EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EDUCATION AND ATTITUDES ABOUT ANIMALS: A CASE STUDY OF THE HONEYBEE.

This paper is an exploratory study designed to discover if an exploration of the natural history of the honeybee will affect attitudes toward the honeybee. Single session interviews were conducted with nine participants. Grounded theory was used to analyze the interviews and to develop a model that contained major themes about attitudes toward honeybees. A fourteenweek follow-up interview was conducted with four of the original participants. The follow-up was an opportunity for both the author and the participant to determine if that participant’s attitude toward the honeybee persisted over the intervening fourteen week period. Is it possible that our attitude, and social construction of the honeybee as a pest, colors what we see when we look at the honeybee? Exploring the natural history of the honeybee may not create a fondness for the insect but one might discover along the way that the honeybee is a creature worth getting to know. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]