From Water Pollution to Water Protectors: Teacher Reflections on a K-5 EcoJustice Curriculum

• In Event: Decolonizing Environmental Education: Place, Pedagogy, and Counter-Histories

Abstract

EcoJustice topics illuminate the economic, historical and cultural roots of social and environmental injustices and can deepen student understandings across elementary curriculum. This paper explores how an introduction to EcoJustice curricular materials can support teachers to bring socio-environmental issues into their K-5 classrooms. Through professional development, teachers were introduced to EcoJustice instructional materials and enacted multiple lessons, allowing them to experience the critical thinking and multidisciplinary nature embedded in the lessons. Findings support that teacher participants realized possibilities to teach about EcoJustice topics across content areas using student-centered pedagogies. They also shared that lessons provided deeper opportunities for students to build important content knowledge and critical thinking skills, while empowering them to take individual and collective action.

Authors

• Marissa E Bellino, The College of New Jersey

• Greer Burroughs, The College of New Jersey