With shifting definitions of climate emergency, increasing tension between advocates and deniers, and blurring of climate curricular boundaries, this panel seeks to understand what constitutes an education in 2025 for understanding, addressing, and living with climate change.
Drawing perspectives from faculty and graduate students, this conversation will explore the current climate change education and research landscape. It will touch on the notion of action, the care of the environment, the role of place, the building of responsive capacities, the fostering of resilient learning, the responsibility of higher education, and the pedagogies for a better future. Moderated by Balraj Rathod, PhD Candidate, Curriculum Studies, UBC Faculty of Education.
Panelists
- Dr. Shannon Leddy
Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy, UBC Faculty of Education
- Dr. Sandra Scott
Professor of Teaching, Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy, UBC Faculty of Education
- Dr. Kshamta Hunter
Lecturer, Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy, UBC Faculty of Education
Date
Thursday, March 27
Time
11 AM - 12 PM
Location
Online (via Zoom)
Organized by the UBC Sustainability Hub, Faculty of Education and Sauder School of Business.
This event is part of SDG Month Canada, a national collaborative initiative that invites all Canadian universities and colleges to organize workshops, panels and other interactive programming to increase awareness of and engagement with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
meet the panelists
Dr. Shannon Leddy (Métis) is a Vancouver-based teacher and writer whose practice focuses on decolonizing education and Indigenous education within teacher education. She holds degrees in Art History and Anthropology from the University of Saskatchewan (1994), an MA in Art History (1997), and a BEd (2005) from the University of British Columbia. Her PhD research at Simon Fraser University focused on inviting pre-service teachers into dialogue with contemporary Indigenous art as a mechanism of decolonizing education and in order to help them become adept at delivering Indigenous education without reproducing colonial stereotypes.
During her time as a public school teacher with the Vancouver School Board, Dr. Leddy worked at several high schools as a teacher of Art, Social Studies and English. After a two-year secondment to work as a Faculty Associate in SFU’s Professional Development Program in teacher education, she returned to the VSB to undertake the coordination of an arts-based mini-school. She has also worked as an Instructor in SFU’s Faculty of Education teaching courses in pedagogical foundations and Aboriginal education. In 2013 she was awarded SFU’s Aboriginal Graduate Entrance Scholarship and a SSHRC Bombardier Scholarship in 2015. Dr. Leddy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy at the UBC Faculty of Education.
Dr. Scott’s work is guided by Wonder as the Heart of Inquiry and Eco Pedagogy, which she views as learning in, from, and alongside nature with Nature as Companion, Teacher, Mentor, and Guide. Science education is her home, and in her experiences developing relationships, teaching, and learning alongside her students provide the foundation for all her pedagogical pursuits. Dr Scott welcomes and guides students on a journey to wonder through courses in Inquiry, Science Methods, Environmental Education, Research Methods, and field experiences in community. Her teaching centres joy, belonging, evidence-based hope and optimism and follows a constructivist approach guided by collective noticings and wonderings.
Dr. Hunter’s research explores intersections of sustainability learning and leadership, using Transformative Learning and social innovation frameworks. She is interested in designing responsive and relevant integrative curriculum and pedagogical approaches for the 21st century, through understanding the development of competencies for innovation toward sustainability. She is a lecturer in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy and Manager of Transformative Learning & Student Engagement with the UBC Sustainability Hub, where she is able to shape a lot of her research ideas into practice. She is an associate editor for the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. She is a member of first External Advisory Committee for Canada’s 2030 Agenda and recipient of the 2023 President’s Service Award for Excellence.
meet the moderator
Balraj Rathod is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum Studies at the Faculty of Education, UBC. His research explores how post-secondary students mobilize their scientific understanding of the climate crisis to take action. His work involves creating spaces of criticality, and locating socio-cultural pathways for integrating ethics, values, activism, and politics into science education. With a background in chemistry, he previously worked on developing low-cost water quality monitoring methods and investigated microplastic contamination in Indian water bodies. His scientific expertise informs his critical approach to climate education, leading to fostering inclusive, contextually grounded, and constructivist ways of learning science in addressing climate change. In the summer, he can be found beekeeping and helping organize honey extraction workshops.