Whose stories are being told? Reframing the Narratives behind Conservation in Higher Education

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Tallan Barrow-Traylor

Abstract or Description

While conservation has been responsible for the preservation of some of the world’s most precious resources (such as through the creation of protected areas), it has also continued legacies of settler-colonialism and has attempted the cultural erasure of Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing. Since its inception, conservation has been responsible for the perpetuation of inequitable and oppressive practices. The research for this project seeks to reimagine and reframe conservation through a lens of social justice. Specifically, we sought to understand student reactions to course content when exposed to social justice topics in conservation. The data in this study was collected in the form of three incrementally assigned reflections over the semester. This data was taken through the process of collaborative coding and analyzed to identify patterns within the student reflections. We have developed codes and potential themes for the data. We found that students exhibit a strong, shocked, emotional response to hearing of the hidden realities of America’s capitalistic, patriarchal, and colonial system. Resources that have been critical to this learning are videos, podcasts, and tiktoks in addition to reading or hearing personal experiences. Through the reflections, we see that students have already begun to disclose that their reality and position within conservation make more sense after learning about the hidden truths of conservation science.

Mentor

Erin Weingarten