A perennial goal of environmental education is to produce a scientifically literate citizenry capable of negotiating and resulting complex environmental problems. Popular methods of environmental education instruction tend to overemphasize scientific content knowledge and neglect to consider ethical and moral aspects of the problem. This qualitative study examines the longitudinal association between an experiential environmental education course infused with SSI instruction and students’ environmental behaviors. The results indicate that several students’ conceptualizations of contentious environmental issues change after completing the course and specifically. Furthermore, students’ willingness to act to resolve contentious environmental issues was most closely associated with their environmental behaviors. The most significant theoretical implication of the study is the effectiveness of the SSI framework in authentic experiences. Additionally, this study supports the notion that SSI instruction in authentic experiences is an effective alternative approach to teaching environmental education.

In this study, I investigated seven and eight-year-old children’s interest in the boreal forest in Yukon, Canada. This research attempts to provide insight on this topic by giving students autonomy over their movement in a diverse natural landscape, and by investigating where they go and what they do in a forest context. A mixed methodology approach was used to explore children’s interest in the boreal forest, and data were analyzed from the geospatial technology that was affixed to each child, and by inquiring about what the children enjoyed doing in the forest. Key findings from the study included: the importance of play as a primary means of interacting socially with the environment, children’s affiliation and fascination with living things as strong motivators for exploration, and the affordances the landscape offered the children, specifically loose parts (e.g., sticks, berries) and the diverse topography (e.g., hills for running, dense forest for hiding). Based on these findings, I contend that it is becoming increasingly important for educators, parents, and policy makers to understand the child-nature relationship and its relevance to young children. / Graduate

This autoethnographic study details the researcher’s experiences as a high school student and as a new teacher—which eventually led to the creation, implementation, and 8-year life cycle of Mount Logan Discovery, a sixth-grade integrated outdoor experiential learning program in a public middle school. Routine field experiences established academic background knowledge, fostered relationships, built confidence, and provided purpose for curriculum standards. Perspectives of parents, students, colleagues, administrators, and donors add detail. This study responds to calls qualitative studies that focus on how outdoor programs are conducted, the descriptions of experiences and perceptions of students and parents, and how participants were changed through outdoor experiential learning programs. The primary research question was: What are the lived experiences of the researcher as a founder of a public middle school outdoor experiential learning program, from its inception to its closure? Though outdoor experiential learning is the main theme, this study is also about teaching reading and writing in authentic contexts, integrated science, and the struggle for constructivist-minded educators to humanize schools within high-stakes testing culture. From a theoretical standpoint, this is a story of constructivism in praxis. Participants described that outdoor field experiences improved their attitude towards school, their overall confidence, fostered relationships, established a strong classroom community, and boosted their academic performance. Students and parents emphasized the impact integrating literacy with field programs had on their writing and reading skills. Other themes that surfaced include the role of field experiences in building character and allowing students to find joy and happiness in the learning process. Parents and students alike indicated outdoor field experiences had a lasting impact on participants lives. The analysis also identifies six steps for putting principles of constructivism into practice in schools, recommendations for implementing new programs, and components of effective field programs. The narrative spurs parents, educators, administrators, and lawmakers to reflect on what really matters in schools. Until we change the way schools are evaluated, outdoor experiential learning programs like Mount Logan Discovery, and other attempts to enrich students’ educational experiences, will always exist on the fringes and in the shadows of public education, fighting for sustainability.

