Sharing Ten Years of Science

Research Objectives and Expected Results

The objectives of this project are to:

1. Catalog and Document Ten Years of Scientific Projects on Tetiaroa

   1. Objective: To systematically document the projects that have conducted research on Tetiaroa, the methods used and their outputs. This will include creating Local Contexts Notices and Labels for each project.

2. Examine the Evolution of Scientific Information Practices for those projects

   1. Objective: To analyze how scientific information practices at the Tetiaroa Ecostation have evolved over the past ten years. This includes understanding how data is generated, managed, and disseminated, as well as identifying the factors that have influenced these practices over time.

3. Experiment with ways to share results back to the Tahitian community and the Station community.

   1. Objective: To utilize new tools to augment how scientific information is shared. Potentially in multiple languages, as educational material, as a journal, and as information for the public and broader scientific community.

The expected results of this project are a comprehensive understanding of the science done to date, the ways that the field station infrastructure has evolved to support science and identified ways of sharing results back to the communities of interest.

Scientific Description

This project sits at the intersection between field station management, place-based research, and benefit sharing back to the places where the research was derived. Bringing these disparate pieces together, 10 years of Science provides a moment for the teams that have worked here during this first decade to reflect on what they have built individually and collectively.

We will use an ethnographic research approach to document the 10-year Science project to explore and document the shifting research practices and share lessons learned and practices with the Tetiaroa stakeholders and potentially other place-based research communities. Ethnography is an approach used to make sense of what is going on, particularly when the focus is on people working together and their process around creating knowledge. It has been used in all kinds of applications, from studying scientific laboratory practices, to office workers, to local communities. Ethnography provides an “analytic account of events and activities as they occur, without attempting to evaluate the efficacy of people’s practices” (Blomberg & Karasti, 2013, p. 374). This approach is well-aligned with studying evolving science at the Tetiaroa Ecostation.

I will lead the design and implementation of the proposed ethnographic component of 10-years of Science. The ethnographic work will evolve with the project. I have an IRB protocol for this proposed work. I will use participant observation, open and semi-structured interviews, and document collection. Data collection will be in the form of field notes, interview notes, audio recordings and document analysis, respectively. The expected duration of the total study is six months.

My data analysis follows Charmaz’s approach to constructivist grounded theory but also draws from classic grounded theory by Glaser, Strauss, and Corbin and practical guidance from Urquhart (Charmaz, 2014; Corbin & Strauss, 2014; Glaser & Strauss, 2017; Urquhart, 2023). Constructivist grounded theory aligns with my research approach and “acknowledges the subjectivity and the researcher’s involvement in the construction and interpretation of data” (Charmaz, 2014, p. 14). I use Atlas.ti to conduct line-by-line coding and create open codes for individual interviews to develop lower-level concepts. Codes are then grouped to create categories. Throughout this entire process, I create memos about insights, themes that are emerging, and comparisons between codes and categories.

Through many rounds of analysis codes, memos, and categories are related together to develop a theory. I will share the analysis back with the team regularly to check my understanding and refine the theory. Through this reflection, the team will be able to consider their approach and will likely surface, discuss, and learn from problems in productive ways. The ethnographic contributions will include formal reports and presentations, informal and regular documentation blogging, and artifacts for reuse, like facilitation guides.

In addition to the ethnographic understanding of what is currently happening, I will use participatory design approaches to develop review papers for each team that encompasses the highlights of their work and significant contributions. These will be published as an output of the project.

Draft 10-Year Review Science Template

Technical Means Used On Site (Detailed description of environmental manipulations). Include links to Protocols like Protocols.io if you have them

Areas of the reserve to visit or conduct manipulations in.

No areas of the reserve will be visited or manipulated in this project.

Interest for French Polynesia

This research intentionally connects research done over the last 10 years back to the region. It provides a record to French Polynesians, and it demonstrates approaches to knowledge sharing and benefit sharing that can carried forward in the next decade.

How does this research fit into past and current research in the region (especially Moorea, Tahiti, and elsewhere in French Polynesia, South Pacific, etc.)?

This research provides connections across research already done and may be a starting point for new projects. It also develops an approach that may be useful to other field stations in the region for characterizing the research done and provides knowledge that may be useful for environmental management and education.

Why must this research be done in Tetiaroa, and how does it address the mission of the Tetiaroa Society?

This project is part of the 10-year anniversary of the Tetiaroa Ecostation.

Funding Information

Funder Name: N/A

Award ID: N/A

Related Works

Robinson, E., Buys, M., Chodacki, J., Garzas, K., Monfort, S., Nancarrow, C., Praetzellis, M., Riley, B., Wimalaratne, S., & Davies, N. (2023). FAIR Island: Real-world examples of place-based open science. GigaScience, 12, giad004. https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giad004