fdbk please on draft '23-24 12-ecotype survey...+ possible student extra credit?

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James Proctor

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Feb 17, 2023, 6:21:17 PM2/17/23
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Dear colleagues, I trust you are well. As you know from recent missives, I've been working hard on EcoTypes, and would appreciate your input at this point on a new, draft 12-EcoTypes survey and report [see att'd], which I plan to launch in summer 2023 for the 2023-24 academic year. 

You will find the survey, and associated resources, at ecotypes.us, on the menu under Survey > Draft 12 EcoTypes Survey at bottom. I would love to get your thoughts by the end of February! 

In addition to putting your instructor eyes on it, it would be great if some of your students could complete the draft survey and browse the report, then share their thoughts with you to forward on to me...or send to me directly. You'll see from the attached sample report that it takes students in new directions relative to the current EcoTypes, especially in their understanding of EcoTypes as a function of Place, Knowledge, and/or Action...and some larger conceptual and practical implications. 

I'm still working on the report formatting, as it's much more intensive than the current version, but it's also much more learning oriented, beyond the simple EcoType label...we want more than that.

Why the new survey? In brief, the current, six-EcoTypes survey covers many, but not all, of our students, and certainly does not cover many people outside of our classrooms. Nearly 15% of the roughly 2500 responses to the 2022 survey would have better fit one of six new EcoTypes. If EcoTypes is about systematically exploring difference, and learning how to work together across difference, we can go farther than we have to date.

If you look at those new EcoTypes, it's not hard to imagine that they describe important groups of people our students will encounter. One example is Resource Stewardship, quickly summarized as embracing "…small Action and human Place. This EcoType may be found among people such as farmers and ranchers, who see themselves as stewards of natural resources for the benefit of humanity, alongside others who do likewise." You'll see others too that may remind you of many people outside your classrooms.

As it turns out, each existing EcoType is paired with a new EcoType as its most distant alternative—tentatively labeled its "anti-EcoType" in the survey report. This should give your students an opportunity to really stretch!

Might your class envision working alongside a partner community or neighborhood, perhaps one where an environmental issue is unfolding? Your students may well discover the meaning of the EcoTypes phrase "Many care, just differently." That's an opportunity I hope to promote via this survey, where students and community members jointly complete the survey and exchange thoughts over results, then explore how they apply toward working together on an environmental issue relevant to the community...more on this opportunity in spring.

Here is one final advantage of the new, 12-EcoTypes survey: your students can score the survey themselves, via a PDF form they complete manually or digitally from their reported axis scores. This takes the mystery out of EcoTypes, and gives them more control over the process.

I look forward to your thoughts, and thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Jim






12EcoTypesReport-Sample230217.pdf
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