Work

Goal

The goal of all my work is to foster science informed, justice-centered leadership, specifically in climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience efforts. I do this primarily through designing and facilitating learning activities.

Guiding Principles

All work is done with an inquiry stance (Cochran-Smith, 2010) building knowledge through cycles of carefully documented activity informed by theory (Praxis; Freire, 1970); such work is best done from a humble stance as learner.
Action should be informed by knowledge and when knowledge is gained there is a responsibility to take action (Praxis; Freire, 1970).
Justice is central and the focus of a given action is informed by specific positionalities, contexts, and collaborations (Tuck & Yang, 2016).
Climate change is the scientific, economic, political, and justice issue of our time.
Colonialism, and its' legacies, still operate in the world, causing injustices, and thus all action should actively be de-colonial (Tuck & Yang, 2016).
White supremacy lives in the world, as do other forms of intersectional oppression, and thus all action should actively work against racism (Tuck & Yang, 2016).
Love and care should be a consistent part of how we engage in the world with humanity and all life (anything written by bell hooks; and every Indigenous author I have ever read).

Cochran-Smith, M. (2010). Toward a theory of teacher education for social justice. In Second international handbook of educational change (pp. 445-467). Springer, Dordrecht.

Freire, P. (1970/1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed (revised). New York: Continuum.

Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2016). What justice wants. Critical Ethnic Studies, 2(2), 1-15.

Fields and Dimensions of Activity

I engage in this work, informed by the guiding principles outlined above, through activity in four overlapping fields: Justice, Climate, Learning, and Leadership.

Dimensions of Activity

There are multiple dimensions that can be taken to the analysis or study of any given activity (Collins, 2002):

Structural (laws and institutional organization)
Disciplinary (organizational practices)
Interpersonal (everyday social interactions)
Hegemonic (ideology and culture)

I engage these different dimensional lenses across all spheres of my work.

Collins, P. H. (2002). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.

Spreading Ideas

I resist generalization when it comes to learning, science, and justice efforts. Instead of scaling efforts that have been successful in one location we can think of spreading ideas from one area to another with local contextualization for place. The sharing of values, ideas, and principles through visions of practice in particular contexts allows for meaningful learning across diverse spaces. As a result of this stance, I find myself working across many different scales and taking a network approach to learning.