Evaluating the impact of a youth polar expedition on participants proenvironmental behaviour: A case study of Students on Ice alumni programme

Abstract

This study advances our understanding of the elusive and complex concept of polar ambassadorship by assessing participants’ pro-environmental behaviour, up to 18 years after their polar voyage. The research explores how adventurous education programmes can act as a stimulus to lasting pro-environmental behaviour. Participants were recruited from the 2,500+ alumni of Students on Ice (SOI), a Canadian-based charitable organisation that leads educational expeditions to the Polar Regions for international high school and university students. The mixed-methods study was co-designed in collaboration with SOI and data collected via an online survey (n=217). The research tested relationships (both direct and indirect) between participants’ social identity towards the alumni programme and their subsequent connections with nature and pro-environmental behaviours. The results suggest social identity might be one way to explain the long-term impact of educational expeditions in terms of desired future pro-environmental behaviours, highlighting the critical importance of an alumni programme. This work suggests that social identity with an alumni group may continue to inspire and empower young people to make positive change in their own lives, in communities, and across the globe—not just immediately after their trip, but throughout their lifetimes. Such findings start to progress the existing ambassadorship literature beyond the immediate evaluation of such programmes to understand the subsequent development of participant pro-environmental values and actual behaviours in the longer-term.