techniques were statistically different at the 95% confidence interval. A Tukey pair-wise test found the remotely sensed Pictometry web-based interface was statistically more accurate than LiDAR data, while the laser range finder was not different from the others. The results indicate that height estimates within the Pictometry web-based interface could be used in lieu of time consuming and costly in situ height measurements. The findings also validate the interactive hands-on instruction methodology employed by Geographic Information Systems faculty within the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture in producing spatial science graduates capable of utilizing spatial science technology to accurately quantify, qualify, map, and monitor natural resources.

This research article identifies the contributions of PhD faculty members of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Sindh Pakistan offering degrees in the environment discipline through published articles in journals, conference proceedings, research project reports and focused areas of research. The content analyses of curriculum vitae data of PhD faculty members is carried out in this article. As an outcome a methodology is developed which compares the conducted research with existing environmental issues existing in Sindh Pakistan. In total, 696 research contributions of PhD faculty members of HEIs offering degrees in field of Environmental Engineering & Environmental Sciences were explored. The PhD faculty members have disseminated their research by publishing 192 articles in international and 148 in national journals, presenting 71 papers in national and 117 papers in international conferences, 146 research project reports and 22 scholarly books. This research has identified different focused research areas chosen by PhD faculty members related to environmental issues in Sindh such as Waste Management, Water Quality, Environmental Resource Management, Water Management, Plant Biodiversity, Renewable Energy, and Air Pollution. While environmental issues in Sindh such as; Marine Pollution, Noise Pollution, Desertification, Deforestation, Agrochemicals, Sea Intrusion, Risks of Oil Spills at Ports, Climate Change, Global Warming, Ozone Depletion, and Acid Rain remained less focused by those PhD faculty members. This research concluded that larger numbers of research papers are published related to different environmental issues in Sindh but yet these problems remained unsolved. The finding suggests that academic research is making less impact on solution of local problems.

Abstract is of a pivotal genre in scientific communication, assisting not only highly selective readers with judgment of the pertinent articles but also researchers in disseminating new knowledge and intellectual discoveries. Difficult yet challenging, however, is the task of writing effective abstracts particularly among non-English speaking scholars. This study reports on the identification of moves and co-existing linguistic features commonly used in environmental science and applied linguistics research article abstracts. 200 research article abstracts published during the years of 2010-2013 were analyzed with reference to Hyland's analytical framework. The two-tier analysis reveals a typical rhetorical structure including a cluster of linguistic features associated with certain pieces of information presented in each particular move, elucidating how research article abstracts in both fields are conventionally constructed. With the presence of all five moves, the structures of I-P-M-Pr-C and P-M-Pr-C were most prevalent among the corpus of environmental science and applied linguistics, respectively. All of the moves, except for Introduction move, were conventional across the two disciplines. Pedagogical implications of the findings are useful particularly for academic reading and writing instruction, enabling language teachers to empower their learners with strategies that contribute to the enhancement of success for publishing in scholarly leading publication.

Since the early days of the field, attitude-behavior (A-B) relationships have received sustained attention in the evaluation and researching of environmental education (EE). This level of interest extends beyond the field's scope though, in part due to a certain reliance on theoretical and empirical assertions which claim that attitudes serve as a strong precursor and/or predictor of behavior. In this paper, we consider reviews of studies on the A-B relationship in EE and other fields that routinely challenge such assumptions, leading to the questioning of corresponding foci and commitments for research, evaluation, practice, and development. With key findings from these studies hand, we highlight several insights that may be useful for dispelling some of the folklore about what matters in, and what can be argued with, A-B studies, if we are to develop the design, conduct, reporting, and critique of studies and practices of EE reliant on such relationships.

This study sought to determine whether a secondary level curricular model based on enhancing knowledge and awareness of global forest issues would have an effect on students' self-perceived knowledge of forest issues, actual content knowledge of these issues, and pro-environmental attitudes. The study instrument is the secondary module "Global Connections: Forests of the World", a publication of the American Forest Foundation and part of its Project Learning Tree series of curricula. The module activities provide students with opportunities to apply scientific processes and higher order thinking skills while investigating world forestry issues and conducting service-learning action projects. Overall, the use of Forests of the World as a curriculum to teach about forest issues seems to be effective in increasing student attitudes and self-assessed knowledge about forests. There is some indication that the curriculum increases content knowledge as well.

The number of early childhood environmental education programs are on the rise in Canada and although young children have been quite marginalized from environmental education research, better understanding young children's relationships with the natural world is increasingly seen as important. Including young children themselves in research is important; however, it is essential for researchers to utilize developmentally appropriate research tools and data collection methods, just as environmental educators should create programs that are congruent with the emotional, physical, and cognitive abilities of young children. Including young children in environmental education research can be a challenge, but there are several data collection methods that have proven to be successful, for example, the Mosaic approach, which is discussed in this article.

