Co-Design of Climate Justice Case Studies

• In Event: Equity and Agency in Climate Change Education

Abstract

Purposes 

For students from historically marginalized communities, such as Students of Color (SOC), examples of climate change impacts that intersect with justice are thought to be central to engaging interest and fostering strong identity development in disciplinary activity. To resource this type of learning, we engaged in a collaboration between three organizations (representing Communities of Color [COC], science researchers [SR], and educational researchers [ER]) who have been involved in collaboration to create climate justice case studies as a form of transformative curriculum resources for students and teachers which explore and disrupt intersections with racial oppression. Such work can be challenging for several reasons: historically based lack of trust between COC and those involved in the enterprise of science (Huang & Coker, 2010), whiteness as property impacting intellectual resources (Harris, 1993), and differences in visions of equitable science education (Penuel, Lee, & Bevan, 2014).
Theoretical Framework 

Curricula and pedagogical approaches that interrogate power in current knowledge and knowledge generating processes can foster student interests and identity development (Bang, et al., 2013; Moje, et al., 2001; Stovall, et al., 2009). To be theoretically consistent, the design process of such curricula efforts need to also interrogate power dynamics (Bang, et al., 2016). Different positionalities (Harré et al., 2009), historical experiences, and repertoires of practice (Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003) come into play during collaborative efforts to produce educational resources, and potentially into conflict, however, such differeneces can also be viewed as community cultural wealth, reources that enrich the activity and final products (Yosso, 2005).
Methods & Data Sources
In this study, we detail the work of a research practice partnership (Coburn & Penuel, 2016), referred to here as the OCC Climate Justice Case Development (OCC-CJCD), focused on the co-design of transformative science education resources. We take a critical ethnographic approach to data collection and analysis (Carspecken, 1996) using data sources such as meeting notes, curriculum product interations, and interviews.
Results 

Multiple design features were visible in during the OCC-CJCD work. First, trust was seen as crucial in entering into the work. Members of the design team spent time getting to know each others’ backgrounds and negotiating how they could work together. Second, our positionalities as individuals and as representatives of our respective organizations was always open to discussion. Third, time was made to ensure we all had a shared vision of underlying visions of equity that informed our work as well as co-developing our vision of project products and the process to produce these. Finally, issues of product ownership, authorship and resource hosting were discussed and decided on early in the process, collaboratively and with priority to center the OCC over the science and research partners.
Significance
This work provides a description of the process and challenges of engaging in research practice partnerships that involve organizations with highly racialized histories and/or goals, particularly when the goals of the partnership are situated within socially volatile content domains such as climate science.

Authors

• Marcus Franklin, NAACP

• Brandon Rodriguez, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

• Deb Morrison, University of Washington - Seattle