Muddy Sneakers’ Post

In case you missed the MVPs that we put a spotlight on this past Superbowl Sunday, here’s another chance to see their highlight reel! We want to take a moment again to show off the incredible scientists that are part of the Developing Environmental Literacy, Taking Action (DELTA) educational outreach program. This program helps to shape the next generation of scientists through fun and engaging activities. Check out the video to learn more.   #Superbowl #Superbowl2024 #SuperbowlLVIII #MVP #Enviroment #Education #Science #Scientist #California #WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM

🤩We are happy to share co-founder,  Charlotte Hankin’s, recent co-authored publication in the Australian Journal of Environmental Education: ‘Mess-making as a Force for Resistance: Reimagining Environmental Educational Research for Multispecies Flourishing’ 👀In this article, Charlotte employs ‘mess-making’ as a research and pedagogical approach that - 1) resists the civilising, domesticating, controlling ways that children and young people experience education across the world today; 2) resists the anthropocentrism that is imbued in our communities, systems, organisations that contribute to ecosystemic ill-health. 🐝You can read about how arts-based approaches support the kinds of messy learning that our world/s desperately need to address issues involving planetary health - this applies to the ways that adults learn, as well as children and young people! 🎁Unfolding Aliveness is an educational-ecological-artistic-space, studio, and practice which attends to, and creates with, multispecies world/s. 🦅We… Write Research Speak Consult Create  Collaborate  Care ✅Follow our page 🔥Take a course and join us to create messy Sound Stories for Multispecies Justice https://lnkd.in/gieC9yGK 🗓️We have 2 new cohorts starting on October 15th. Our early bird price ends on 8th October so secure your place now! Matthew Bejtlich #unfoldingaliveness #regenerative #education #soundecology #sustainability #multispecies #thriving #flourishing #regenerativeeducation #soundstories #planetaryhealth #ecologicaljustice #aliveness #unfolding #soundart #climatechange #justice 

 Seeking Global School Partners for Collaborative Learning Initiatives                              At Rockwoods International School, we believe in the power of global collaboration to enrich our students' learning experiences. We are excited to invite teachers and educators from schools worldwide to partner with us on innovative, cross-cultural projects. 🚀 Why Collaborate with Us? Our students engage in meaningful global projects emphasizing environmental sustainability, cultural exchange, and scientific exploration. Some of our exciting upcoming themes include: 1) Guardians of Earth: Mitigating Soil Erosion on a Global Scale 2) Heritage Buildings and Global Identity: Preservation Across Cultures 3) International Space Achievements: A Comparative Study of National Space Programs 4) Extinction Crisis: International Efforts to Preserve Endangered Species 📚 What We Offer: A platform for students to connect and share knowledge with their peers around the world. Joint virtual sessions, exchanges, and collaborative research opportunities. Integration of real-world global issues into the curriculum. 🤝 How You Can Get Involved: If you're a teacher looking to provide your students with international exposure, we would love to collaborate on a project that aligns with your curriculum. Whether it’s an exchange of ideas, research, or creative activities, let’s work together to foster global learning. Let’s Connect! Interested educators can reach out via LinkedIn or email us at[pujakumari@rockwoodsschool.com]. Let’s inspire the next generation of global citizens, one project at a time. #GlobalLearning #InternationalCollaboration #Education #Sustainability #RockwoodsInternationalSchool #CrossCulturalExchange #ProjectBasedLearning #SpaceExploration #CulturalHeritage #EndangeredSpecies.

Exciting news! I am thrilled to announce that my science article has been published on curioustem.org, and I also received an offer to join their team of content writers. Check out my article on ecology at https://lnkd.in/gcrYCckX. I highly recommend exploring their other articles, which are aimed at kids and are all truly exceptional. #STEMeducation #sciencewriting #curioustem

Fostering positive engagement: climate change and environmental activism in the sixth-grade classroom | Open Access Adiv Gal Pages: 1-19 | DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2024.2369804 Abstract A qualitative study adopting a phenomenological approach examined the feedback of 53 sixth-grade students (aged 11-12) who participated in an annual educational program on climate change and environmental activism. The program was structured around instilling hope while utilizing the ‘head,’ ‘heart,’ and ‘hands’ pedagogical framework. Research tools included two open-ended questions and a reflective summary of their participation in the educational program. Through first- and second-cycle coding methods, it was revealed how some students acquired scientific literacy, developed global awareness, and honed critical-thinking skills. Furthermore, the experiential learning fostered by the program generated advantages, challenges, and recommendations expressed by the students. Despite the challenges, students reported a positive experience from the program and emphasized the importance of continuing environmental action even after its completion. In summary, this research underscores the school’s ability to foster active student engagement in combating climate change, emphasizing optimism over apprehension. #climatechangeeducation #SDG13 #climateaction #proenvironmentalbehavior #elementaryschool #positiveemotions https://lnkd.in/gnMjFiHs

𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓭𝓸𝓮𝓼 𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓼𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓶𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮 𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓾𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓸𝓬𝓬𝓾𝓻? Folks I have a new article! My first in ages and this has been a long time coming. Thanks especially to my co-authors Victoria Wibeck, Kristin Zeiler and Björn-Ola Linnér for their disciplinary expertise and help with the publishing process. I am very proud that it is in Environmental Science and Policy and grateful to our handling editors, Esther Turnhout and four anonymous reviewers.   It's a review of two literatures - Dialogical #SenseMaking and #Feminist #Phenomenology and how they apply to transformations research. It's the first of two articles I led during my post-doc at Linkoping University on Transformations and #OntologicalSecurity in the context of #ClimateChange #LossandDamage in the #Pacific. God that's a lot of jargon in two sentences. We're really asking a combination of questions that have been neglected in sustainability transformations research: 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒘𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅? Here's the contribution we hope to make to understanding #transformation: • People shape and are shaped by transformative change. • How people experience and make sense of transformative change is not well understood. • Here we introduce two approaches from social sciences and philosophy that address this gap. • Each provides distinct yet complementary tools for understanding the situated experience of transformative interactions. • This can help us understand how experiences of transformative change shape people’s responses to them. Some useful links to unpack the jargon: Dialogical Sense-Making: https://lnkd.in/ecYwQ5gG Feminist Phenomenology: https://lnkd.in/ewJGHAxZ Climate Change Loss and Damage: https://lnkd.in/eEmdFfDc. The second article (still in review) is a sense-making analysis of how Pacific Leaders understand the concept of Loss and Damage in relation to their lived experience of climate impacts in Pacific Islands. We jointly explore the personal and intangible dimensions of transformative change, with some amazing Pacific partners - watch this space! perhaps of interest Karen O'Brien Guy Jackson Angelica Johansson Sandra Waddock Julia Leventon The Loss and Damage Collaboration Nathalie Seddon Alexandre Chausson Focali - Forests, Climate & Livelihoods Emily Boyd Mine Islar (E) Lisa (F) Schipper Andrea Nightingale Therese Asplund Magdalena Hart Tobias Plieninger - please share if you think it would be interesting and relevant to your colleagues. We welcome discussion and feedback of course! https://lnkd.in/eTxrqNYy

In this episode, Derek interviews Emily Affolter, who teaches in Prescott College's PhD program in sustainability education, about culturally responsive teaching, emphasizing equity in education. Emily shares how she and her colleagues build trust with diverse students, foster equity even in large lectures, and decolonize disciplines like marine biology. Her program attracts professionals, some already holding PhDs, who seek to integrate social and environmental justice into their teaching and leadership. Culturally responsive teaching, as Emily describes it, involves reimagining classes to prioritize equity. Listen now. https://ow.ly/rBAB50T3pcl

From the Introduction to the book: Earthwards is both a direction and a statement of intent. It signifies a shift - the desire to move from where we are toward a new position that is healthy for ourselves and the planet. It acknowledges that we can start in the direction we intend from wherever we are and move forward step by step. Earthwards also emphasizes a new role for humans who choose to care for Earth as both stewards to and allies with the rest of the living biome. This book is the story of a small group of teachers in a K-12 international school who chose to change the way they teach about climate, environment, and ecology in their school. They are primary, middle years, and secondary teachers working in their classrooms, with their school curriculum, and in school clubs and service groups. Together, they demonstrate that it is possible to change the way we approach the teaching of ecology, sustainability, and environmental studies in school. These practical initiatives are based on principles of: • Enabling a paradigm shift from separation to connectedness in our relationship with the natural world. • Fostering ecocentrism, biophilia and systems thinking. • Designing for projects that include peak experiences in nature, transformative ecological awareness, and multiple ways of knowing • Telling the stories on for inspiration and further change. 

Making kin in the forest: explorations of ecological literacy through contemplative practices in a Swedish folk high school | Open Access Kristin Persson, Maria Andrée & Cecilia Caiman Pages: 1-16 | DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2024.2309587 Abstract This study is about the use of contemplative practices in forest fieldwork and how such practices could support the growth of ecological literacy. Ecological literacy is explored by employing Donna Haraway’s notions of becoming-with and companion species. The study is based on fieldwork with a group of adult learners attending a folk high school in Sweden. The participants are followed as they encounter and are becoming-with species of the forest. The empirical material consists of video- and audio-recordings. The results provide a narrative of forest encounters, environmental concerns and dreams about the simple harmonic life. The forest fieldwork thus provides a site for elaborating a more inclusive ethics and teaching strategies where nonhuman-human relational aspects become center to ecological literacy. The results suggest that folk high school environmental education could be used as a source of inspiration in disrupting the practices of compulsory science education. #ecologicalliteracy #forestfieldwork #folkhighschool #contemplativepractices #becomingwith #SDG15 #lifeonland https://lnkd.in/gPa3xKKi

You may have heard of our new Ecological Validation model and wondered what a good first step might be toward implementation. Well wonder no more! We just published a new piece on strategies for building validating relationships with students: https://lnkd.in/gXgfcErk