In the past decade, the National Park Service (NPS) has shifted interpreter training to focus on an audience-centered approach to program delivery and development. One element of this approach emphasizes empowering audience members to share their own thoughts and experiences with each other to develop or reveal deeper meaning together. However, the extent to which visitors want this new style of program is uncertain. Through survey research at nine diverse NPS sites, this study provides insight into NPS visitors’ interest in attending programs that ask them to share their own ideas openly and/or listen to the ideas of other visitors during programs. Results from the 1,990 respondents suggest that visitors across the demographic spectrum (gender, age, visitation, race/ethnicity, and geographic origin) preferred more traditional programming over programs in which visitors share their own ideas. This paper discusses practical and theoretical implications of these findings, as well as opportunities for future research.

While it is clear that nonformal education organizations can benefit from program evaluation in many ways, internal capacity to conduct evaluations is a challenge for many organizations. This paper describes a facilitated evidence-based learning network (EBLN) with 32 nonformal education program providers associated with the U.S. National Park Service. The EBLN combined elements of collective evaluation with a community of practice to build evaluation capacity, foster collaboration, and promote adaptive management and programmatic improvement. Network participants demonstrated gains within each cycle of value creation identified in the CoP literature: immediate, potential, applied, realized, and reframing value. They gained capacity in evaluation and adaptive management, ideas for programmatic improvement, evidence associated with the application of new practices, and new ideas about what is possible to achieve within their programming. We describe the design of the EBLN and discuss lessons learned to improve similar efforts in the future.

There is limited research examining the efficacy of film versus advanced 3D interactive technology in museum exhibits. This study provides one of the first comparisons between 2D film exhibits and interactive Holocaust survivor testimonies offered by the Dimensions in Testimony (DiT) project. To achieve this, 608 adults visiting two Holocaust museums in metropolitan Texas, U.S., were surveyed after experiencing DiT or a 2D film exhibit. We found significant differences between these two types of digital survivor testimonies. DiT elicited stronger positive emotional responses, higher visitor learning and satisfaction levels, and greater intentions to act as 'upstanders.' Conversely, 2D films were more effective in evoking negative emotions. Moreover, we found some traits that influenced responses to DiT, including gender and visitor motivations, among others. The implications of these findings may extend to intercultural communication, anti-Semitism awareness and the promotion of Holocaust memorial sites. DiT exhibits may offer opportunities to engage diverse audiences who may not feel connected to the Holocaust and, therefore, potentially counteract prejudice.

Which approaches lead to better outcomes for participants in environmental education (EE) field trips? This manuscript builds upon previous large-sample quantitative research that identified effective elements of single-day EE field trip programs for early adolescent youth across the USA. In this mixed-methods study, we observed 87 EE-focused school field trips in the USA and then surveyed youth participants immediately afterwards. We used the student surveys to quantitatively distinguish the top-performing quartile of programs from the bottom quartile. We then examined in-depth qualitative fieldnotes on each program in the top and bottom quartiles. Our analyses revealed six key principles that distinguished the programs with the most positive student outcomes from those with the least positive: (1) ensuring basic needs (physiological and safety) are met; (2) ensuring instructional clarity; (3) providing emotional support for students; (4) highlighting the novelty of the activities and setting; (5) maintaining or restoring student attention; and (6) providing a cohesive and thematic experience with clear purpose. There are many ways to embody the six principles. We share examples for each.

According to the multiple hierarchy stratification perspective, an individual's demographic characteristics interact and affect their social position and, therefore, their access to services or resources. The purpose of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of how the combination of visitors' demographic characteristics affects their probability of activity participation in a U.S. national park. We employed binary logistic regression models to determine these multiplicative effects of demographic characteristics on activity participation. The results indicate differences in the probability of participation in specific activities like camping, rock scrambling, technical climbing, and picnicking. Though there were few clear linear trends present overall for the models, the results provide validity for use of this data analysis tool to identify activity participation trends with an intersectional approach at other parks and protected areas.

