Chapter 1: Introduction - University of Alaska Fairbanks

264 Pages·2008·1.45 MB·English

by  Laura Henry

CULTIVATING SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH
PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH: PLACE-BASED EDUCATION AND
COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS IN INTERIOR ALASKA

A DISSERTATION

Presented to the Faculty
of the University of Alaska Fairbanks

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

By

Laura R. Henry-Stone, M.A., B.A.

Fairbanks, Alaska

May 2008
iii
Abstract

As the environmental movement grows into a broader sustainability revolution, we must move
beyond the traditional scope of environmental education to address social-ecological challenges
through integrated education for sustainability. This research explores how place-based
education can promote sustainability of a community food system in which feedbacks between
production and consumption are integrated within a biocultural region. Through participatory
action research, the project develops and demonstrates pedagogical components of sustainability
that are applicable to formal and non-formal educational contexts. In this pedagogy, the purpose
of sustainability education is to foster a community culture that will promote the emergence of
sustainability in complex adaptive systems with social and ecological components.

This work is based at the Effie Kokrine Charter School (EKCS), a junior-senior high school in
Fairbanks, Alaska that teaches with an Alaska Native approach, emphasizing place-based,
experiential, and holistic education by utilizing students’ natural and human communities to
facilitate learning. The collaborative design of an Interior Alaska gardening curriculum serves as
both an organizing framework for the project’s fieldwork as well as an outcome of the research.
The resultant gardening curriculum and the rationale behind its design demonstrate components
of pedagogy for sustainability, including systems thinking, place-based and problem-based
learning, eco-cultural literacy, eco-justice values, and appropriate assessment. Sustainability
pedagogy within settings of higher education should also include action research. The structure
of this dissertation research reflects how action research incorporates components of
sustainability pedagogy. This pedagogical framework has theoretical and practical implications
in multiple educational settings and indicates ways for our educational institutions to participate
in the global sustainability revolution.
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Table of Contents

