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A Global Snapshot of Botanic Garden Education Provision 2006

Sarah Kneebone
Education Officer, BGCI

Abstract

Botanic gardens offer vibrant sites for learning.  Evidence for this comes from a recent international survey carried out by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) in September 2006.   The aim of the survey was to examine the current status of education in botanic gardens.  It looked at a wide range of issues, including the numbers and types of audiences reached, the type of education provision offered, whether evaluation is used and what messages are communicated.  The survey also focused on the staffing levels of educators in botanic gardens, how much time is spent on education per week and what garden departments are involved with education provision.

Over 120 people responded to the survey, providing a fascinating picture of what is happening in education in botanic gardens worldwide.  With limited resources, educators are clearly reaching vast numbers of people each year with messages of plant conservation.  This paper will present the results of this survey, will demonstrate that botanic gardens contribute significantly to Target 14 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and argue that this work needs to be further supported.

PDF of report to download

Introduction

The development of a survey of the current state of education in botanic gardens came out of discussions for an education strategy for BGCI in 2005.  The need for a global snapshot was identified within the education strategy, to support one of the purposes of the BGCI education work; reaching wider audiences and promoting the world wide education roles of BGCI and botanic gardens.  The education strategy team decided that development of a survey would help achieve this purpose:

Collect facts and figures – research, assess and evaluate botanic garden education to produce fact sheet and data about efficacy and role, producing a Global Study of Education Practices in Botanic Gardens which could then be published and the findings used by members to support their education requirements
(BGCI education strategy, 2005)

The ‘global snapshot’ has been developed as a direct outcome of this education strategy.
Aims and objectives of the global study

• to get a ‘snap shot’ of the current state of education in botanic gardens
• to judge what resources are invested in education in botanic gardens around the world
• to understand what topics are being taught
• to discover what audiences are being targeted.

This allows us to gain an idea of how and how widely botanic gardens are contributing to Target 14 of the GSPC.

Why do we need a global study on the current state of education in botanic gardens around the world?

• There is no data currently available on the role of education in botanic gardens. Other than individual case studies, we do not have an overall picture of what gardens are actually doing in their education programmes
• The research will provide a resource for further networking of BG educators within and between countries
• The data will provide ideas for authors for publications and at congresses, to focus on gaps in education in botanic gardens
• The data could form basis of papers on the role played by education in botanic gardens in environmental education
• This research will provide real evidence for areas in need of support, such as under resourced departments, or gardens lacking in technical expertise or staff etc
• The study will demonstrate what areas are doing well and which garden have invested in their education provision
• The data will compliment the data already held by BGCI on the botanic gardens database

Methodology

The BGCI education team developed a series of questions for inclusion in the gardens database.  These were reviewed and refined and the most pertinent questions were developed into a questionnaire.  A hard copy paper questionnaire was distributed at the 6th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens, September 2006 and also sent out with Roots, the education review, in October 2006.  So far over 120 responses to the survey have been received.  Additional queries generated from responses have been followed up by email.  The data have been entered to an access database, and analysed. This database will be connected into the existing gardens database information so that individuals responsible for education programmes in their gardens can gain access to their garden’s profile and keep it up to date.

Data collected

The questionnaire covered a wide range of issues including:

• numbers and types of audiences reached
• methods used to communicate
• whether evaluation is used, what methods
• what topics are communicated
• numbers of educators in botanic gardens
• how much time is spent on education per week
• what/if other garden departments are involved with education provision
• where funding is sourced from

Results

The questionnaire was designed around a series of questions that we wanted to find the answers to about the current state of education in botanic gardens.  Hopefully this initial data can be explored further and used in the future, to review how education provision in botanic gardens changes and evolves.

Investing in Education

We wanted to discover whether staff in gardens view education as an important part of their work, by finding out if it is included in their gardens vision and mission statements and also whether this stated importance is supported by financial provision.

What proportion include education within their vision/mission statements?

• 107 out of 118 = 91% include education in their mission or vision

If gardens view education as important, do they then invest financially in education?
How many allocate a specific budget for education work?

• 79 out of 117 gardens = 68% have a budget allocated specifically for education,
• 28 % said they did not have a budget for education
• This equates to over 1/4 of gardens who answered the survey

This finding demonstrates there is still much work to be done to demonstrate the importance of education and investing in education provision.

Of the gardens that say education is important, what % allocate a budget for education?

Interestingly, more gardens recognise that education is important than are willing to put their money where their mouth is – of those who say that education is part of their mission,

• 26% do not have  a budget specifically for education. 