What is the availability and distribution of single-day environmental education field trip programs for adolescent students across the U.S.? We assessed the spatial accessibility to EE field trip programs for U.S. schools that serve grades 5-8 (ages 10-14) by (1) compiling a comprehensive national database of 2,930 EE providers that offer field trip programs, (2) identifying 89, 311 middle schools’ locations, student populations, and relevant demographic information, and (3) calculating drive times between schools and EE provider locations using a high-performance computing cluster. We then used the integrated Floating Catchment Area method to calculate each school’s relative spatial access to EE field trip providers. Results suggest that spatial access was highly spatially clustered, particularly around several geographic regions (coastal California metropolitan areas, the southern Rockies, northern Kentucky, North Carolina, the western shore of Lake Michigan, and the high-density, contiguous metropolitan areas of the Northeast). Spatial access was also strongly related to partisan lean and urbanity, with more rural, White, and Republican-leaning areas generally having significantly less spatial access to EE field trips.

Environmental education (EE) is instrumental in developing environmentally literate citizens with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to support sustainable development. In the case of EE school field trips in the USA, these experiences also foster learning and skill development that supports meeting state and national educational standards. However, despite the importance of EE field trip programs, not all schools participate. This study explored the barriers to accessibility to EE field trips by conducting semi-structured interviews with EE providers and administrators of middle schools in the Congaree Biosphere Reserve (CBR), South Carolina, USA. We also used geospatial information systems to investigate accessibility spatially. Results suggest that aspatial barriers such as curricular constraints, capacity to plan and lead field trips, costs, and transportation influence participation. The results also suggest that these aspatial barriers are often interlinked and that access to EE field trips is disproportionately allocated to students in private education and urban settings and that rural, poor, minority, underperforming, and English as Second Language students face additional hurdles. We discuss a range of potential solutions to overcoming these barriers that reduce participation in EE field trips in the CBR.

Recent research suggests that many environmental education (EE) programs for youth in the United States focus on meeting educational standards rather than using civic engagement and advocacy techniques to promote environmental literacy. We distributed a survey to members of several EE organizations to identify which civic engagement, advocacy, and behavior change techniques a sample of EE providers feel are appropriate to use for youth at different developmental stages (grades 4-5, grades 6-8, and grades 9-12), as well as the extent to which they use them. Educators rated many techniques as less appropriate and were less likely to use them with younger age groups. We also conducted an appropriateness/use analysis to identify techniques that were deemed highly appropriate but were not used as often. The techniques related to civic engagement and advocacy for diversity, equity, and inclusion appeared underutilized. Implications of these findings for policy and practice are discussed.

Tour guides play a central role in the implementation of sustainable tourism practices through maximizing tourists' appreciation and enjoyment of the destination and minimizing their negative impacts. Utilizing Stimulus-Organism-Response framework, this study aims to examine how tour guide performance directly and indirectly predicts tourists' pro-environmental behaviour. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modelling were used to test a pro-environmental behaviour model using a sample of 396 tourists who visited Serengeti, Lake Manyara, Tarangire national parks arid Ngorongoro conservation area in northern Tanzania. The results indicated that tour guides positively and significantly influenced tourists' experience, satisfaction and pro-environmental behaviours. Further, tourists' experience is found to positively mediate the relation between tour guide and pro-environmental behaviour. The study presents managerial implications, limitations and future research directions in light of the results.

Political polarization in the United States has made many environmental issues strongly partisan, with Democrats largely receptive to environmental messaging and Republicans commonly pitted against it. This phenomenon may have meaningful implications for how environmental education is conducted for people from different sociopolitical contexts. We explored whether certain pedagogical approaches to single-day environmental education field trip programs were linked to better or worse outcomes for early adolescent youth (ages 10-14) from different sociopolitical contexts: majority Republican, majority Democrat, or mixed (roughly even). All observed effect sizes were small with one exception. Play-based pedagogies tended to yield less positive outcomes for students from Republican majority contexts than others, with a medium effect size. The findings suggest that some traditional approaches to play, such as role-playing as animals or pretending to be water droplets, may feel incongruent with the social identities of students from largely Republican communities.

