Potholes and Sociopolitical Possibilities: Deepening Environmental Education for Black Children Living and Learning in the City

Abstract

This article addresses a fundamental issue in urban and environmental education (EE): the sociopolitical savvy and everyday expertise embodied by city-dwelling Black children are seldom regarded as core indices of learning. While there is important scholarship focused on frameworks for expanding EE, very little of this work engages with Black city-dwelling children's place-based knowledge. Consequently, this study analyzes data taken from an 18-month project conducted in a mid-size city. I show how fourth- and fifth-grade Black children conceived of the quality of air, land, and water, often in ways that articulated blurred boundaries between scientific and sociopolitical phenomena.

Keywords

elementary school racism social urban African American students urban education culturally relevant pedagogy subjects qualitative

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adler

P. A.

Adler

(1987). Membership roles in field research (Vol. 6). Sage.

Bang

Curley

Kessel

Marin

Suzukovich

E. S.

III Strack

(2014). Muskrat theories, tobacco in the streets, and living Chicago as Indigenous land. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 37–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.865113

Barton

A. C.

Tan

(2010). We be burnin'! Agency, identity, and science learning. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19(2), 187–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508400903530044

Bellino

M. E.

Adams

J. D.

(2017). A critical urban environmental pedagogy: Relevant urban environmental education for and by youth. The Journal of Environmental Education, 48(4), 270–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2017.1336976

Bernstein

(2011). Racial innocence: Performing American childhood from slavery to civil rights. New York University Press

Berry

A. G.

(2021). Haunting as historical thinking: Learning to construct whiteness in history classrooms [Doctoral dissertation]. Northwestern University.

Bryan

(2021). Remembering Tamir Rice and other Black boy victims: Imagining Black playcrit literacies inside and outside urban literacy education. Urban Education, 56(5), 744–771. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920902250

Cannella

G. S.

Lincoln

Y. S.

(2009). Deploying qualitative methods for critical social purposes. In Qualitative inquiry and social justice (pp. 53–72). Left Coast Press.

Carspecken

P. F.

(1996). Critical ethnography in educational research: A theoretical and practical guide. Psychology Press.

10.

Carter

R. L.

Simmons

(2010). The history and philosophy of environmental education. In The inclusion of environmental education in science teacher education (pp. 3–16). Springer Netherlands.

11.

Coles

J. A.

(2020). “It’s really geniuses that live in the hood”: Black urban youth curricular un/makings and centering Blackness in slavery’s afterlife. Curriculum Inquiry, 51(1), 35–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1856622

12.

Coles

J. A.

(2023). A BlackCrit re/imagining of urban schooling social education through Black youth enactments of Black storywork. Urban Education, 58(6), 1180–1209. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085920908919

13.

Crawley

(2014, October). Otherwise, Ferguson. Interfictions Online. http://interfictions.com/otherwise-fergusonashon-crawley/

14.

Davis

N. R.

Neal-Jackson

(2022). All or nothing: Demystifying the “what,” “when,” and “how” of participant observation in school-based research with Black youth. In Care-based methodologies: Reimagining qualitative research with youth in US schools (pp. 9–13). Bloomsbury Academic.

15.

Davis

N. R.

Schaeffer

(2019). Troubling troubled waters in elementary science education: Politics, ethics & black children’s conceptions of water [justice] in the era of Flint. Cognition and Instruction, 37(3), 367–389.

16.

Davis

N. R.

Vossoughi

Smith

J. F.

(2020). Learning from below: A micro-ethnographic account of children's self-determination as sociopolitical and intellectual action. Culture and Social Interaction, 24, 100373.

17.

Davis, N. R. (2017). Hope in those places of struggle: A critical exploration of black students' agency in one place-based and one African-centered elementary school [Doctoral dissertation].

18.

Davis, N. R., & Philip, T. M. (2025). The emotional valence of hyper rationality in STEM learning: Reinscriptions and contestations of coloniality. Science Education.

19.

Deniz

U. H.

Kalburan

N. C.

(2024). Preschool educators’ opinions and practices on school gardening. Urban Education, 59(9), 2709–2737. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859221125710

20.

Disinger

J. F.

(1985). What research says: Environmental education's definitional problem. School Science and Mathematics, 85(1), 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-8594.1985.tb09596.x

21.

Domínguez

(2019). Decolonial innovation in teacher development: Praxis beyond the colonial zero-point. Journal of Education for Teaching, 45(1), 47–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2019.1550605

22.