Signature Page..................................................................................................................................i
Title Page.........................................................................................................................................ii
Abstract...........................................................................................................................................iii
Table of Contents............................................................................................................................iv
List of Figures................................................................................................................................vii
List of Tables................................................................................................................................viii
List of Appendices..........................................................................................................................ix
Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................................x
Chapter 1: Introduction...............................................................................................................1
1.1 Problem Statement........................................................................................................1
1.2 Research Design...........................................................................................................3
1.2.1 Participatory Action Research......................................................................3
1.2.2 Research Setting...........................................................................................3
1.2.3 Collaborators.................................................................................................4
1.2.4 Interdisciplinary Nature of Research............................................................4
1.2.5 Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis.....................................................5
1.3 Defining Sustainability.................................................................................................5
1.4 Systems Thinking.........................................................................................................7
1.5 Curriculum and Pedagogy..........................................................................................11
1.6 Outline of Chapters.....................................................................................................13
Chapter 2: Sustainability Challenges in Interior Alaska: Integrated
Social-Ecological Problems Concerning Food Systems and Educational Practices..............14
2.1 Interior Alaska Biocultural Region.............................................................................15
2.2 Food Systems in Interior Alaska................................................................................21
2.2.1 Land-based Athabascan Food Systems.......................................................24
2.2.2 Introduced Euro-American Food Systems..................................................28
2.2.3 Contemporary Interior Alaska Food Systems.............................................30
2.3 Educational Practices in Interior Alaska....................................................................31
2.3.1 Traditional Alaska Native Education...........................................................31
2.3.2 History of Formal Schooling in Alaska........................................................32
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2.3.3 Contemporary Alaska Education System.....................................................34
2.3.4 Local Education Reform Efforts..................................................................35
2.4 Addressing Integrated Sustainability Challenges.......................................................38
Chapter 3: Models for Sustainability Education: Place-based
Education and Community Food Systems.................................................................................41
3.1 Sustainability Education.............................................................................................41
3.2 Place-based Education................................................................................................44
3.3 Roots of Place-based Education..................................................................................49
3.3.1 Environmental Education ...........................................................................50
3.3.2 Outdoor and Experiential Education...........................................................53
3.3.3 Summary.....................................................................................................54
3.4 The Role of Place in Indigenous and Cross-Cultural Education ................................55
3.5 Designing and Assessing Place-based Sustainability Education................................60
3.6 Grounding Sustainability Education in Community Food Systems...........................63
3.7 Constructing an Image of Contemporary School Gardening......................................67
3.7.1 Youth Garden Programs Separate from Schools.........................................75
3.7.2 School Garden Partnerships........................................................................77
3.7.3 School-based Garden Programs..................................................................78
3.8 School Garden Design Themes...................................................................................80
3.9 Place-Based Education through School Gardening....................................................83
Chapter 4: Participatory Action Research at the Effie Kokrine Charter School:
Pursuing Quality through Collaboration...................................................................................85
4.1 Practice and Theory of Action Research....................................................................85
4.1.1 Traditions of Action Research....................................................................88
4.1.2 Positionality................................................................................................92
4.1.3 Validity........................................................................................................93
4.2 Stages of Action Research..........................................................................................96
4.2.1 Stage One: Pilot Project.............................................................................98
4.2.2 Stage Two: Planning with EKCS Staff....................................................107
4.2.3 Stage Three: Gardening with EKCS Students..........................................111
4.2.4 Stage Four: Conducting Teacher Interviews and Meetings.....................113
4.2.5 Stage Five: Designing Curriculum...........................................................115
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4.2.6 Stage Six: Writing a Dissertation.............................................................117
4.3 Summary..................................................................................................................119
Chapter 5: The Emergence of the EKCS Gardening Curriculum.......................................120
5.1 Stage One: Pilot Project............................................................................................121
5.2 Stage Two: Getting to know EKCS Community......................................................122
5.3 Stage Three: Gardening with EKCS Students..........................................................125
5.4 Stage Four: Conducting Teacher Interviews and Meetings......................................136
5.5 Stage Five: Designing Curriculum...........................................................................140
5.5.1 Module Content Themes...........................................................................141
5.5.2 Teacher Understandings of Sustainable
Agriculture and Community Food Systems..............................................146
5.5.3 Appropriateness of Gardening Curriculum to Meeting School Goals......150
5.5.4 Teaching Philosophies and Approaches....................................................155
5.5.5 Curriculum Goals......................................................................................158
5.5.6 Learning Activities....................................................................................161
5.5.7 Standards...................................................................................................162
5.5.8 Projected Outcomes..................................................................................166
5.5.9 Summary: Curriculum as Product.............................................................168
5.6 Stage Six: Drawing Conclusions..............................................................................170
Chapter 6: Pedagogy for Sustainability..................................................................................171
6.1 Goals and Components of Sustainability Pedagogy.................................................171
6.1.1 Systems Thinking......................................................................................173
6.1.2 Place-based and Problem-based Learning.................................................174
6.1.3 Eco-cultural Literacy.................................................................................176
6.1.4 Eco-justice Values.....................................................................................178
6.1.5 Appropriate Assessment: Sustainability Standards and Indicators...........181
6.2 Sustainability Pedagogy and the EKCS Gardening Curriculum..............................184
6.3 An Action Research Addendum for Higher Education............................................187
6.4 Conclusion................................................................................................................188
References....................................................................................................................................189
Appendices...................................................................................................................................207
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List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Physical Map of Alaska...............................................................................................17
Figure 2.2 Vegetation and Language Maps of Alaska..................................................................17
Figure 2.3 Native-Western Science Venn Diagram......................................................................36
Figure 4.1 Action Research Cycle................................................................................................90
Figure 5.1 Howard Luke’s Letter-to-the-Editor..........................................................................131
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List of Tables

Table 3.1 Center for Ecoliteracy Education for Sustainability Competencies..............................60
Table 3.2 State of Vermont Sustainability Standard.....................................................................62
Table 3.3 Summary of School Garden Programs, examples from the United States....................68
Table 3.4 Searchable Categories for School Gardens...................................................................80
Table 3.5 Keyword Search of Descriptions of Gardens................................................................81
Table 4.1 Primary Characteristics of Action Research.................................................................86
Table 4.2 Traditions of Action Research.......................................................................................89
Table 4.3 Quality Criteria for Action Research............................................................................95
Table 4.4 Stages of Action Research............................................................................................97
Table 4.5 Informal Proposal for Collaborative Research............................................................102
Table 4.6 Action Research Options Discussed with Advisors in March 2006............................105
Table 4.7 Comments from EKCS Collaborators Indicating Democratic Validity......................115
Table 4.8 Field Journal Notes on Gardening Curriculum Design...............................................117
Table 5.1 Activities for May 2006 Food System Module...........................................................127
Table 5.2 Field Journal Notes on Gardening at Howard’s Camp................................................130
Table 5.3 Categories of Data Analysis Relevant to Curriculum Design.....................................142
Table 5.4 Gardening Curriculum Unit Components...................................................................169
Table 5.5 Organization of Gardening Curriculum Units.............................................................170
Table 6.1 Evaluative Themes at Student and Community Levels...............................................183
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List of Appendices

