The moment that made me question the field

I still think about a conference session I attended early in my research on environmental educators working independently.

The session was structured as a space for people to share tips about working in the field. What I heard instead was something quieter and more unsettling. I heard conversations about money, about finding work, about what to do between seasonal positions. Not within a career, but between gigs.

Listening that day, I kept returning to one thought:

What if I could pull someone aside — someone on the verge of leaving — and say, "Hey, you know that skill set you have? Have you considered applying it to _______?"

That question has stayed with me ever since.

The conditions that produced those conversations about seasonal work and pay are well-documented. Seasonal, part-time, and low-paying positions are common in environmental and outdoor education. Over time, that structure forces a choice that has nothing to do with a person's passion or career objective. Some people can stay involved in the field, and some simply can't afford to.

This isn't a new problem, and people in the field are working on it. The Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance and the California Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education have each published reports examining the field's history, pay equity, hiring practices and point toward a different path forward. They're worth reading (see links below).

But reports address systems. I kept thinking about people. I can't fix a big system. I can, though, try something different.

When I started The Freelance Condition and Lifelong Learning in Communities project, I set out to understand environmental educators who worked independently and their contribution to the field. That conference session shifted something in my focus early on. It made me want to understand not just how people stay, but how they leave, where they go, and whether the field loses them entirely or finds them again somewhere unexpected.

Exploring these topics is part of what this publication is for. It is what motivated me to streamline the newsletter and rename it Transferable Solutions.

Who is this new publication for?

Environmental educators who feel they've exhausted their options inside the field. People who have decided, not lightly, that they can no longer afford to work the way they have been working.

If that's you, or if you're getting close to that point, I want to ask:

• Have you considered stepping out of the field to do environmental education in other ways?
• What paths forward have you considered?

I invite you to click the button and share your thoughts.