Duhn

Malone

Tesar

(2017). Troubling the intersections of urban/nature/childhood in environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 23(10), 1357–1368. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1390884

23.

Dumas

M. J.

Nelson

J. D.

(2016). (Re)Imagining Black boyhood: Toward a critical framework for educational research. Harvard Educational Review, 86(1), 27–47.

24.

Erickson

(2006). Studying side by side: Collaborative action ethnography in educational research. In Innovations in educational ethnography (pp. 235–257). Psychology Press.

25.

Finney

(2014). Black faces, white spaces: Reimagining the relationship of African Americans to the great outdoors. UNC Press Books.

26.

Flanagan

Gallay

Pykett

(2022). Urban youth and the environmental commons: Rejuvenating civic engagement through civic science. Journal of Youth Studies, 25(6), 692–708. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2021.1994132

27.

Gallay

Pykett

Flanagan

(2021). “We make our community”: Youth forging environmental identities in urban landscapes. Sustainability, 13(14), Article 7736. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147736

28.

Garlen

J. C.

(2019). Interrogating innocence: “Childhood” as exclusionary social practice. Childhood, 26(1), 54–67.

29.

Germinaro

Nickson

(2024). Black spatial storylines: Connections of Black space, sound and story as pedagogy. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23, Article 16094069241279499. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069241279499

30.

Glave

D. D.

(2010). Rooted in the earth: Reclaiming the African American environmental heritage. Chicago Review Press.

31.

Goodwin

(2007). Participation, stance & affect in the organization of activities. Discourse & Society, 18(1), 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926507069457

32.

Gruenewald

D. A.

(2003). The best of both worlds: A critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12.

33.

https://eepro.naaee.org/learning/eelearn/eelearn-2-history-ee/lesson-2-timeline-ee-history

34.

Kahn

R. V.

(2010). Critical pedagogy, ecoliteracy, & planetary crisis: The ecopedagogy movement (Vol. 359). Peter Lang.

35.

Kahn

P. H.

Jr. Friedman

(1995). Environmental views and values of children in an inner-city black community. Child Development, 66(5), 1403–1417.

36.

Lanouette

Taylor

K. H.

(2022). Introduction-learning within socio-political landscapes: (Re)imagining children’s geographies. Occasional Paper Series, 2022(48), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1471

37.

Larson

L. R.

Green

G. T.

Castleberry

S. B.

(2009). The impact of a summer education program on the environmental attitudes and awareness of minority children. In: D. B. Klenosky & C. L. Fisher (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2008 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium, 2008, March 30–April 1, Bolton Landing, NY. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-42 (Vol. 42, pp. 1–7). US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 1-7. (Vol. 42).

38.

Lee

C. D.

(2017). Forward: Critical learning opportunities for the Learning Sciences. In I. Esmonde & A. N. Booker (Eds.), Power and privilege in the Learning Sciences: Critical and sociocultural theories of learning (pp. vii–xii). Routledge.

39.

Leonardo

Porter

R. K.

(2010). Pedagogy of fear: Toward a Fanonian theory of ‘safety’in race dialogue. Race Ethnicity and Education, 13(2), 139–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2010.482898

40.

Maina-Okori

N. M.

Koushik

J. R.

Wilson

(2018). Reimagining intersectionality in environmental and sustainability education: A critical literature review. The Journal of Environmental Education, 49(4), 286–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2017.1364215

41.

Marin

Bang

(2018). “Look it, this is how you know:” Family forest walks as a context for knowledge-building about the natural world. Cognition and Instruction, 36(2), 89–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2018.1429443

42.

McKittrick

(2020). Dear science and other stories. Duke University Press.

43.

Mendoza

Rumble

(2020). For the love of nature: Bringing environmental justice to urban elementary students. Journal of Sustainability Education, 23. e-ISSN 21517452.

44.

Miller

H. K.

(2018). Developing a critical consciousness of race in place-based environmental education: Franco’s story. Environmental Education Research, 24(6), 845–858. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2017.1357802

45.

Milner

H. R.

(2012). But what is urban education? Urban Education, 47(3), 556–561. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085912447516

46.

Miriti

M. N.

(2019). Nature in the eye of the beholder: A case study for cultural humility as a strategy to broaden participation in STEM. Education Sciences, 9(4), Article 291. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9040291

47.