Epistemologies, ontologies, and education based on colonial Eurocentric assumptions have made animism difficult to explicitly explore, acknowledge, and embody in environmental research. Boundaries between humans and the "natural world," including other animals, are continually reproduced through a culture that privileges rationality and the intellectual as primary ways of knowing, even though they have been repeatedly acknowledged as not enough to address increasingly pressing environmental concerns. I use my own doctoral research journey to explore possible methods for working with nonhuman "persons" as co-participants in, rather than objects of, research. Through the identification and use of a dialogic methodology and methods, I show how animism, as an enacted epistemology, can be incorporated into an approach to research and its representation in multi-media hypertext. By engaging animism as a paradigmatic framework for research, environmental educators can respond to repeated calls for epistemological diversity, and more significantly, make use of research approaches that support the explicit acknowledgement of other-than-human contributors to knowledge-making. (Contains 4 notes.)

This article seeks to contribute to the idea of "posthumanist education" by unfolding an educational situation where an assemblage of two humans and 33 former battery hens is gathered to carry out a so-called cognitive bias experiment for two days. A Deleuzian repertoire is set in motion to configure the dynamics of hens intervening in the research schedule and affecting the results in various unexpected ways, as human-avian subjectivities co-emerge in the context of the fieldwork setting. The cognitive bias experiment ends in an ultimate line of flight; an act of animal liberation: The hens are moved from the research facility, where they were scheduled to be euthanized, to a private home in the countryside. Contained in the research process are two important messages to environmental educators: What are the implicit assumptions about nonhuman animals guiding environmental education practice and scholarship, and what are the connections between research and activism? (Contains 1 figure and 11 notes.)

The relationship between sustainability and the Anthropocene takes on new meaning in a time of unprecedented human impact on Earth systems. This relationship is at times contested and not well researched but critical in considering how we will respond to environmental challenges of today and the future. Elaborating on the need for new perspectives and nuanced understandings of sustainability, the contributors to this volume draw on posthumanist and "new" feminist materialist methodologies and theoretical lenses to engage readers in ways, which often contrast with prevailing thinking and research. From the cosmopolitics of place in urban Berlin to the watery space of urban wetlands they share research and rich narratives, which illustrate how sustainability is theorized and enacted across a range of diverse educational contexts. Moving beyond the rhetoric of sustainability, the authors invite us to explore innovative ways to engage with new concepts and emerging tensions that are now influencing the fields of education and sustainability. [This review addresses issues raised in the book: Malone, K., Truong, S., & Gray, T. (Eds.). (2017). "Reimagining Sustainability in Precarious Times."]

Science becomes engaging when students know that what they learn in the classroom relates to their own lives and communities. This article describes a project in which students use field exploration and online software to design virtual solutions to improve the hydrology of their school yard. The project is called Teaching Environmental Sustainability--Model My Watershed (TES-MMW). In the unit, students collect data to learn about land features that affect where water flows in their school yard. They also use a scientifically valid watershed model to learn more about their watershed and its current health. Using the Model My Watershed software application, students can virtually change land cover and implement conservation practices such as installing a rain garden, porous pavement, or a "green" roof, which involves installing a waterproof membrane over a traditional roof and covering it with a growing medium and vegetation. (A rain garden is a shallow depression near a runoff source that is planted with deep-rooted grasses and native plants.) Armed with data from their school yard investigation and model outputs, students virtually redesign their school yard to improve watershed health. In this way, students use evidence-based reasoning to become engaged citizens.

The unabashedly messy aspects of the research process are often hidden from published view, and are therefore not available to encourage and instruct. The authors tell specific stories about "messy" research, arranged around: (1) evolving research questions; (2) methodology or methods surprises; (3) problematic answers; and (4)publication dilemmas. These stories are from work amongst diverse categories and frames of inquiry, and are meant to encourage fellow students to persist and problem-solve mid-process. We hope that having real researchers tell their own stories of mucking around the methodologies and ethics of inquiry can encourage others to engage and persist, and can be the beginning of a more process-oriented and perhaps more nuanced conversation that opens active discussion and scrutiny amongst critical friends. (Contains 2 figures.)

Designing an integrative research program requires that research leaders negotiate a balance between the scientific interest of research and the practical interests of non-scientific partners. This paper examines the ways integrated research is formally categorised, and analyses the tangible expressions of the practical politics involved in reconciling scientific and practical interests. Drawing on a comparative study of two Australian Cooperative Research Centres, I argue that categories used by the research leaders to describe the research programs embody three different strategies for structuring the relationships between researchers and their partners. These include matching research program categories to partners' implementation program categories, reproducing existing integrative partnership models, and filling gaps in understanding with new technical approaches. These strategies offer different advantages and disadvantages. The cases suggest that the integrative approach favoured by each Centre depended on issues such as the geographic scope of policy arenas, sources of scientific credibility, and the political risks facing partners. The practical politics of research organisation offers a new lens for understanding both the practice and theory of integrated research. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

In response to environmental degradation, the Lesotho government, in collaboration with the Danish government, introduced an Environmental Education Support Project in schools in 2001. In order to optimise the achievement of the project goals the, Monitoring and Research Team was established to formatively evaluate the project as it unfolded. The principles of action research were to guide the monitoring process. The paper discusses the findings of the early phase of the monitoring process with reference to the project's epistemological commitment to initiate paradigmatic shift, in the context of conceptualizing environmental education and the associated learning theories and teaching approaches through workshops with relevant stakeholders in the school curricula development. It is illustrated that the workshops initiated cognitive tensions and shifts amongst the participants, and that their occurrence was indicative of the interrogation of the positivist paradigm underpinning the education system in Lesotho.