This is a familiar story – gardens know that education is important, that it has an impact on conservation and is necessary to achieve the protection of plant diversity, as specified in the GSPC, but many are still not willing to invest resources in its provision.  How can we encourage gardens to do this?

Do gardens invest staff time in education?

How many staff hours are spent on education per week?  What is the proportion of paid vs. unpaid hours?

The answers for this are quite heavily skewed due to a couple of sites who have very large departments.  In total, from 106 gardens that replied, nearly 12000 hours a week are spent on education – which is about 112 hours per week on average – this equates to nearly 3 full time members of staff working on education per garden.  However, if we remove the top two – which account for ¼ of the total hours, it works out at 78 hours per week, just under 2 full-time staff working on education.

There seems to be a lack of use of volunteers in the education sector, 43 % have no hours per week of volunteer time spent on education.  However, those that have volunteers, use them – the total time from 101 gardens answering was nearly 5000 hours per week unpaid work on education – this is an average of 47 hours per week and is over half the amount of paid education work.

While the use of volunteers in many cultures is not customary, this finding still highlights the view that volunteers are an underutilised resource for education and it is something botanic gardens would do well to consider developing further.

What status does education have within the garden?

An assumption could be that if education is considered to be a low status activity then gardens will not invest in it by employing qualified staff to run the education programme, as they cost more than unqualified staff.

What proportion of staff working in education have education qualifications?

 The results of the survey show that over ½ the number of staff working full time in education are unqualified.  We need to consider why this is the case. Could it be that qualified educators cost more and that gardens are unwilling to invest additional funds in their education provision, or is it that garden management does not see the benefit of hiring qualified education staff? What do you think?  Is there a need here for additional training?

Reaching Audiences

What audiences are being targeted by botanic garden education and in what numbers?

In order, the audiences targeted by botanic garden education provision are as follows:

There is a higher proportion of education provision aimed at secondary school children and university students than might be assumed at first.  It is generally felt that it is harder to encourage secondary teachers to bring their classes to gardens due to clashes in timetabling, the lack of plant science in curricula and an increase in bureaucracy that attends a school trip.  However, gardens appear to be providing for this group, which is excellent in terms of maintaining contact between teenagers and nature.

The results are very positive, as they show gardens have provision in their education to target families, tourists and involve communities.  Over half provide for professional educators, an efficient method of using the multiplier effect to communicate messages about plant diversity and conservation beyond the garden wall. 

Just under half provide programmes specifically for senior citizens, which is interesting as, particularly in developed countries, they make up a large proportion of botanic garden visitors, botanic garden friends groups (pers comm. Kew Gardens Friends membership dept 2007), volunteers and have significant disposable income.  For example, in the UK the over-50’s have a collective disposable income of £175bn – 30% more than the under 50’s
(http://www.saga.co.uk/corporate/magazine/saga_media_pack_august_06.ppt#2 accessed 29/3/07)

Decision makers and business leaders have been identified as being those least targeted by education programme, with only 1/5 of gardens actively targeting decision makers with their provision.  As policy makers and potential sources of funding, these two groups are powerful and therefore are incredibly important to target.  This may not be through traditional public awareness programmes, but through events, media, lobbying and so on.  The current state of plant conservation means botanic gardens cannot afford to ignore these influential people. 

What about groups with particular interests or special needs?

Many gardens welcome special interest groups; those identified in the survey include environmental groups, particularly ornithologists, horticulturalists/ garden lovers and botanists, religious groups, professionals such as foresters and agriculturalists and eco-tourists.

About 1/3 of gardens have provision for groups with special needs.  The most commonly mentioned special needs were the visually impaired, the physically disabled and those with learning difficulties or mental disability.  To put this into perspective, the United National Development Programme (Helander 1999, quoted in Price and Stoneham) estimates global figures of moderately and severely disabled people to be 335 million in 2000 – 5.5% of the world population, increasing to 667 million by the year 2035.

In the UK, 6.5 million people are formally classified as disabled (over 10% of the population), 10 % of these are wheelchair users.  There are 1.1 million people with a visual impairment severe enough to be eligible to register as blind or partially sighted, 7 million with literacy problems and 1 million with learning disabilities (Price and Stoneham, 2001), so in a population of 60 million, one in six people could have difficulty accessing the education provision.  Working with improving access groups can help botanic gardens ensure that they are inclusive and accessible for all. 

How many people participate in botanic garden education programmes?

NB - This is an initial review and is not necessarily indicative of the true situation – further research and analysis is needed before we can estimate the numbers of people being reached by garden education programmes per year.

Funding Fun

Where are botanic garden education programmes getting their money from?

Other sources of funding that are used to support the education programmes include the local county or city council, affiliated universities, small grants, such as the National Lottery or EU funding and donations from garden supporters, including Friends groups.

