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Education for Sustainable Development: Mapping Networks of ESD Organizations
Type of Session
Individual Paper Presentation
Abstract
This is a data-driven project that informs both sustainability practitioners and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) scholars about collaborative efforts around ESD within the northern Shenandoah Valley, VA. The project first addresses definitional problems related to operationalizing ‘ESD organization’. Then, the project identifies information-sharing gaps between organizations, agencies, and companies engaged in ESD or related work and proposes evidence-based recommendations for improving collaboration. Finally, the project fills an awareness gap regarding the extent to which interorganizational collaborations exist in Shenandoah, Rockingham, Page, Highland, and Augusta Counties as well as the cities of Staunton and Harrisonburg.
The project utilizes two surveys, interviews, and web document data to produce findings and recommendations. The first survey asks ESD experts to operationalze ‘ESD organization’ for use in the second survey that collects social network data about ESD and related organizations in the study area. Basic network analysis techniques applied to these data produce findings about network centrality, density, gaps, and directional and frequency flows of information. The research team then used interviews with survey respondents to ask clarifying questions regarding interorganizational interactions. Web-based organizational data are used for confirmatory analysis.