The field of research in environmental education has experienced several changes in orientation in its first 25 or so years. In the period of the 70s and 80s, the most visible approach to environmental education research was clearly applied science in nature. From the late 80s/early 90s there has been a period of intense debate about research in environmental education, in which the patterns of research established in the 70s and 80s came to be reflected upon in a more critical fashion, previously taken for granted assumptions questioned, and a range of new approaches to research identified and critically considered. Methodological debates were engaged, arguments for alternative approaches developed, and critiques presented. This article re-considers some of these arguments in light of recent critique and project research experience, and argues for a recognition of the practical exigencies in conducting project research in real contexts. (Contains 4 notes.)

Based on a qualitative comparative study across four domains, this paper explores how the use and perceived usefulness of scholarly mailing lists is related to primary search methods, collaboration patterns, loci of critical information, physical proximity of like-minded colleagues, field size, the desirability of sharing information in public or semi-public discussion fora, relevance criteria, the degree of scatter within a field, and book versus article orientation. The findings show the differential role of formal and informal computer-mediated communication across fields. Environmental biologists and nursing scientists saw little value in mailing lists for research purposes. They relied on their local collaborators as sources of support and advice. Historians and literature and cultural studies scholars experienced mailing lists as helpful in monitoring literature and progress of the field.

I propose that for ethics to become a normal activity, practiced by citizens on a daily basis, we begin by identifying barriers to this activity. Once things that get in the way have been identified, I examine ways that environmental educators can create conditions for ethics to become part of mainstream practices and processes of inquiry--to become a serious educational endeavor. Some practical examples and suggestions are provided. (Contains 3 notes.)

The field of environmental education research has been moving away from scientistic and positivistic discourses for some time now ("Environmental Education Research," 2000; Hart & Nolan, 1999). However, it has been noted that the meta-discourse about this research continues to draw on their framings, registers, and lexicons (Hart, 2000; Marcinkowski, 2000; Smith-Sebasto, 2000). Poststructuralist and critical approaches to discourse analysis highlight the constraints and possibilities in such discourse, including how we make sense of claims about the quality of research. With this in mind, the paper explores the meta-discourse about environmental education research, using "the science and art" of imaging and remote sensing of the environment to illustrate the forms and functions of techno-scientific language in this field. In so doing, the paper discusses a series of observations about interpretation and quality in environmental education research discourse, and constraints and possibilities in relation to the meta-discourse. (Contains 1 figure and 5 notes.)

This paper questions the relative silence of queer theory and theorizing in environmental education research. We explore some possibilities for queering environmental education research by fabricating (and inviting colleagues to fabricate) stories of Camp Wilde, a fictional location that helps us to expose the facticity of the field's heteronormative constructedness. These stories suggest alternative ways of (re)presenting and (re)producing both the subjects/objects of our inquiries and our identities as researchers. The contributors draw on a variety of theoretical resources from art history, deconstruction, ecofeminism, literary criticism, popular cultural studies, and feminist poststructuralism to perform an orientation to environmental education research that we hope will never be arrested by its categorization as a "new genre." ["Tales from Camp Wilde: Queer(y)ing Environmental Education Research" was written with Peter Appelbaum, Sophia Appelbaum, Mary Aswell Doll, and Warren Sellers.] (Contains 4 figures and 10 notes.)

For a generation or more, environmental education discourses have been constructed around persistent Cartesian dualisms of modernist thought that divide an "othered" category of being from that of a constituted homogeneous human identity. During the same period, both feminist and poststructuralist theorizing has acted to destabilize the constitution of identities, revealing knowledge, including environmental knowledge, to be multiple, subjective, contingent, and intimately tied in with embodied experiences of place. We explore some of the contingencies of environmental knowledge as revealed through a poststructuralist feminist research methodology and the place for such understandings within an early twenty-first century vision for environmental education research and practice.

The university volunteer programs in Argentina encourage entrepreneurship culture through the development of innovative socio-environmental projects that promote a joint effort between the different administrations of the State, the universities and regional social organizations. One, called "environment and social inclusion" has been undertaken since 2011 in Stella Maris, a coastal suburb of the city of Comodoro Rivadavia--Chubut. The program includes a training phase for the university volunteers, an action plan addressed to the social agents and an evaluation of the results. This project has contributed to the reduction of vulnerabilities from the proposed action research planned by volunteer university students, teachers and social agents. Neighborhood institutional leaders who actively participated also contributed. Through a participatory diagnosis, the different actors in the community became aware of the environmental problems of their area and established strategic priorities for action in the short, medium and long term. The diagnosis itself was a learning process clarifying attitudes and environmental awareness that predisposed the participants to collective action. In our opinion, the next step would be to increase the social-political pressure on the local authorities to change the problem tackled into one of its priority actions.