A Veterinary Science Initiative: An Analysis of Impact and Future Directions for Humane Education and Collaborative Partnerships

Humane education research is limited in its scope and structure and this has led to its inability to find a place in standard curriculum. As resources become scarcer for school districts and shelters, proving efficacy of programs is essential for successful partnerships and program achievements. VSI: Veterinary Science Initiative is a program developed by the education team at the Charleston Animal Society as a model for cooperative education between shelters, veterinarians, and other private organizations to collaborate with local school districts, while also conducting research about how this curriculum benefits student knowledge, organizational awareness, and community engagement.;The focus of this research is in two primary areas: to examine the efficacy of the program through changes in knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and evaluation of student products, surveys and observations, and to look the impact of the program as a model from a collaborative leadership perspective. Insights from this analysis can shape science education, humane education, and collaborative educational initiatives. The multimodal research approach adopted in this dissertation includes: comparing pre and posttest participant and control groups, evaluating rubric-based student products, tracking behavioral changes between control and participant groups, and collecting student and teacher surveys.;Using these assessments, the VSI program produced significant changes in the participants' behavior, attitudes, and knowledge. This dissertation recommends that humane education shifts focus to a more behavior-driven model that can appeal to animal shelters, schools, and their students. Implications for best practices in curricular development and instruction are reinforced by the impact of individual teachers on the classroom and power of interdisciplinary authentic lesson plans that provide accessibility to a diverse student population. Larger sample size would allow for a more accurate and complex model of impact from the program based on multiple covariates such as pet ownership, ethnicity, and school. In the future, more elaborate analysis of factors impacting humane education, science attitudes, and long-term student behaviors would be beneficial.