Multivoiced boundary crossing supports holistic nature connection and ethical reflection¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitative r2 · q1 · n=6 upper-secondary students, 2 teachers, 2 domain experts (a bioartist and a researcher), one intensive week
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

A bioart-making project structured to cross institutional, interpersonal, and intrapersonal boundaries let students engage nature across material, experiential, cognitive, emotional, and philosophical dimensions simultaneously rather than sequentially, with material/sensory encounters prompting spontaneous ethical reflection about organism use.

Subclaims¶

q1 i? Students' material and sensory encounters with living organisms (touching, photographing, using contact microphones to "hear" a plant) were closely followed, in the same episode, by cognitive naming, emotional response, and philosophical reflection on interconnection — consistent with all five of Ives et al.'s human-nature connection dimensions operating together rather than in sequence. → Liukkonen et al. 2023

q1 i? Students spontaneously raised and acted on ethical concerns about which organisms to use in their art-making (e.g., choosing plants only, out of concern about removing animals from their habitat) without being assigned an explicit ethics task, and these concerns expanded into broader discussion of food production and consumption. → Liukkonen et al. 2023

q1 i? Low-threshold, self-buildable technology (a DIY smartphone macro-photography rig) let students of differing prior skill levels participate in the same shared activities at self-chosen complexity, from basic photography to professional lab equipment. → Liukkonen et al. 2023

Evidence¶

Liukkonen et al. 2023¶

Liukkonen, P., Vartiainen, H., Pöllänen, S., & Kokko, S. (2023). Interacting with nature in and through boundary crossing learning: A case of bioart-making. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 32(4-5), 534-572. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2023.2263845

q1 · single-case qualitative study using semi-structured interviews, a project blog, and planning documents, analyzed via content analysis against Ives et al.'s human-nature-connection typology and Akkerman & Bruining's boundary-crossing framework · i? · the abstract prints no effect size; the full text may · n=6 upper-secondary students, 2 teachers, 2 domain experts (a bioartist and a researcher), one intensive week · qualitative · r2

In a week-long bioart-making project that moved students progressively from school grounds to a natural-history museum to a research laboratory, material engagement with living organisms consistently triggered near-simultaneous cognitive, emotional, and philosophical responses rather than a sequence of separate stages. For example, a student using contact microphones to amplify sound from different parts of a plant spontaneously named the plant structures, expressed interest/amazement, and later reflected on interconnectedness between organisms. Separately, several students explicitly limited which organisms they were willing to use in their art (choosing only plants, out of concern for animal welfare), and teachers observed these individual ethical choices expand into group discussion of broader food-system and consumption questions.

Discussion¶

This is a single, small, intensive case (6 students, one week, one school) with no comparison group and no independent observation separate from participants' own interview/blog accounts — the authors themselves note the analysis "is in large parts based on the participants' interpretations... rather than mere direct observations." The findings describe a coherent, plausible pattern (multivoiced boundary crossing supporting holistic engagement) but should be read as a worked illustration of the underlying boundary crossing and human-nature-connection frameworks, not as evidence that this specific project design reliably produces these outcomes elsewhere.

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