Looking at this data, and comparing it with the audiences that are currently being targeted by garden education programmes, there is a distinct gap – the decision makes and donors which are actually handing money over, are not being targeted –there is little education provision for them.  As we can see from the other data, education provision seems to be suffering from a lack of resources – maybe those responsible for education can develop ways of reaching those people who may be able to offer the additional financial support their programme and development needs.

Another question we had from this data is that, if there is no specific budget or funding set aside for education in botanic gardens, where does the money come from?

21st Century Programmes?

Are botanic gardens addressing key issues of the day through their education provision?

What themes are being focused on with the garden education provision?

Target 14 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation states:

"The importance of plant diversity and the need for its conservation incorporated into communication, educational and public-awareness programmes."

Botanic gardens are stalwarts of the GSPC and much of their work, including their education programmes, directly support the GSPC and its targets.  This is no different with education – 90% of gardens cover plant diversity as one of their key themes and it is the most common topic covered by education provision.  This is swiftly followed by conservation at 84%, ethnobotany at 78 % and endangered species at 74%. Between these three themes, gardens are directly supporting all the aspects of Target 14. 

Botanic gardens are also still bastions of the traditional skills and academic learning about plants which, some might say, are being lost from traditional formal education provision at schools and universities (Newton, 2007). Plant science is covered by 76% of garden and horticulture by 65%

What is not so common is addressing environmental issues and problems of the 21st century.  At a time when climate change is at the top of the political and environmental agendas, only one third of gardens are talking about it in their education programmes.  We know that plant diversity conservation can only take place with dramatic behavioural change, towards a more sustainable way of living, among developed and some developing countries.  However, botanic garden do not seem to be leading the way on facilitating the changed needed - only 16%  look at fair trade, 14 % at societal change, 18% look at poverty alleviation, and just over 1/3 look at water conservation and recycling.  If we are to be effective at moving on from merely promoting towards enabling the conservation of plant diversity, we must address these themes and show our audiences how their behaviour can and does make an impact on the environmental problems we have created and face.

Methods Used for Communication

What are botanic gardens using for their Communication, Education and Public Awareness (CEPA) provision, how are they communicating their messages to their diverse audiences?

 Obviously, there is a very varied selection of methods used.  It is interesting that the top two, guided tours and talks, are both face-to-face forms of interpretation – humans are a social species and personal interaction can be a very effective method for communication (Honig, 2000).  This will be an interesting data set to refer back to in order to review how methods change over time – currently debate is used relatively little, but it may be that as BGs become more aware of their role in societal change for sustainable development, this will increase.  Likewise, the use of the arts in communication and education in gardens.  Nearly half those surveyed use art and craft, but only a few use other art media such as poetry, music, theatre and dance. 

Judging Effectiveness

How do gardens know that their education provision is effective?  Do they carry out evaluation?

Only a fifth of gardens always evaluate their programmes, although 71% say they do use some form of evaluation sometimes.  This is concerning when evaluation is the only way that gardens can monitor whether their programmes achieve the outcomes they are designed to.  Evaluation provides many benefits, including evidence for funders, professional development for staff, confirming successes and investigating where change would be beneficial.

What methods do gardens use to evaluate?

Other methods gardens use to evaluate include visitors books, in the garden and online, postcard evaluation, stakeholder meetings discussion and pre and post testing.  Some garden also contract out formal evaluation of major programmes to professional evaluators.  It is great to see that gardens are employing a range of techniques to evaluate their programmes, but there are gaps. 

What do they not use?

The least used type of evaluation is focus groups.  This may be due to the time and costs involved or perceived to be involved with setting up and running focus groups.  However, this is unfortunate as, particularly with programme development, focus groups can be very useful, to find out how particular audiences might react to a specific product or programme (Diamond 1999)

Q: When is an Educator not an Educator? 
A: When they are a researcher / manager / horticulturalist or administrator

Who is involved with education in the garden – is there a dedicated education department or is it run part time by other departments, or is it a team effort with everyone involved?

What proportion of botanic gardens have a dedicated education team?

71% of gardens have a dedicated education team running programmes.

What proportion of gardens have other departments running the education provision?

On average, 3.4 departments are involved with running the education programme.  The most likely combination is the education department working with the horticultural team and the volunteer group to deliver a garden’s education provision.

Which is the most common department to run education if it isn’t education?

If there is no dedicated education department, then the mostly likely groups to be involved with running education provision are the horticultural team and the administration department, followed by volunteers and management

How Resourceful

How well resourced is the education provision in the garden – are there basic facilities available for use by the education programme? 

