Rescuing biodiversity in paradise: A qualitative investigation of students’ perceptions of risk

Abstract

New Zealand's biodiversity includes large numbers of endemic species whose existence have become threatened since the introduction of predators, such as possums. The Government has signalled a goal of Pest Free New Zealand by 2050 which involves the use of the poison 1080 to control these pest species. But this poison's use is contentious because of the risks involved. However, risk is often ignored when teaching socio-scientific issues in a classroom programme. Consequently, students are unaware of the sociocultural complexity impacting on their perceptions of risk. This study investigated ways that 40 secondary school students (16-17 years) communicated their risk ideas about the use of the poison 1080 to rescue New Zealand's unique but threatened biodiversity, an important socio-scientific issue within this country.This research involved two data generating phases. Initially participants were asked to answer open-ended questions related to the use of 1080. In phase two, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a selection of the students. Data were then analysed using a framework based on the ideas of Douglas (1999). She developed the Grid-Group Cultural Theory and asserted that this theory was useful to explain irreconcilable differences within society. Douglas' ideas were combined with those of Schwarz and Thompson (1990) and Steg and Sievers (2000) to develop a new analysis framework to qualitatively analyse these secondary students' views of risk. Four cultural types are accommodated within the new Risk Analysis Framework-Nature Tolerant; Nature Benign; Nature Ephemeral; and Nature Capricious. Findings showed that the framework was able to identify all of these cultural types. Furthermore, the analysis uncovered that indicative words revealed a common language used by students in those four cultural types. Moreover, analysis showed that common mechanisms were used by these students to communicate risk views regardless of their cultural type. The use of the analysis framework can assist students to be more aware of the differing risk perceptions they hold as well as developing an awareness of the perceptions held by others, so enabling an appreciation of the complexity of science-based issues such as the use of 1080.