Ph.D. Student University of California, Santa Cruz, United States
Since the inception of the environmental justice movement in the 1980s, there has been a growing effort to fight against environmental burdens that are still unequally impacting historically marginalized communities. With this burden comes a growing need for communities to be equipped with the tools to fight back, including knowledge that education can provide, especially to youth. Only a few past research studies have included youth through a youth-engaged environmental education approach, which allowed students to be involved in both research implementation, data collection, and even data production through such tools as photovoice (Johnston et al., 2019; Peloso, n.d; Peréa et al., 2019; Silverman, 2018; Simpson, 2007). Research that engages youth in participatory environmental justice research shows the importance of this partnership, as the aim is to bolster the ability of youth to partake in local environmental burdens through further research and activism in their communities and schools (Madrigal et al., 2014; Peréa et al., 2019). Through exposure to environmental justice curricula and research, youth can expand their understanding of the topic at hand, see how it impacts their communities, and become inspired to want to join the fight for more just communities for all. My proposed doctoral aims to add to the growing field by examining (1) how students contextualize environmental justice through community-provided environmental education approaches and (2) how students use that knowledge to implement change or draw connections in their communities.
