Improving university policies and risk assessment to support inclusive fieldwork in environmental sciences

Abstract

Higher education institutional policies on fieldwork, and associated fieldwork risk assessments, communicate in explicit and implicit ways how inclusive the institutional approach to fieldwork is, and whether fieldworker safety and wellbeing is an institutional priority. Appropriate policies, when effectively implemented, should protect individuals from harm and provide recourse if harm occurs. We reviewed the extent to which 90 UK higher education institutions that provide environmental science courses addressed protected characteristics, the rights of fieldworkers and responsibilities for fieldworker safety in their fieldwork policy (n = 67) and risk assessment (n = 77) documents. We found that 77% of policy documents mentioned protected characteristics, but only 40% stated that fieldwork participants have a right to safety in the field; only 5% stated a right to participate in fieldwork free from harassment. Among risk assessments, 51% mentioned protected characteristics; only 10% identified discrimination as a potential risk. Solution. Our results show that there is a need to develop more inclusive fieldwork policies and practice across UK institutions. Drawing from our results and existing literature, we recommend that institutions should: (i) strive for a philosophical and cultural change to make inclusion the default; (ii) develop institute- and fieldwork-specific policy and risk assessment documents; (iii) ensure that policies and risk assessments explicitly consider how characteristics and identities intersect with risk in the field; (iv) improve incident reporting procedures; (v) clearly articulate responsibilities; and (vi) use inclusive language that values fieldworkers and embeds their rights to safety.