Expansive learning with youth: Exploring student inquiries into local and global ecosystems

• In Event: The Potential of English Language Arts Education for Restor(y)ing Hopeful Socioecological Futures

Abstract

Objective

This study analyzes ecosystems inquiries: 1) a filmmaking project focused on water stewardship with 5th graders and 2) a collaborative high-school student publication of a Resilience in Nature magazine. Through an examination on the products from students’ inquiry and the processes used to create them, findings show that inquiry lives, grows, and evolves, through pluralistic and inclusive practices.
Theoretical Framework
Intersecting theoretical frames of pluriversality (Escobar, 2018; Perry, 2024) and transdisciplinarity (Ibarra, et al., 2023; Jerome, et al., 2024) were used as lenses to examine inquiry learning about sustainability and ecosystems. These views foster a global view that centers diverse perspectives and ways of knowing (Chappell et al., 2024) that lie in sharp contrast to the siloing of singular disciplines.
Methods
Design-based research (Hoadley and Campos, 2021) was used to analyze the process and products stemming from Film School for Global Scientists (Summers, et al., 2021). DBR recognizes the complex social context where both participants and designer-researchers have agency. Filmschool participants included 5th graders and community partners who supported water stewardship within and beyond school. Partners including science, media studies, filmmaking, outdoor learning organized experiential learning and students created films to capture learning and communicate their personal stance. Data sources included discussions collected during community events, the use of aerators to reduce water flow at school and home, and student created films. Co.Lab (see Forzani & Castek, 2021) is a school within a school model for 9th graders that emphasizes interdisciplinary inquiry around themes of identity, resilience, empathy, & action. Each curricular theme included transdisciplinary inquiries and student co-created public presentations of learning alongside community members. Four student-written magazines disseminated publicly. The creation of Resilience in Nature magazine, were analyzed using content analytic methods (Krippendorf, 1989).

Findings
FilmSchool inquiries illustrate how visual storytelling and scientific inquiry intersect to inform inquiry and action for water stewardship. Students’ water inquiries served as communicative devices for individual actions that informed daily practices for the youth and their community. When scaled, students demonstrated how collective action can make a global impact. Conceptualizing water in a transdisciplinary way through an inquiry process using a school, university, and community partnership served to deepen students’ relationships with the environment and community.


Co.Lab supported student agency in their learning and action through disciplinary lenses and community engagement. Findings revealed the importance of bi-directional expertise through the circulation and sharing of magazines both in print and digitally. Magazines were multimodal productions and artistic representations from personal inquiries including articles about local and global habitats. Youth voices reflected the impact ecosystems have on students’ lives and connected to what ecosystems mean to their communities.

Authors

• Jill M. Castek, University of Arizona

• Michael Manderino, Northern Illinois University