Creating spaces and opportunities for teachers and faculty to become agents of change is central to promoting public understanding of the ecological and societal values of sustainable rangeland production and ecosystem services. One promising effort was the Prairie Project Educator Cohorts, which targeted the four domains of Clarke & Hollingsworth's (2002) Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth. Housed within the overall Prairie Project (a federally funded grant collaboration between Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln), the program trained educators from grades 6-16 on the threats to grasslands and effective management solutions. Participants from schools across TX, OK, and NE learned about pyric herbivory and mixed-species grazing during a summer workshop and field tour, then incorporated their new knowledge into a course of their choice during that fall or spring. A team of Extension professionals and teaching experts from the three collaborating universities led monthly online cohort meetings and were assigned to each educator as mentors. To assess the effectiveness of the Educator Cohorts, a summative qualitative evaluation was conducted. Data were collected through focus groups and individual interviews conducted over Zoom, and observations during cohort meetings. Thematic analysis was employed using an inductive approach to analyse the data. Findings revealed that the educators had significant advances in their knowledge of pyric herbivory, multi-species grazing, and the severity of the impact of woody plant encroachment. They also expressed that they were able to create powerful research-driven learning experiences for their students. Additionally, educators served as agents of change by sharing their instructional materials with their colleagues and supervisors and their new knowledge with friends and family who managed land. These data provide evidence that a comprehensive cohort program be an effective approach to professional development programming for educators that ultimately increases the rangeland literacy of their students.
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