2025 journal article

How nature-based learning impacts teachers: Discoveries for well-being in and with the project EXPLORE community

Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education.

By: J. Knight*, C. Schultz*, P. Stonehouse*, C. Johnson n, J. Howard*, Y. Williams*, A. Harrington*, E. Warner*

Source: ORCID
Added: January 13, 2025

Project EXPLORE (PEX) is a nature-based learning (NBL) program designed by the North Carolina Arboretum to help North Carolina K-12 teachers implement citizen science-based curricula to reconnect youth with the natural environment. Initiatives supporting teacher confidence are critical to mainstream implementation of NBL. As there is scant literature on programs’ impact on teachers’ well-being, the purpose of this study is to explore how participating in PEX impacts teachers’ “well-being.” Informed by critical feminist theory, we used an amended two-part collective memory work design. Three former PEX participants created video narratives about a memory of the program’s impact on their well-being. They participated as co-researchers in a focus group to analyze the video diary entries for meanings around teaching well-being and PEX. The group discussed ways PEX supported self-actualization, relationships, and, most importantly, how PEX was a powerful tool for well-being within a neoliberal school context.