I presented this with Dr. James Joss French at AESA (St. Louis) and NAME (Chicago) in 2011.

1. Developing an Environmental Studies Magnet School
Using an Ecojustice Framework
Joss French, Ph.D.
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University

2. BACKGROUND
Recipient of about $1.2 million from MSAP federal grant
Magnet school in an urban setting serving grades PK - 8th
Theme is environmental studies
Students from city and surrounding suburban towns
Kurt and Joss are co-program directors, focusing on
professional development

3. ECOJUSTICE
FRAMEWORK
Ecology intersected with culture
Investigating and critically questioning issues of sustainability,
modernity
Explores cultural commons
Exploring root mindsets
Difference with EJ vs. EE is that it incorporates EE but also
includes analyses of cultural connections/influences, mindsets
Social constructs are questioned and examined

4. ADDITIONAL
CONNECTIONS
Border crossing work
Kurt is teaching a “Nature, Science, and Sustainability”
course at an alternative school that is set at a sustainable
farm in a neighboring town.
Joss has done work on the cultural commons with
elementary teachers and students, as well as at a
sustainable farm with community members.

5. YEAR 1 - GOALS
Teachers and administrators explore their visions of the larger purposes of the
school
Unlearning commonsense/taken for granted practices
Expose and explore framework
Integrating EE with EJ
Ground-up not top-down, individualized to their classroom practices and
pedagogies
Begin developing professional library
Make connections between magnet themes and CT state standards for science,
applied

6. YEAR 1 - RESOURCES
Economics of Happiness:
For questioning globalization, unsustainable practices, abuses of
corporations, exploitation of peoples
Explore strengths of localization
Zoe Weil:
Connected to vision, having students become “solutionaries”
Ken Robinson:
Exploring divergent thinking and critically questioning convergent thinking
Aloha/Haole consciousnesses used for guiding metaphors
Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations episode in Nicaragua to provide a
context for ecojustice

7. YEAR 1 - FINDINGS
Optimism Tensions
“Solutionaries” How will this fit with current
curricula?
Having a meaningful purpose for
teaching Is this an attack on traditional
science?
Authentic connections with
standards Personal identities and mindsets
as “participators”
Interdisciplinary connections
Will this too much for young
Community-based teaching students?
opportunities and partnerships
Is this narrowing or even
indoctrinating?

8. YEAR 2 - GOALS
Work with new principal and support staff
Focus on classroom teaching practices
Data teams
1-on-1 discussions
Observations
Co-teaching
Unit and lesson planning/reflection
Use formalized data collection such as interviews, surveys, and ongoing observations
Pre-service teachers

9. (BEGINNING)
YEAR 2 - FINDINGS
New principal and staff focusing more on traditional EE, inquiry, very familiar with
EJ framework in a practice based context
Teachers consistently express feeling overwhelmed by the principal’s new and
ongoing initiatives.
Teachers are not yet incorporating EJ into their lessons although there is a
willingness
During planning, debriefing/reflecting, and co-teaching experiences (4) teachers
expressed a strong desire to incorporate EJ, generated their own ideas, see
possibilities
One teacher talked to us for about 3 hours deconstructing her learning
experiences and her questioning of the traditional schooling practices
(commons-creator)

10. (BEGINNING)
YEAR 2 - FINDINGS
Class observations show a current lack of understanding and an
array of outside pressures from testing that are driving teachers’
decision-making, inhibited and threatened by testing focus
(scripted teaching), fear of taking risks
More towards inquiry-based lessons
Teachers are struggling to make concepts accessible for
students, “stuck” in their own mindsets of teaching about
environment and science in general.
When EJ was used, students were more motivated and able to
access concepts

11. YEAR 3 - GOALS
Hand-off to identified teacher leaders and administrators
More teachers become leaders
Ongoing support for teachers in classrooms, meetings, and
professional development
Use formalized data collection such as interviews, surveys,
and ongoing observations