Appendix A: EKCS Gardening Curriculum..............................................................................207
Appendix B: Howard Luke Interview Transcript......................................................................228
Appendix C: EKCS Charter School Proposal and Spiral Curriculum.......................................235
Appendix D: Researcher Background.......................................................................................243
Appendix E: Research Methods and Calendar..........................................................................246
Appendix F: IRB Interview Protocol ........................................................................................247
Appendix G: IRB Informed Consent Form ..............................................................................248
Appendix H: Research Proposal submitted to EKCS Academic Policy Committee.................250
Appendix I: State of Alaska Cultural Standards for Education.................................................254
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Acknowledgements

To my parents, Drs. Don and Kathryn Henry, for giving me the foundations necessary to build
this work.
To Craig Gerlach, for pushing me to envision something unique and worthwhile by teaching me
to always ask “So what?”
To Ray Barnhardt, for helping me focus on the field of education and serving as a model of
integrity in higher academics.
To Joan Parker Webster, for giving me the gift of participatory action research and the zone of
proximal development.
To Gary Kofinas, for serving as a bridge between my research and committee members and the
goals and philosophy of UAF’s Resilience and Adaptation Program.
To Sheryl Meierotto and the Effie Kokrine Charter School students, staff, and board, for
embracing me as a member of their learning community.
To Stacia Backensto and Kumi Rattenbury, for being my compatriots from year one of our
journey through RAP and our lives in Fairbanks, and to countless other RAP students.
To the NSF IGERT Program, the UAF Resilience and Adaptation Program, the Department of
Anthropology, the School of Education, the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies, and the Graduate
School, for supporting me during my graduate school career.
To the community of Fort Yukon and the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments Natural
Resources Department, for providing me with a way to experience life in a contemporary
Athabascan community during an internship for CATG.
To the members of the Fairbanks Women Writers Group, for reading my scattered writings over
the last six years, including two drafts of my introductory dissertation chapter.
To Rosie Creek Farm and Calypso Farm and Ecology Center, for educating me about sustainable
agriculture in Interior Alaska.
To the Fairbanks yoga community, especially my teachers Maya, Shanti, Susanne, and Laurel,
and Dr. Megan Brown, for helping me stay healthy through grad school.
To all my supportive friends, especially Qamar Schulyer, for being my sister by choice.
To my husband, Brad Stone, for being my companion and taking me on adventures on a regular
basis to renew my spirit and re-connect with my priorities.
1
Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Problem Statement
This research is concerned with the practice and theory of sustainability education
(Cloud, 2005; Scott & Gough, 2003; Stone & Barlow, 2005). Through participatory action
research with teachers at a charter school in Interior Alaska, I collaboratively developed a place-
based gardening curriculum as a way to explore pedagogy for sustainability. Place-based
education constitutes a set of practices wherein educators use students’ local environment and
community as a teaching context (Sobel, 2004; Williams, 2003). The following research question
draws together my practical and theoretical interests in sustainability education: How can the
design of a place-based gardening curriculum at an Interior Alaska Native charter school link
youth to their communities and contribute to the sustainability of local food systems? Within this
question, I pursued the following research objectives:
• Conduct participatory action research to design gardening curriculum that is
ecologically and culturally appropriate for Interior Alaska Native communities.
• Work with Alaska Native elder(s) to elucidate the historical role of gardening in
Alaska Native communities and incorporate this knowledge into curriculum.
• Identify ways to engage students with their local food systems through place-
based education.
• Illuminate where some of the biggest impacts can be made in promoting
sustainability of local food systems through education.
• Cultivate sustainability pedagogy and associated practices that connect students
with their natural and human communities in order to promote cultural and
ecological sustainability.
My initial research questions arose from my own experiences living and working in
Interior Alaska, especially during a summer internship working for the Council of Athabascan
Tribal Governments in Fort Yukon, Alaska, where I learned from Alaska Native cultures in a way
that augmented my academic, Anglo-American background. My short time in this community
gave me a deeper understanding of how to unite my interests in human-environment interactions
with what I saw as real problems facing rural communities like Fort Yukon. My research has
been driven in part by my desire to share this cross-cultural learning with others. I have
developed an appreciation of Native ways of knowing and living not only through direct