Equitable schooling requires that all students are able to participate, including those who are involved in the justice system. However, schools for youth who are in custody or in treatment are presented with challenges that may inhibit offering their student body science courses. This exclusion is a result of safety restrictions that coincide with what General Strain Theory (Agnew, 2006) refers to as having a strained population. Strained individuals experience significant life stressors that pressure them to anomie. Given the prevalent absence of strained individuals from science courses, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that the Healing Outdoor Program and Education (HOPE)–a remote treatment centre in a western province in Canada–had offered a for-credit high school science program during its operation from 2005 to 2020 that was a popular pick amongst students. In order to examine the science education experiences of youth who are involved in the justice system, this case study explores the types of strains that HOPE’s students faced, how those strains affected their learning, and how the pedagogical strategies mitigated/exacerbated strains. Document analysis, interviews with teachers and staff, and a field observation revealed that a pedagogy built on relationship, place-based science education, and personalized education were integral to academic success. However, underpinning educational achievement was a distinctive holistic approach to students’ wellness that addressed their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social needs, through the use of Indigenous inspired practices, other forms of therapy, and the remote wilderness location. Furthermore, this case exemplified that it is not only feasible to offer science courses to strained individuals, but also possible to use science as a catalyst to reengage strained youth with schooling when teachers have the right conditions and supports. Therefore, this study presents pedagogical approaches that were successfully used with a marginalized group and provides recommendations for HOPE as they seek out funding partners to reinstate operations, so that they can continue providing youth with hope for a better future.

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Drawing on literature about place-based education and service-learning, as well as three groups* perspectives about their service-learning experiences, this research describes how place (understood simultaneously as a material agent, a setting for human activity, and a factor in an individual*s situatedness) and identity (understood in terms of one*s social position) are socially- constructed concepts that impact students* writing and learning experiences. More specifically, this project presents place-based education as a teaching method that can focus and reinvigorate service-learning in a writing course. Including place-based content and service-learning projects in a writing course requires careful design and reflection. However, course design should not be an activity limited to just teachers. In alignment with feminist research methods and standpoint theory, this research values and privileges the perspectives of stakeholders who are not normally included in the course design process: students and community partners. To present a rich account of these stakeholders* experiences designing, implementing, and participating in a place-based service- learning project, a combination of qualitative data methods (interviews, classroom observations, and textual analyses) is used. This information serves as the basis for the design of a place-based writing course with a local service-learning component. The proposed course asks students to work with community partners to identify a place-based need that can be addressed—at least in part—by writing-related service. By collaborating with community partners, creating writing products that address community needs, and reflecting on how their identities and learning experiences have been impacted by the places they*ve worked and the communities they*ve worked with, students can apply their knowledge in meaningful contexts, write for real audiences, and develop more thorough understandings of the places where they study, work, and live.

