Speaker: Dr. Todd Campbell, University of Connecticut
Learning and teaching in and for the Anthropocene requires a new set of frameworks and practices in science education, as well as questioning universalizing ontologies or powered and industrialized ways of worldmaking that have given rise to the Anthropocene. Traditional siloed approaches to disciplinary learning, while consistent with Western dualistic and substance ontologies, are insufficient for preparing learners to live and relate differently in the world in addressing the complex, interconnected, and transdisciplinary problems associated with the impacts of anthropogenic changes on Earth’s systems and the human and more-than-human communities that inhabit these systems. Consequently, this presentation will focus on the Engineering for Ecological and Social Justice (EESJ) Instructional Framework, a framework developed with colleagues and refined with teachers, and example case studies from classrooms and science teaching methods courses that seeks to support teachers in planning for instruction that centers ontological multiplicity, intersectionality, relationality, community building, agency, hope, and radical care in the face of ecological crises.