Restorying the Cape Fear Watershed through Black Ecologies (Poster 28)

• 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

This study examines how Black ecological case studies can reorient educators’ and youths’ understandings of water, justice, and place through narrative, affect, and speculative pedagogies. Grounded in Black Ecologies and narrative-based research, the project engages educators and youth with stories of Black port workers, seafood entrepreneurs, environmental injustice, climate displacement, and Black beach relations in the Lower Cape Fear region of North Carolina. Using facilitated story engagement, reflective dialogue, and curriculum design, the study explores how these case studies shape participants’ affective responses, sense of place, and visions for more just environmental futures. Findings suggest that centering Black environmental knowledge disrupts dominant settler frameworks in environmental education and cultivates relational, justice-oriented approaches to climate learning and action.

Author

• Maya Revell, University of Oregon