Climate Literacy Education – Barriers, Successes, and Future Work

Abstract

We acknowledge that we are on traditional lands of the O'odham, Hohokam, and Yavapai people. We honor their stewardship of the land, past, present and future. We engage our students in climate science/NGSS so we can learn to make good decisions that heal our planet and protect our environment.

Enabling successful science‐policy knowledge exchange between marine biodiversity research and management: An Australian case study

“…Besides the efforts taken by researchers and the hub (e.g., knowledge broker), liaison roles within end‐user organizations were critical. The role of liaisons is increasingly understood in the literature, for example described as “science‐decision stewards” in Boyd and Kramer (2017): “Most of the success stories featured a single individual who acted as a catalyst, liaison, and knowledge manager” (p. 10) and they “not only play these multiple roles but also have the ability to successfully navigate their agencies' complex bureaucratic and institutional settings and ‘work the system’” (p. 12) and ultimately are “effective managers of collaboration” (p.11) between researchers and end‐users. In our case study, liaisons eased KE for both researchers and other actors within the end‐user agency.…”

“…First, many studies (including this one) suggest the need for further institutionalization and formalization of KE (Karcher, Cvitanovic, van Putten, et al, 2022; Pearman & Cravens, 2022; Tuohy et al, in press). But beyond the largely siloed analyses of strong leadership required in research project leaders (Cvitanovic, Wyborn, et al, 2021) and end‐user organizations (Boyd & Kramer, 2017), lessons from the hub and it's precursors (Campbell et al, 2015) show that strong leadership is required from all KE roles. Research funders also have the chance to influence how we engage (e.g., monitoring meetings) and evaluate research and program success (e.g., through funding priorities and the metrics of monitoring).…”

“…Research funders also have the chance to influence how we engage (e.g., monitoring meetings) and evaluate research and program success (e.g., through funding priorities and the metrics of monitoring). There is a need for greater appreciation, nurturing, performance monitoring and rewarding of KE skills and careers (e.g., interpersonal skills) for all actors (Bednarek et al, 2018; Boyd & Kramer, 2017) which could be jointly developed in teams of researchers, end‐users, and knowledge brokers through organizations or the hub (Topp et al, 2020). In conclusion, our study shows that knowledge exchange success between researchers and end‐users strongly depends on interpersonal relationships, but also that it can be planned for and improved over time.…”

“…Challenges can originate from the decision‐making process itself, cultural differences between research and management, academic disincentives, differing timeframes in research and decision‐making, access to data, and the wide range of costs associated with interactive KE (e.g., time, money, capacity) (Cvitanovic et al, 2016; Cvitanovic, Hobday, Van Kerkhoff, & Marshall, 2015; DIISRTE, 2012; Karcher, Cvitanovic, Shellock, et al, 2022; Walsh et al, 2019). As a consequence of those challenges, science‐policy success is rare (Boyd & Kramer, 2017). Thus, additional research is needed to identify enabling factors through which research and decision‐making can interact more effectively and more sustainably over time.…”