Not teaching what we practice: undergraduate conservation training at UK universities lacks interdisciplinarity

Abstract

Summary The practice and science of conservation have become increasingly interdisciplinary, and it is widely acknowledged that conservation training in higher education institutions should embrace interdisciplinarity in order to prepare students to address real-world conservation problems. However, there is little information on the extent to which conservation education at the undergraduate level meets this objective. I carried out a systematic search of undergraduate conservation degree programmes in the UK and conducted a simple text analysis of module descriptions to quantify the extent to which they provide social science training. I found 47 programmes, of which 29 provided module descriptions. Modules containing social science content ranged from 3.8% to 52.2% of modules across programmes, but only 55.2% of programmes offered a social-focused conservation module, and only one programme offered a module in social science research methods. On average, almost half of the modules offered (46.2%) comprised biology and ecology modules with no conservation focus, and 17.9% comprised skills-based modules (research and vocational skills). Conservation-focused modules comprised a mean of only 22.5% of modules. These results show that undergraduate conservation teaching in the UK is still largely biocentric and is failing to deliver the interdisciplinary education that is widely called for.

Integrating Social Justice into Higher Education Conservation Science

“…We see tremendous potential for these principles of student inclusion and instruction to be scaled throughout higher education courses to diversify conservation curriculums. Presently, conservation curriculums tend to be too biology-centric (Gardner 2021 ). Failure to acknowledge the fundamental social justice dimensions inherent to conservation science provide students with only a fractional understanding of the complexities inherent to conservation.…”

Public Perceptions of the Ocean: Lessons for Marine Conservation From a Global Research Review

“…It is difficult to be sure how these disciplinary and methodology gaps in marine conservation developed. Marine conservation has historically been driven by natural sciences, and it is possible that training in conservation historically, and continues to, lack adequate social science content and the development of interdisciplinary skills and awareness needed to respond to the challenges facing the global ocean (Gardner, 2021). By continuing this trend, there is a risk that this disciplinary blind spot will continue, thus dramatically limiting the potential for effective marine conservation.…”

“…By continuing this trend, there is a risk that this disciplinary blind spot will continue, thus dramatically limiting the potential for effective marine conservation. Indeed, by the end of the UN Ocean Decade, if the patterns seen by Gardner (2021) continue, the conservation sector will continue to face a shortage of social science skills, and it is likely that these gaps will persist.…”

Towards fairer conservation: Perspectives and ideas from early‐career researchers

“…Another consequence of these dynamics and conservation's origins is that decisions and teaching continue to be dominated by Western scientific thinking, especially the natural sciences, and philosophies from richer, industrialised nations (Gardner, 2020;Pascual et al, 2021;Trisos et al, 2021). From our experiences and wider discussions to date, insights from other disciplines and knowledge systems are rarely considered or taught, despite being important in understanding the challenges of global biodiversity loss | 615 (Bennett et al, 2016;Clark, 2001).…”