One fifth are missing toilets, this is difficult for access for visitors, as any visit has to be short.  Surprisingly only just over 1/3 of respondents said they had artefacts to use.  When compared to the proportion that use ethnobotany as one of their themes, this suggest that there is a lack of practical physical examples for educators to use in their programmes.  Far more, 73%, said they had fresh plant material available, but even this means that 27% do not have fresh material, which is also surprising considering they are in a garden.  Gardens should ensure that educators and horticulturalists work closely together to make sure sufficient fresh material can be used for education purposes.

Networking

Are botanic gardens linked to other education institutions? 

Botanic gardens seem to be extremely well networked within the educational field - only 2% of respondents said they had no links, and even then they must be connected with BGCI to have received a questionnaire.  Links are valuable as they can become routes to potential partnerships, whether through project development or expansion or support for capacity building or finance.  The strongest links are with schools – 84% of garden have connection with them, as illustrated by the strong student participation in education programmes, followed by 79% connected with other botanic gardens. 

Do they have contacts with similar groups that they could develop partnership programmes with?

About half of respondents are connected with local or regional conservation groups, which could lead to potential in situ conservation projects, with complementary education programmes.  A similar number are connected with government and environmental education networks – also positive both for the potential impact on policy makers and also for promoting the work of botanic gardens in the environmental education field. 

Particular areas for development are in education research – less than 1/3 (28%) have links with education research organisations. Increased partnerships could be used to develop investigations into the provision and impact of education within the garden, thus strengthening its position, and help ensure educator’s practices and skills are based on the latest education pedagogy.  Another area is with zoos – there are often zoos in the same city as botanic gardens, they also offer education focused on conservation and the environment and a joint programme can demonstrate the complexity and wonder of ecosystems, rather than focusing on plants in isolation from the rest of nature.

Education and New Media: Best Buddies or Worst Enemies?

Is botanic garden education making the most of the 21st century and the technologies available?  Have education teams realised its potential for CEPA?

What types of information do botanic gardens  have on the internet and what are the most common?

The most common information for people to have on the website is programme descriptions and booking information

If 88% of gardens have a website (as only 12% say they do not have a website), whether hosted themselves or by their governing body, it demonstrates that this resource is massively under-utilised by education departments.  The internet is still undergoing massive growth and is used on a regular basis by a huge number of people, in developed and developing counties.  As communicators, educators should not be lagging behind in this area.  As well as helping to advertise events and programme, a website can be seen as another form of interpretation – one with a  potential audience of 1.14 billion (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm), there aren’t many interpretation panels that could reach that many!

The ‘new media’ revolution, with video sites such as YouTube and methods such as blogs and podcasts, mean that botanic gardens can communicate their message to audiences without them even setting foot inside the garden.  At the most basic level, providing information on-line for users, to read before they reach the site increases the accessibility (Price and Stoneham, 2001). 

Where are the gaps?

There are gaps throughout the education provision on the website – at the least, gardens should have programme descriptions, booking details and some of the messages about plants and conservation on their site (depending on their education strategy of course).  Resources for teachers are also useful again for orientation but also for follow-up work back at school.

Conclusions

This research has uncovered a number of salient points for educators and gardens considering their education provision;

• Gardens feel education is important
• Investment may be lacking in some areas
• Education is a deliverable for the entire garden
• The audiences reached, the themes communicated and the methods used are very varied
• Some additional opportunities for development can be identified
• Much good work is happening in the fields of networking and evaluation – building on this could be beneficial
• Exciting opportunities can be afforded to educators by the internet
• Within their programmes, garden are contributing directly to Target 14 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation

References

Office for National Statistics, 2006, Population and vital statistics by area of usual residence in the United Kingdom, 2004 Key Population and Vital Statistics 2004, Series VS No.31, PP1 No.27
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_population/KPVS31_2004/Revised_KPVS2004.pdf (accessed 28/3/07)

Diamond, J., 1999, Practical Evaluation Guide: Tools for Museums and other informal educational settings, Altamira Press, Walnut Creek

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2007, Pers comm. on proportion of senior concessionary Friends memberships.

Price, R. and Stoneham, J., 2001, Making Connections: A guide to accessible greenspace, Sensory Trust, St Austell

Helander, E., 1999, Prejudice and Dignity: An introduction to community-based rehabilitation, United Nations Development Programme

Internet World Stats, 2007, INTERNET USAGE STATISTICS - The Big Picture World Internet Users and Population Stats, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

http://www.saga.co.uk/corporate/magazine/saga_media_pack_august_06.ppt#2

Proviso
Please note, the results in this survey are presented as raw data with no statistical analysis to confirm whether the findings are significant or not.