During this workshop, you'll meander along parts of the Spokane River Walk, an ADA accessible trail that follows along the Spokane River downtown through the Riverfront Park adjacent to the Convention Center, and engage participants in creatively and critically considering the significance of “place” in environmental education research. By way of its own meandering, the Spokane River connects the lands of many Indigenous peoples of the upper Columbia River watershed including the Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, and the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho. Taking the position that no matter where we are working from as researchers and practitioners, “place” is a complex and critical aspect in EE research and research methods, and in need of thoughtful consideration (Tuck & McKenzie, 2015).

Put simply, place matters. Asking the question, “How does place matter for how we do our research?,” this fieldtrip will engage participants in an active practice of moving along the river, stopping on the way to listen and learn from local researchers, practitioners, educators, and community members who are grappling with the intense complexities of place. These local EE researchers will share how they work with commitment to social justice and sustainability. Each stop along the scenic stroll will invite participants to consider how place matters to researchers engaged in multispecies justice, decolonization and Indigenous futures, environmental and social activism, local economics, ecohumanities, and more. The wander will culminate with a facilitated activity that asks participants to consider how place matters in their own research contexts. The purpose of this field trip is comprised of two interrelated goals: 1) researchers/participants will learn about how local EE researchers are engaged methodologically in learning from and with diverse voices of the local Spokane River communities; 2) researchers/participants will have the chance to consider the multitude of ways that place matters in their own EE research and methods. 

Tuck, E., & McKenzie, M. (2014). Place in research: Theory, methodology, and methods. New York, NY: Routledge.

The group will be dining at Saranac Public House, a local favorite within easy walking distance of the Spokane Convention Center. Dinner will include a buffet with your choice of vegetarian or fish entrees, salad, and dessert. 
Beverages are not included and may be ordered separately. 
Price includes tax and tip. 
Pre-registration is required and space is limited, so early sign-up is recommended. 
Must be registered for the Research Symposium to sign up for the dinner. 
No cancellations or refunds after September 25. 
 

Dr. Marcia McKenzie, moderator, is a Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations and Director of the Sustainability Education Research Institute at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. She is Principal Investigator of the Sustainability and Education Policy Network (www.sepn.ca), and co-author and co-editor of numerous publications. She is an Associate Editor of the journal Environmental Education Research. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on social theory and education; education policy; critical education; climate change, environment, and sustainability education; place; and the politics of social science research.

Panelists

Dr. Olivia Aguilar is an Associate Professor in the McPhail Center for Environmental Studies at Denison University. Her research focuses on the nexus of critical learning theories, community environmental action, and the place of race in environmental education, in order to pursue a more inclusive and just field. 

Dr. Charlotte Clark is an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Sustainability Education at Duke University in the Nicholas School of the Environment. She researches collective learning and behavior, and also has strong interests in sustainable food systems and campus sustainability. She is grateful for the ways that NAAEE’s annual conference and Research Symposium anchor her professional and research work.

Dr. Rachelle Gould, an Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont, is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work involves social science, the humanities, and a bit of ecology. Her research explores the relationship between people and ecosystems and focuses on Cultural Ecosystem Services and lifelong and life-wide environmental education and learning.

Dr. Clayton Pierce is associate professor in Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Washington University. Pierce’s research examines neoliberal education policy and how communities develop ecologically just responses within such contexts. His book Education in the Age of Biocapitalism charts the merging of the highly engineered crop field and the intensely measured classroom while also evaluating learning spaces that resist education as biocapital production.

Dr. Kathryn Stevenson is an Assistant Professor in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management Department at North Carolina State University. She runs an EE research lab investigating benefits of nature-based instruction, using intergenerational learning to drive community change, and the intersection of agricultural and environmental literacy.

Dr. Alan Reid, moderator, edits the international research journal, Environmental Education Research, and publishes regularly on environmental and sustainability education (ESE). Recent examples include editing Environmental Education: Critical Concepts in the Environment, which reviews 50 years of activity in this area, and Curriculum and Environmental Education: Perspectives, Priorities and Challenges. Alan's interests in research and service focus on growing traditions, capacities, and the impact of ESE research.

