Scholarly Learning in an Ecological Setting: Applying the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Framework to Perceived Outcomes from Participation in the Long-Term Ecological Research Program

Using the conceptual framework of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors (KABs), we develop a structured aggregate analysis of the essays in this volume. Building from the KAB analysis, we examine how the Long-Term Ecological Research Program (LTER) program altered career paths (or not), perhaps changed original scholarly directions, and led to more integrative and important research over the course of careers. Our primary finding is that the LTER program has successfully affected ecological research careers, mostly because the involved participants were predisposed to thriving in an interdisciplinary environment. Every scholar can point to events or experiences in his or her career that had a significant impact on his or her intellectual trajectory. For example, the authors of this chapter began collaborating as a result of a happenstance phone call in 1998 that led to more than 15 years of fruitful scholarly interactions centering around online international studies education in middle school through college environments. About a decade ago, one (Boyer) made a distinct turn in his scholarly agenda away from political economy and toward environmental inquiry. The other (Brown), a psychologist by training, has spent large portions of his career in K–12 and college settings working to promote research-based educational practices. The point is, many scholars develop their careers in ways unimagined early on, some by happenstance, as in our own case. With this type of “we know intellectual change happens, but how do we understand it?” in front of us, this collection of essays by participants in the LTER program provides a rich body of data on which to develop a macro-level analysis of patterns of intellectual evolution in environmental research. We will begin by laying out the conceptual framework of KABs as a means to develop a structured aggregate analysis of the chapters in this volume. In using this conceptual framework and associated qualitative methodology, we hope to provide insights into whether participation in the LTER program did in fact affect the scholars involved in the enterprise and, if so, in what ways.