SEEA Landscape Analysis

Project Background

SEEA, the Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance, is a network of state affiliates of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) in the southeastern region of the U.S. EPA Region 4. SEEA’s mission is to provide southeastern state affiliates and their stakeholders collaborative and capacity building opportunities that demonstrate collective impact and magnify environmental education efforts across the region.

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In 2020, the Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance embarked on a brand new undertaking — a landscape analysis of environmental education efforts in eight southeastern states. This project was the result of a collective desire to gain an enhanced understanding of the environmental education providers in our region who are working towards similar goals.

To understand the landscape of environmental education in the southeast, we surveyed more than seven hundred environmental education providers. This analysis resulted in the development of invaluable tools for looking at the field as a whole. These tools are a visualization of the outcomes of the analysis and can be used to build or strengthen environmental education programs and networks across the Southeast and beyond.

Since then, we've expanded the landscape analysis to include K-12 Schools, Teachers, and Administrators. In 2022, we surveyed more than 600 teachers and administrators to better understand what, if any, environmental education was taking place within and outside the classroom. Similar to the tools for looking at the field, we can now offer tools to help meet the needs of teachers, students, and administrators.

Funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Pisces Foundation, this SEEA-led project included a comprehensive study of the environmental education already happening on the ground in both nonformal and K-12 settings, enabling the states involved to identify gaps and barriers to access that prevent successful implementation in some areas. We wanted to complete an analysis that would give environmental education providers resources and tools to more effectively meet the needs of their communities. We designed it to help us to ensure that we are focusing our limited time and resources in the areas where we will have the biggest impact. Through it, we wanted educators to find the tools they need to connect with providers in their area to increase opportunities for students to engage in environmental education from early childhood to adulthood. And we wanted educators and providers to be able to target their efforts in the areas with the highest need, whether that need is demographic, geographic, or content based.