Panelists

Dr. Carie Green is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She teaches place-based education and social science research methods in the People, Place, and Pedagogy graduate program. She was recently awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER: A Longitudinal Study of the Emotional and Behavioral Processes of Children’s Environmental Identity Development Among Rural and Nonrural Alaskan Children. She is the author of the book, Children’s Environmental Identity Development (Peter Lang, 2018).

Dr. John Lupinacci is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education at Washington State University. He is co-author of EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse, Democratic, and Sustainable Communities. His experiences as a classroom teacher, outdoor environmental educator, and community activist-artist all contribute to his research and teaching in support of socially-just, diverse, and sustainable communities.

Dr. Martha Monroe is a professor at the University of Florida’s School of Forest Resources and Conservation. She has worked in EE for 40 years (if you count summer jobs) in community EE, teacher training, curriculum development, evaluation, and research. 

Dr. Milton G. Newberry, III is an Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia’s Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication. He has worked in EE across the Eastern U.S., focusing on evaluation, using animal ambassadors, and building EE capacity. He runs a lab on animal ambassadors and effective teaching strategies in EE and informal STEM education.

Dr. Fikile Nxumalo is assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of Texas at Austin where she is also affiliated faculty in Black Studies and in Native American and Indigenous Studies. Her research and pedagogical interests are centered on environmental education that is situated within and responsive to young children’s unevenly inherited ecological precarities.

Dr. Nicole Ardoin, moderator, is an associate professor at Stanford University, where she has a joint appointment in the Graduate School of Education and Woods Institute for the Environment. She is also the faculty director of the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources in the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. Nicole’s scholarship focuses on individual and collective engagement in environmental and sustainability behaviors and practices as well as people's connection(s) to place(s) and how those influence their relationships to each other and the natural world.

Panelists

Dr. Heidi Ballard is an associate professor of science education in the Graduate School of Education at University of California, Davis. Dr. Ballard conducts research with and trains educators and conservation biologists on how to better involve people in science, from the perspective of an ecologist and social scientist.

Dr. Scott Morrison is assistant professor of education at Elon University, USA. He is the coordinator for the environmental education minor, the middle grades education program, and the secondary social studies program, and he is the co-creator and co-moderator of the #ElonEd Twitter chat. His research focuses on ecologically minded teaching, place-based education, and social media, and has been published in Environmental Education Research, Social Studies and the Young Learner, and Phi Delta Kappan. 

Indira Phukan is a doctoral candidate at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. She has a MS in Environmental Sciences from Stanford, a MEd in Special Education, and a BA in History from Harvard. She worked as an environmental educator and diversity coordinator in Yosemite, and a teacher in Las Vegas. She researches stereotypes about the environmental movement in order to illuminate ways that people have been systematically and institutionally excluded and suggests ways of inclusion.

Dr. Timothy D. Zimmerman is Jonathan Lash Chair and Assistant Professor of Environmental Education at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA USA. As a learning scientist, his scholarship and teaching focus on designing and improving pedagogical practices and learning tools, for use in a variety of formal (e.g., schools) and informal (e.g., aquariums, outdoors) learning contexts, that foster environmental decision-making."

Dolores Calderon (Mexican/Tigua) is associate professor of Youth, Society, and Justice at Western Washington University's Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies. She is from the El Paso/Juarez border region and now lives on the U..S./Canadian border. Thus, her research interests include coloniality/settler colonialisms, land education, indigenous epistemologies, and border issues as they manifest themselves in educational contexts. Some of her research projects include examining how settler colonial ideologies shape social studies curriculum, in attitudes around Title XI American Indian programs (formerly Title VII), teacher education, and notions of dispossession broadly.

A research project she is excited in pursuing is examining how archives have been (mis)used to frame ideas of mestizaje. As a firm believer that theory is best illuminated by engagement, she values the work educators do to concretize critical perspectives. She has published in Qualitative Inquiry, Educational Studies, Environmental Education Research, Harvard Educational Review, and Anthropology and Education Quarterly. She is also the co-author of Reclaiming the Multicultural Roots of U.S. Curriculum: Communities of Color and Official Knowledge in Education.