Justice-Centered Learning and Caring With Youth of All Ages Through Sustained Curricular and Professional Supports

• In Event: Redefining Care in a Global Pandemic: Problematizing Relational Models in Socio-Ecological Systems

Abstract

Rationale & theoretical framing: Decades of organizing led by frontline communities and recent youth-led intersectional justice movements have heightened public awareness of the need for broad societal transformations to address environmental damage and the global climate crisis. As educators, we have an urgent responsibility to move toward intergenerational solidarity and equity (Mary Robinson Foundation, 2013; Mbeva, 2014) by supporting young people in navigating their current and future realities.

All young people can and should engage in justice-centered learning and action concerning topics that are consequential for them and their communities (Frost & Sanchez, 2020; Morales-Doyle, 2017). Sustained engagement with environmental and climate learning is critical for nurturing students’ critical awareness, understanding of scientific concepts and phenomena, caring commitments and ecological relationships (Han & Bell, 2019), and ethical deliberation and decision-making (Learning in Places, 2020a). However, youth learning about complex socio-ecological issues is often constrained by deeply entrenched assumptions about “developmental appropriateness” and idealized white, Eurocentric conceptions of child-nature relations (Nxumalo, 2019). As such, attending to role remediation (Bang and Vossoughi, 2016) in learning spaces is crucial for honoring and amplifying learners’ voices, concerns, agency, and leadership capacities.

Methods & data: We approach our research partnership using critical ethnography (Carspecken, 1996) and critical design ethnography (Barab et al., 2004) situated within a broader design-based implementation research (Fishman et al., 2013) effort with a statewide network called ClimeTime. We focus on insights from the iterative design of the Climate Justice League (cohort-based professional learning community for secondary teachers) and STEM Storylines (K-5 NGSS-aligned units), two case study projects within ClimeTime that support justice-centered environmental and climate learning for students of all ages. Data sources include video, artifacts and field notes, interviews and focus groups, curricular and instructional materials, and examples of student learning.

Findings & significance: Through critical qualitative analyses of these data sources, we demonstrate how young people engage deeply with real-world, consequential, and justice-centered environmental and climate issues. Educators implement intentional practices to support student learning and action, including: centering global majority perspectives and leadership, partnering with community experts, interweaving locally relevant and global salient phenomena, and leveraging project-based pedagogies. As educators facilitate these forms of learning, they also shift in their own professional identities and commitments — for example, they move toward different conceptions of their roles within learning communities, the nature of scientific and related disciplines, and the capabilities and expertise of students. These shifts reflect transformative reorientations of power and historicity in educational systems (Learning in Places, 2020b).

By analyzing teachers’ engagement in the Climate Justice League cohorts, we demonstrate how the professional learning community serves as a space of ongoing support and solidarity for participants, particularly as they navigate pushback against their efforts to implement justice-centered learning. We find evidence for the importance of curricular and pedagogical supports that are co-designed with educators, leverage educator leadership, and are highly responsive to educators’ needs. We argue that sustained and deeply collaborative relationships with youth, educators, and communities are essential for supporting emancipatory and justice-centered environmental and climate learning across all ages.

Authors

• Pranjali Upadhyay

• Stacy Meyer, Educational Service District 112

• Rachel Han, University of Washington - Seattle

• Philip L. Bell, University of Washington