Small shifts lead to impactful changes
As a sustainability education scholar I am interested in the connection between sustainability education, education research, and education practice at all levels, but more specifically secondary and higher education. I am also interested in the resilience and persistence of pre-service and in-service teachers.
My dissertation research focused on identifying the prevalence and understanding of key sustainability literacy categories (i.e. sustainability knowledge, systems thinking, social justice, and futures thinking) in a teacher education program in the United States. This research identified some leverage points within teacher education programs where sustainability can be integrated without it becoming an add-on to an already full curriculum.
At the MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative I leveraged my experiences in education and my dissertation research on the SCALES project. The goal of the SCALES project is targeted expansion of instructional capacity in the United States on topics of climate change and sustainability at secondary and post-secondary institutions, including community colleges. Much of my work on the SCALES project and my dissertation has been condensed into a white paper, An Introduction to Sustainability Education.
I have also been involved in research that has looked at how to leverage change post-disaster to build a more sustainable future following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Research Keywords: sustainability literacy; sustainability competencies; teacher education programs; social justice