Buzzing about bees

Full project title: Buzzing about bees: exploring active storytelling for transforming children’s environmental engagement and agency

Duration: September 2023 to September 2024

Project lead for CESR: Dr Rosamund Portus

Other UWE Bristol researcher: Sara Williams

Research partners/collaborators:

• Ruby Portus (choreographer)
• Tom Walmsley (Nature Connection CIC)

Funder: ACCESS Network (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council)

This project was inspired by research in neuroscience and psychology showing that we need to transform environmental storytelling, moving away from stories focused on awareness raising, to ones which develop people’s capacity for action. We explored how this knowledge might be applied in an environmental education context, developing a model for action-based storytelling in the classroom and examining how this supports children’s engagement in and sense of agency over environmental issues.

To examine this, we ran nine workshops focused on action-based storytelling in primary schools. Drawing on conversations and surveys conducted with participating children, we showed how children expressed enthusiasm for further environmental learning, and reported increased levels of agency and intentions to engage with pro-environmental actions.

The project advocates that environmental education needs to centre stories which support children to engage with relevant actions. As part of this work, we developed and shared an adaptable model for action-based storytelling.

• Portus, R., Williams, S., Peklanska, E., Portus, R. and Walmsley, T. (2025). Buzzing about bees: Exploring action-based storytelling as a tool for children’s environmental engagement and agency. Environmental Education Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2025.2478430. 
• Portus, R. & Williams, S. (2026). Encountering school spaces: Navigating informed consent processes with school communities. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2026.2640922 
• Portus, R. (2025). Bibi the Bee. Rosamund Portus Art. 

For further information about the project, please contact Dr Rosamund Portus (rosamund.portus@uwe.ac.uk).