Mapping the Future: Youth-Water Programming for the 21st Century

It has been said that “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it” (Albert Einstein). The impetus for new directions in youth-water education grows out of an emerging sense that, in spite of significant investment by federal agencies in environmental youth education, we are not seeing all the change we seek. The information explosion requires that we do not simply teach content related to water, but that we teach how to think in multidimensional ways. As well, our efforts must not simply focus on knowledge, but on fostering engaging relationships between young people and water. Mapping the Future set out to explore and articulate the knowledge, experience and perspectives of youth, water professionals and education experts related current and future paradigms of youth-water education. The question “What do our future leaders, citizens, and professionals need to know, feel, or be able to do with regard to water?” undergirds our exploration, as do critical questions on best practices for engagement. Building on past youth education analyses, Mapping the Future offers a critical analysis of past and current youth-water education, including a comprehensive literature review and database of recent works. Additionally, interviews and listening sessions were conducted nationally with leading practitioners and thinkers in youth and water programming, innovators and change agents from other professional locations, and youth ages 11-18. Data from the critical analysis, listening sessions and interviews was coupled with existing and emerging knowledge on educational reform, to create a roadmap for a new paradigm in youth-water education. The roadmap, Water Equals, can be used as a framework for USDA and others interested in cultivating this new consciousness related to water.