Research-practice partnerships for sustainability: lessons from New York City

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday IV)

Group Submission Type: Refereed Round-Table Session

Proposal

Education and sustainability are wicked problems, which are social or cultural problems that are difficult or impossible to solve. Wicked problems are challenging for multiple reasons: incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of stakeholders and opinions involved, the large economic burden, and the interconnected nature of these problems with other problems. Therefore, environmental and sustainability education is a combination of two wicked problems.

The interactive panel will focus on the evolution of a research-practice partnership between the New York City (NYC) Department of Education (DOE) Office of Sustainability and Teachers College, Columbia University. The partnership was established in order to improve sustainability in NYC public schools. To do so, the partners built the capacity to produce relevant work and capacity to translate research into policy and programing (i.e., research use). This work includes, for example, the development or a joint research agenda to improve sustainability in schools.

The panel will feature the partnership leadership, which includes leaders from the NYC DOE Office of Sustainability and the principal investigator from Teachers College, Columbia University:

Mcdermott Meredith (mmcdermott10@schools.nyc.gov)
Thaddeus T. Copeland (tcopeland@schools.nyc.gov)
Oren Pizmony-Levy (op2183@tc.columbia.edu)

Following a presentation of the partnership narratives (e.g., motivations and needs, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, conflicts and cooperation), we will open the discussion for questions and answers from the audience.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Environmental and Sustainability Education

Chair

• Carine Verschueren, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussants

• Meredith Mcdermott, Department of Education, New York City

• Thaddeus T. Copeland, Department of Education, New York City

• Oren Pizmony-Levy, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Mordechai Miron, Tel Aviv University

• Darren Rabinowitz, Teachers College, Columbia University