Morales-Doyle

Childress Price

Chappell

M. J.

(2019). Chemicals are contaminants too: Teaching appreciation and critique of science in the era of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Science Education, 103(6), 1347–1366. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21546

48.

Nelson

Drew

(2024). Multispecies collaboratories: Reconfiguring children’s more-than-human entanglement with colonization, urban development and climate change. Children's Geographies, 22(1), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2023.2253184

49.

Noguera

(2003). City schools and the American dream: Reclaiming the promise of public education (Vol. 17). Teachers College Press.

50.

Nxumalo

(2015). Forest stories: Restorying encounters with “natural” places in early childhood education. In Unsettling the colonial places and spaces of early childhood education (pp. 21–42). Routledge.

51.

Nxumalo

Downey

Franklin

N. E.

(2024). Thinking with Black ecologies in early childhood education. Journal of Childhood Studies, 49(2), 47–56. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs21811

52.

Nxumalo

Nayak

Tuck

(2022). Education and ecological precarity: Pedagogical, curricular, and conceptual provocations. Curriculum Inquiry, 52(2), 97–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2022.2052634

53.

Nxumalo

Ross

K. M.

(2019). Envisioning Black space in environmental education for young children. Race Ethnicity and Education, 22(4), 502–524. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2019.1592837

54.

Ohito

E. O.

(2023). Remembering my memories: Black feminist memory work as a visual research method of inquiry. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 36(9), 1856–1875. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2021.1956620

55.

Paperson

(2014). A Ghetto land pedagogy: An antidote for settler environmentalism. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.865115

56.

Ransom

K. C.

(2017). A conceptual falsetto: Re-imagining Black childhood via one girl’s exploration of prince. Journal of African American Studies, 21, 461–499. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-017-9372-6

57.

Schlemper

Shetty

Yamoah

Czajkowski

Stewart

(2025). Culturally responsive teaching through spatial justice in urban neighborhoods. Urban Education, 60(2), 343–377. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859231153411

58.

Stevenson

R. B.

(2007). Schooling and environmental education: Contradictions in purpose and practice. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 139–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504620701295726

59.

Surkin

Georgakas

(2022). Detroit: I do mind dying: A study in urban Revolution. Haymarket Books.

60.

Thomas

(2003). Musings on critical ethnography, meanings, and symbolic violence. In Expressions of ethnography: Novel approaches to qualitative methods (pp. 45–54). SUNY Press.

61.

Trinidad

A. M.

(2011). Sociopolitical development through critical indigenous pedagogy of place: Preparing Native Hawaiian young adults to become change agents. Hulili: Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being, 7, 185–221.

62.

Trueba

H. T.

(1999). Critical ethnography and a Vygotskian pedagogy of hope: The empowerment of Mexican immigrant children. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 12(6), 591–614. https://doi.org/10.1080/095183999235764

63.

Tuck

(2009). Suspending damage: A letter to communities. Harvard Educational Review, 79(3), 409–428. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.79.3.n0016675661t3n15

64.

Tuck

McKenzie

McCoy

(2014). Land education: Indigenous, post-colonial, and decolonizing perspectives on place and environmental education research. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.877708

65.

Vernikoff

Goodwin

A. L.

Horn

Akin

(2022). Urban residents’ place-based funds of knowledge: An untapped resource in urban teacher residencies. Urban Education, 57(1), 32–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918801887

66.

Vizenor

G. R.

(1994). Shadow distance: A Gerald Vizenor reader. Wesleyan University Press.

67.

Vossoughi

Vakil

(2018). Toward what ends? A critical analysis of militarism, equity, and STEM education. In Education at war: The fight for students of color in America's public schools (pp. 117–140). Fordham University Press.

68.

Warren

C. A.

Coles

J. A.

(2020). Trading spaces: Anti-Blackness and reflections on Black education futures. Equity & Excellence in Education, 53(3), 382–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2020.1764882

69.

Weintraub

B. A.

(1995). Defining a fulfilling and relevant environmental education. Urban Education, 30(3), 337–366. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085995030003006

70.

Wright

C. G.

(2019). Constructing a collaborative critique-learning environment for exploring science through improvisational performance. Urban Education, 54(9), 1319–1348. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085916646626

71.

Yoon

H. S.

Templeton

T. N.

(2024). Reflecting, representing, and expanding the narrative(s) in early childhood curriculum. Urban Education, 59(8), 2269–2299. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859221097893