UCI / Community Partnership
Urban Farming, Climate, and Food Justice Project
A community-centered research-practice partnership that co-designsjustice-oriented science curricula and assessments to empower student as critical thinkers and community change makers.
UCI Project Description
This partnership connects university STEM teacher educators, researchers, local farmers, aspiring and current teachers, and K-12 students in an urban farm located at a high school in Orange County, CA. Together the group seeks to improve climate justice education by designing curriculum and instructional tools for teaching and learning around farming, climate and food justice to improve students’ critical awareness of and action-taking.
“Students are guided to take well-informed and responsible actions to address problems that matter to themselves and their communities.”
About SEEJUst
SEEJuSt brings together researchers, teachers, teacher leaders, and administrators through a participatory design research approach. Together, they work through iterative processes of co-designing, implementing, studying, and revising justice-oriented curriculum and assessments.
One key goal of SEEJuSt is to foster students’ critical consciousness and civic actions while engaging in science. Through co-designed curricula and assessments, students are guided to take well-informed and responsible actions to address problems that matter to themselves and their communities.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Key details about SEEJuSt, a UCI community-centered research-practice partnership.
INSTITUTION
UCI
COMMUNITY PARTNER
AUHsD & IuSd
FOCUS AREA
Justice-Oriented Science Curriculum and Assessments
PARTICIPANT
Teachers, Teacher Leaders and Students
LEARNING FORMAT
Participatory Design Research / Co-Design Professional Learning
Project impact
60+
Teachers
Engaged across two districts
4000+
Students
Through co-designed curricula
2
Partner Districts
AUHSD & IUSD
Since 2022
Partnership Established
Growing impact every year
Community Partners
SEEJuSt partners with Anaheim Unified School District and Irvine Unified School District. Both school districts are committed to innovative forms of teaching and learning, empowering students, and working in partnership with the broader community.
Anaheim Unified School District
Irvine Unified School District
A partner school district committed to innovative forms of teaching and learning, student empowerment, and broader community partnership.
A partner school district committed to innovative forms of teaching and learning, student empowerment, and broader community partnership.
MAIN PROJECT ACTIVITIES
SEEJuSt Engages in the Following Project Activities
Co-Design Curriculum
Co-designing, implementing, and revising justice-oriented curricula and assessments that address climate and environmental issues.
Collaboration Research
Conducting collaborative research with teacher researchers.
Share Our Impact
Communicating research and educational activities and their impacts to multiple audiences.
Relational Trust in Action or Pillars of Relational Trust
(Related to Fishbone Dump; 1-2 themes and examples that are most salient for each project, using ICLS paper)
Part 1
Commitment Tree
Collectively Working Toward Socio-Ecological Change
The Commitment Tree Poster is created by each co-design team at thebeginning of the year-long professional learning activities. lt representsthe team's shared values and future-making effort.
The process begins with community circle conversations whereparticipants share stories, listen respectfully, and reflect on why they areworking together. Teachers then write down their "hopes and dreams" for student learning and transform them into a visual poster.
During the co-design of a justice-centered climate change unit, thefacilitator brings the team back to the poster to reflect on whether their pedagogical decisions align with their shared vision.
Shared Values
Hopes & Dreams
Community Circle
Part 2
Newsletter
Redistributing Resources
Building relational trust involves deliberately and equitably redistributingresources, including material, relational, and social capitals. In SEEJuSt,the research team creates a Newsletter after the completion of year-lonproject activities.
The Newsletter describes the impacts of the partnership activities onstudents and the school community. lt amplifies teacher and student voicesby highlighting quotes, samples of student work, and teaching artifacts.
The Newsletter is also shared with district and school leaders to honor the dedication and work of participating educators. Through this processteachers receive formal or informal recognition from community memberwho may not have been aware of their work.
Teacher Voices
Student Work
Teaching Artifacts
Artifacts
Artifacts in this case study document the tools, visuals, and shared materials that support justice-oriented science learning. Together, they show how teachers, researchers, and students co-design curriculum, reflect on shared commitments, and communicate the impact of their work across school communities.
Civic action matrix
The Civic Action Matrix characterizes the types and nature of students’ proposed or enacted actions to address a societal problem, in the case of our partnership, climate change, with the goal of making the world better.
Commitment tree
Commitment Tree is a visual representation created by one co-designed team (three chemistry teachers) during the professional development meeting. Teachers use this shared commitment to guide their pedagogical decision making throughout the design process.
Teaching for JuST Framework
The Teaching for JuST Framework guides teachers in organizing learning activities within a unit while anchoring learning in students’ love, care, and concern. Specifically, the framework guides teachers to help students first make meaningful connections with people, community, and the land while engaging in various activities, such as storytelling and community walks. Building on their expanded relationships, students explore focal issues by leveraging both school and community-based knowledge and practices.
Worrying and Happy Emotion Board
The Worrying and Happy Emotion Boards is a pedagogical tool used to publicly represent students’ emotions, concerns, and solutions. In instruction guided by the Teaching for JuST framework, the teacher should be attuned to and document students’ emerging emotions throughout the unit. This tool utilizes a dichotomic categorization of emotions, such as worrying vs. happy, concerning vs. critically hopeful, etc.
Newsletter
This Newsletter was created by the team to celebrate the work and communicate the impact of the work on students and teachers.
Co-authored peer review article
This Newsletter was created by the team to celebrate the work and communicate the impact of the work on students and teachers.