Upon joining the NC State College of Education faculty, Associate Professor K.C. Busch was advised to establish a research agenda by colleagues.
Unsure of the best way to go and intimidated by the possibility, Busch spent her first few months at the college meeting with more experienced instructors and seeking advice. Finally, she determined that she wanted to be more intentional about expanding her climate change studies.
That research has been recognized with the 2024 Early Career Research Award from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST).
“I consider it a great honor to get this award. When I look at the list of former honorees, I’m humbled to be a part of it,” Busch remarked. “To have this type of positive feedback on the meaningfulness of your research agenda is rare and rather magnificent.”
NARST, a professional organization dedicated to improving science education through research, bestows the Early Career Research Award each year on a scholar within seven years of receiving their Ph.D. who demonstrates the greatest potential to make outstanding and ongoing contributions to educational research. The award criteria include publications, conference participation, grant-funded activity, and the focus of a scholar’s research agenda.
Busch’s research at NC State has shifted from a wide focus on climate change education to the resilience and challenges encountered by communities along the North Carolina coast.
Her new research, supported by a $1.1 million CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation, examines community-level scientific literacy and how community members use scientific information to make decisions regarding climate change adaptation.
As part of this work, she is currently working on publishing a literature analysis and expert interviews to better understand what community-level scientific literacy is.
“This is setting the foundation for my own work and also, I think, is foundational for the field because if you want to study something, you have to have a clear, conceptualized notion of what you’re looking at,” said Busch. “That didn’t exist so, in this paper, we’re establishing a foundation and then taking those ideas and testing them out in the coastal communities to see if they make sense.”
Busch and her research team are currently doing interviews with communities around the North Carolina coast and discovering that, while they use different language, they frequently describe the same ideas as scholars. However, community members have a broader perspective on what is essential to them.
“The scholars [in the literature review] talk a lot about scientific knowledge and scientific data and community members see that as only a piece of the puzzle,” Busch told me. “I think community members have much more focus on the social aspects and the economic and political contexts.”
As Busch prepares to receive her Early Career Research Award on March 18, she says the honor motivates her to continue on her current path.
“Awards often applaud you for your past accomplishments, but the way that I’m interpreting this award is that it is inspiration for moving forward with my work,” she went on to say. “It just bolsters my confidence and ability to continue the work that I’m doing, so that’s the gift that it gives.”
