Going Green with the Green and Gray: How Interpretive Rangers' Perspectives Shape Climate Change Education in Yosemite National Park
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Climate change is a clear and present danger to national parks and other protected areas across the United States where rising annual average temperatures and falling precipitation levels are resulting in a myriad of potentially devastating effects. These same parks are also tremendous sources of hope because they provide opportune settings for impactful climate change education through the interpretive programs they offer. To contribute to the development of such programs, this thesis aims to uncover how the experiences, identities, and perceptions of interpretive park rangers influence their approach to climate change interpretation. Through semi-structured interviews with six current and former Yosemite National Park (CA) interpretive rangers, I explored the rangers’ personal backgrounds, relationship to nature and Yosemite, climate change beliefs, and thoughts on climate change interpretation. I found that the rangers experience powerful internal conflicts related to when, whether, and how they include climate change in their interpretive programming. Those conflicts arise as their personal beliefs about climate change, relationship to Yosemite, and sense of professional responsibility to the park and visitors create tension with their (mis)conceptions (according to visitor studies) that climate change interpretation may spoil visitors’ experiences or instigate unwanted confrontation. This tension compromises rangers’ confidence in delivering climate change interpretation faithful to their own identities and deeply held beliefs. Equipped with a better understanding of park visitors’ beliefs and interests and with ongoing professional development, interpretive park rangers may be better supported institutionally and personally to leverage their identities, beliefs, and perspectives to maximize their efficacy as climate change educators.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 1, 2021 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Bamberger, Theodore |
|---|
Subjects
| Subject | Graduate School of Education |
|---|---|
| Subject | interpretive park rangers |
| Subject | National Park Service |
| Subject | Yosemite National Park |
| Subject | climate change education |
| Subject | climate change interpretation |
| Subject | interviews |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Bamberger, Theodore. (2021). Going Green with the Green and Gray: How Interpretive Rangers' Perspectives Shape Climate Change Education in Yosemite National Park. Stanford University, Stanford CA.
Collection
Undergraduate Honors Theses, Graduate School of Education
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- Contact
- tbamberger@alumni.stanford.edu
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