Theoretically strategic planning improves management activities, employee motivations, and ultimately, organizational performance. Comprehensive interpretive planning, a form of strategic planning, also should theoretically assists organizations that provide interpretive services by identifying audiences, key stories, interpretive themes, and goals regarding visitor experiences. However, many in the field find both the process as well as products associated with strategic planning ineffective. This study sought to examine the influence of strategic planning on strategic management, and the influence of both on workplace conditions, employees’ organizational commitment, and organizational performance. We created an online questionnaire and administered it to all National Park Service (NPS) employees with Interpretation & Education responsibilities at any of the 424 NPS units in 2023. Results suggest that strategic plans are important both for employees’ commitment to the organization and for the organization’s overall performance. Results also suggest that strategic management activities, which include holding employee’s accountable for work tasks; regularly seeking to improve programs and services; collaborating with external stakeholders and partners; communicating clear job performance expectations and feedback; having clear goals and measuring performance toward these goals are also important for improving employees’ commitment to the organization and for overall performance. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Do preparation and perceived support from guardians and teachers influence student attendance to a residential environmental education (EE) field trip program? To explore this question, pre-visit surveys were administered to racially diverse sixth-grade students at seven schools invited to attend a residential EE program at no cost, namely NorthBay Education in North East, Maryland, USA. Results indicate that while desire to attend the residential camp did not differ by students' racial identity, Black and Latinx students were less likely to attend the program. Guardian support to attend and logistical preparation were each positively related to student attendance, irrespective of racial group, with Latinx students reporting the lowest levels of guardian support to attend. Black student attendance was also correlated with geographic and psychological preparation. Tailoring pre-trip preparation and engagement to address the unique needs of each schools' student body is likely needed to promote student attendance. However, these results indicate that inequities in program attendance persist across racial groups and further investigation into program conception, design, communication, and execution is needed to understand and address this concern.

In the United States, the two main political parties, Democrats and Republicans, have become increasingly polarized, including with regard to environmental issues. As part of a national study of environmentally focused single-day field trips for early adolescent youth in 2018, we conducted exploratory research to examine how outcomes differed for public school students from different sociopolitical contexts (i.e. predominantly Democratic, Republican, or mixed). Students from wealthier Democratic contexts exhibited less positive outcomes, measured as self-reported changes in environmental literacy, compared to others. The findings suggest that single-day EE field trips in the United States, in their current forms, may be particularly valuable in lower income and more politically conservative contexts, possibly due to the degree of novelty they may provide to these audiences. Meanwhile, EE field trips for students from wealthier Democratic contexts may provide reinforcement rather than meaningful shifts in environmental literacy, suggesting a need for more novel approaches for these audiences.

Managing parks and protected areas entails anticipating, accommodating, and communicating natural and anthropogenic change-particularly at iconic and controversial resources. Protected area visitors' subjective perceptions of change often differ from managers', may be influenced by a variety of factors, and can potentially hamper management efficacy. Therefore, we used an exploratory mixed-methods approach to gauge visitors' perceptions of ecological and social change at Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats. Specifically, we aimed to understand if group membership-spectators or racers at land speed racing events-and past visitation history influenced visitors' perceptions. Perceptions of social and ecological change recorded in our study, although small, were partially influenced by group, past use history, and the interaction between these variables. Visitors who had more experience with the resource held perceptions more closely aligned with observed change documented in empirical studies. These findings highlight the importance of sharing generational knowledge to communicate changes at threatened protected areas.Management implications: The implications of this study pertain to the difficult task of managing public lands such as the Bonneville Salt Flats as destinations for multiple uses, including outdoor recreation and participation in special events, as well as for extractive activities. Specifically, a) understanding perceptions of change in relation to a particular resource may help align management actions with existing and/or new objectives, b) identifying and attributing perceptions of change to specific causes or communities may help fine-tune management stra-tegies, and c) understanding perceptions of change and their attribution may create opportunities to validate accurate perceptions as well as mediate perceptions that are inaccurate and potentially problematic with improved collaboration and cooperation among stakeholders.

Do more natural settings improve students’ learning? We collected surveys immediately following 283 U.S.-based environmental education (EE) field trip programs for youth and used land cover data to examine the relationship between levels of naturalness, defined as the percentage of natural land cover of the EE field trip site, and student learning outcomes. We also examined whether differences in levels of naturalness between students’ day-to-day environment and the field trip setting were related to student learning outcomes. When controlling for grade and race, both levels of naturalness and novel levels of naturalness accounted for approximately 4% of the variance in student outcomes suggesting that other field trip characteristics are more influential.