Systems Thinking Through Multi-Sector Climate Literacy Partnerships

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers as Agents of Change in Sustainability Education

Abstract

This study investigates how multi-sector partnerships foster systems-oriented, justice-driven climate literacy in the Midwest United States. Using Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), the research analyzes three organizations, a museum, a library, and a cultural arts collective, within the Regional Climate Education Network (RCEN). Drawing on interviews and field observations, the study explores how each partner contributes to an emergent systems thinking framework through collaboratively developed Climate Literacy Design Principles. While partners rarely name “systems thinking,” their practices demonstrate its sociocultural dimensions, integrating scientific, historical, emotional, and justice-oriented approaches. Findings dicuss a flexible, place-based framework for translating systems thinking into educational practice and show how contradictions and boundary-crossing practices catalyze expansive learning and cross-sector coherence in climate education.

Author

• Shaghig Chaparian, New York University