General Issue March 2023: Science, Skills, and Climate

From the Editor:

This issue has been a labor of love through a winter of extreme weather and after a year of near constant cyber attacks (the free exchange of sustainability ideas is apparently quite threatening to some). I am struck by the number of ways that the authors in this issue identify key leverage points in our ability to change our current, disastrous direction as a species — from shifting our root metaphors in the context of climate change, to addressing the needs of elementary teachers to better understand and teach climate change and adaptation.

Over my years of editing this journal, I have noticed the academic discourse around climate change and other global trends evolving into one of embodiment, place-rootedness, and clear positionality while continuing to celebrate rigorous research processes. In addition to being a researcher and teacher, I am an organic farmer faced daily with rapidly developing extreme weather, and I am encouraged by the shift to a sense of responsibility among my fellow theorists and model-makers. Where traditional formal education is not evolving fast enough, new models of education are unfolding to address the challenges humanity faces, whether international networks of learning, country-wide responses to U.N. sustainability goals, or student strikes challenging the relevance in the formal education system in an era of climate disaster. Let us continue.

I also want to take this opportunity to invite you to consider submitting an abstract for an upcoming special issue: This collection centers on Community Engaged Critical Research (CECR) as a dynamic form of sustainability education for social learning and knowledge creation. CECR refers to a constellation of approaches and practices attentive to power relationships. To do CECR expresses a commitment to sharing power with all partners involved in a research project at every step of the research endeavor. The CECR model critiques the extractive, hierarchical, and often colonizing nature of research that leverages the researcher’s status, power, and position well above those researched (and often invisibilizes, dehumanizes, or degrades the research ‘subjects’). The end goal of CECR is to support the community-led initiatives of, agency development, and liberation for those engaged in the research at a time of significantly complex societal and environmental changes.The full call is available here.

Enjoy!

JSE General Issue March 2023: Science, Skills, and Climate

Case Studies

A Case Study for Climate Change Teacher Professional Development in West Virginia

by Kathryn Williamson, West Virginia University; Jamie Shinn, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Deb Hemler, Fairmont State University; Sandra M. Fallon, Media/Communication Consultant & Climate Activist, U.S.A.

Expanding our Audience: Examining Multilingual and Diverse Students’ Responses to Place-Based Ecocomposition to Address a Global Threat with a Global Audience

By Yasmin Rioux, Divine Word College, U.S.A.

Plastic Use in Wet Markets: A Case of Place-Based Sustainability Education in Hong Kong

by Prof. Ka-ming Wu, Centre for Social Innovation Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Dr. Chris King-Chi Chan, Royal Holloway, University of London; Sin-yuk Chan, Centre for Social Innovation Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Ka Wai Yung, Centre for Cultural Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Seeing Birds and Biodiversity through Science and Art: An Integrated Community Education Program

by Bryan S. Wang, Penn State University, Berks; David Livert, Penn State University, Lehigh Valley; Sandy Feinstein, Penn State University, Berks; Samantha Kavky, Penn State University, Berks, U.S.A.

Student Led Governance of a Campus Community Permaculture Garden at a Liberal Arts University

by Landon C. Urzetta, Asa J. Krieger, and Sara L. Ashpole, St. Lawrence University, N.Y., U.S.A.

Teaching to Cultivate a Better Anthropocene: Metaphor Work and the Conceptual Development of an Environmental Anthropology Course

by Trevor J. Durbin, Kansas State University, U.S.A.

Journeys

Reciprocity and Love in a Garden

by Rosemary Logan, Northern Arizona State University, U.S.A.

The Spinning and Weaving of “Yarns Around the Fire”: A Council of All Beings Story for Children and Its Multiple Implications

by Karen M. Hindhede, Central Arizona College, U.S.A.

Storybook Circling at the Councils of All Beings

by Scooter Cascadia, U.S.A.

Report

Model Centre for Sustainability Education with Partnership to Achieve SDGs in Sub-Saharan Africa

by M.A. Nwachukwu, J. I. Nwachukwu, J. Anyanwu, C. Ulo, J. Okorondu, C. Acholonu, and C. Ugochukwu, Department of Environmental Management, Federal University of Technology Owerri, Nigeria

Scholarly Features

Coping with Climate Despair: Cultivating the Skills of Hope and Tranquil Resolve

by Paul Stonehouse, Western Carolina University, and William Throop, Prescott College, U.S.A.

Exploring the Development of an Environmental Identity Using an Autoethnographic Approach

by Cari Ritzenthaler, Bowling Green State University, U.S.A.

The Effects of Educators’ Level of Environmental Literacy on Their View of Student Environmental Literacy and Perceived Barriers.

by Roberta Howard Hunter, and Rebecca C. Jordan, Michigan State University, U.S.A.

From the Global to the School Level: Connections and Contradictions between Fridays for Future and the School Context

By Annika Wilmers, DIPF, Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Germany

Preparing Pre-Service Elementary Teachers to Teach about Climate Change

by Dennis Sanchez Rosemartin, Salem State University,U.S.A.

Teaching Climate Change in the Context of the Climate System: A Mixed Method Study on the Development of Systems Thinking Skills in German 7th Grade Students