If you have led nature journaling with adults whose primary language is not English, I would love to talk with you about participating in an interview for my thesis (MA in Education at Prescott College).

Nature journaling involves writing or drawing from sensory and emotional awareness in outdoor surroundings. My study explores these questions: From teachers’ perspectives, how can nature journaling benefit adult ESOL students? and, How can teachers incorporate nature journaling into adult ESOL classes? I’m particularly interested in how EE outcomes like nature connection and sense of place might contribute to social emotional learning and language learning for adult ESOL students. I arrived at these questions from working and volunteering at EE nonprofits and, separately, in a community ESOL program in Baltimore, MD.

Could your insights add to the literature in this area? If so, please contact me! I am searching for four to six educators to interview. Please reach out via email with a brief explanation of how you meet the participation criteria (below). I will follow up with more information and, if you decide to participate, invite you to schedule a single one-hour interview via phone or Zoom. Thank you so much for reading and sharing this posting with anyone who might be interested.

A participant must:
1) be a formal or informal educator who teaches either ESOL classes OR in an environmental education class or program with students who primarily speak a language other than English, and
2) have experience leading nature journaling activities.
Finally, these activities must take place with adult students in the U.S. and may be ongoing or past experiences.

-Hannah Mueller, Hannah.mueller@student.prescott.edu