Thesis advisor: Thomas Groome / How should educators in faith respond to the reality of human-caused climate change and environmental destruction, especially in view of Pope Francis’ prophetic challenge for Catholics to take this reality with utmost and urgent seriousness? In particular, I address those educators in faith who work in and with communities that have borne the disproportionate costs of these realities. Indigenous peoples and those who live in communities where extractive and polluting industries such as timbering, mining, energy production from hydroelectric dams, and plastics production are paramount in my mind. However, I also address those whose imagination and communities are shaped by a consumer society that depends on the displacements and exploitation of the 2/3rds world. Drawing on the work of sociologist, Rebecca Scott, who identifies the thought patterns of the West as being grounded in a “logic of extraction,” I believe that educators in faith have an important role to play in assuring the reception of Pope Francis’ challenge among Catholic faithful to listen to the cry of Earth and the poor, particularly among most White Catholics in the West. In view of the dislocations of extractive socio-economic and cultural-political systems, this dissertation suggests that an appropriate pedagogical response begins with cultivating a deep sense of place. It is essential that each person comes to view their own being as grounded in places composed not only of human built environments but of land, water, and air. As opposed to the more common attitude of “care” or “stewardship” of Creation, the guiding vision of our relationship to Creation should be one of kinship. I give particular attention to the place of Appalachia as a case study for modelling what I call a critical Creation-centered pedagogy. To develop this pedagogy I draw upon Thomas Groome’s model of Shared Christian Praxis, bringing it into dialogue with place-based education. In my examination of place-based approaches to learning I give particular attention to the land education model developed by Indigenous educators. The choice of Appalachia is quite simply because Appalachia, particularly West Virginia, is my place. It is a place I love and know, and I hope that each reader will engage this dissertation with their own place in mind. This pedagogy is a critical pedagogy because it emphasizes the importance of identifying relationships of power that produce and maintain an extractive mentality. I give particular attention to settler colonialism, capitalism, and consumerism as extractive structural systems toward which education in faith must attend if it is to be a force of healing and justice. Young people engaged in critical Creation-centered education in faith are encouraged to think critically about the often complex and contradictory ways in which they are “placed” within these networks of power. It is Creation-centered because I regard Earth as our first and primary teacher. In dialogue with Urie Bronfenbrenner, I develop an understanding of the human person that is thoroughly relational. Human health and well-being are reciprocally related to the health and well-being of the “social ecologies” in which persons live. This requires that educators in faith attend to significant relationships and institutions as well as socio-economic and cultural-political systems with/in the lives of their students. With particular attention to adolescence, I examine the possibilities of Bronfenbrenner’s understanding of human development for faith development. For young people living in or displaced from places such as Appalachia, damaged by extractive systems, it is especially important that they are connected to empowering networks that allow them to nurture positive relationships with God, self, others, and Creation. These relationships must also empower agency from an early age. Young people should also be encouraged in developmentally appropriate ways to act as stakeholders within the significant communities and groups to which they belong. To this end, I draw upon the potential of connecting Positive Youth Development theory to education in faith, with particular attention to recent developments in this field that focus on youth-based community organizing and activism as especially salient for the positive and empowered faith development of young people displaced by oppressive systems of power. Education in faith, when grounded in place, has much to contribute to this process. However, this requires reading the Judeo-Christian tradition with place in mind. The Judeo-Christian tradition offers an alternative logic that calls for a conversion from extraction to jubilee. Covenantal values of sabbath and jubilee express a connection to the land which was central to Jesus’ ministry and preaching on the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ own experience of being placed in Galilee in the context of the extractive economies of the Roman Empire influenced his spiritual development and relationship to the Creator-liberator God. Ultimately, the Judeo-Christian God is a God of life and this includes the life of all beings and all of Creation. Jesus nurtured a movement that brought people into their own power, encouraging a new relationship to land and place. Education in faith should carry forth this mission by creating contexts for healing and justice in places damaged by extraction. Critical Creation-centered pedagogy involves all members of a community and to this extent place-based education in faith moves young people beyond the traditional classroom and challenges the traditional teacher-student relationship. Particularly for young people from oppressed communities, it is important that they discover knowledge present in their place and community. I address primary caregivers and families, classroom educators, parish communities, and the wider civic and bioregional community all of whom have a role to play within a place-based pedagogy. I also give attention to the unique role summer camp programs might play in this process. I conclude by attending to the work already being done by Catholics in Appalachia to seek a faith grounded in a healing and justice bringing relationship to Earth, testifying to the theological vision and ministerial work of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia. My own faith owes much to the ongoing witness of this remarkable movement, which I first encountered as a high school student. In part, my dissertation is an attempt to bring pedagogical focus to the theological and ministerial vision of this remarkable movement of the Spirit in the mountains. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Schools in the United States often emphasize making children competitive in a global economy while neglecting the importance of developing citizens who are ecologically responsible. Problems of climate change, loss of biodiversity, mass extinctions and degradation of the natural environment, are often ignored. Some researchers have suggested that children lack unstructured play time in nature, have an increased amount of screen time, lack mindfulness, and are insulated from the natural world. Many children rarely have significant experience with nature's wildness. It is common for people to experience a sense of placelessness in the hyper-mobility of present times where "globalizing" agendas limit a sense of place or community. Teachers can also feel constrained by the physical confines of school and the intellectual confines of ordinary school curriculum. As a response to my students' lack of significant experiences with nature, my own dissatisfaction with ordinary teaching, and my sense that school curricula neglect ecological issues and restricts teaching innovation, I created a summer mountain wilderness art workshop designed to give 6th, 7th and 8th grade students an immersive alternative art education experience. This study explored the affordances and limitations of an alternative classroom focused on outdoor experiences, walking, art/ecological studies, and my own experiences in attempting to change the conditions of teaching and learning. This research uses qualitative methodologies including action-based research, elements of a/r/tography, arts-based research, and an ecological arts-based inquiry that involves questions about ecology, community, and artistic heritage.