A scoping review of the intersection of environmental and science identity

Abstract

As our environmental problems continue to mount, we need a committed, diverse community of citizens and scientists across disciplines and sectors who have the skills and passion to develop creative and novel solutions to our most challenging environmental problems. Previous literature in environmental identity and science identity suggests that encouraging identity development in each of these areas during education programs could help grow both the number and diversity of environmentally-minded scientists and citizens. However, despite the importance and theoretical overlap of these two areas of identity research, very little data has been collected simultaneously on these constructs. Our scoping review describes the limited number of studies that empirically examine both environmental and science identities, exploring key thematic areas of overlap related to diversity, methods, educational programming, and identity theory. Based on a combination of these studies and other key literature in environmental and science identity research, we propose a mixed-method instrument that could be used to measure the development and presentation of environmental/science identity, so that we can better understand the relationship between the two constructs at the individual and collective levels.