Beyond Systems Thinking: Political Literacy, Adaptive Capacity, and Biocultural Knowledge in Post-Wildfire Environmental Education (Poster 22)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 11:45am
  In Invited Poster Session: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research Poster Session

Abstract

As climate change intensifies environmental crises, education must prepare students to address complex social-ecological challenges. One year after the 2023 Lahaina wildfire, this study examines how high school students in Maui, Hawaiʻi, make sense of complex social-ecological challenges through two knowledge frameworks: Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) Biocultural Knowledge and social-ecological systems resilience (SESR). Drawing on surveys (n=18) and semi-structured interviews (n=15) with students, findings reveal a critical gap: students demonstrated strong systems thinking when analyzing environmental problems, yet proposed only community-scale interventions despite identifying systemic causes. Three curricular considerations emerge for building on students’ capacities, including integrating political literacy with ecological literacy, expanding resilience frameworks beyond disaster response, and centering Biocultural Knowledge through sustained partnerships with cultural practitioners.

Author

• Jadda M. Miller, University of California - Davis