From and for the sake of place: elementary teachers co-designing place-based education climate change curriculum in research-practice partnership

Place-based education offers a framework and an effective instructional approach to connect the global issue of climate change with students’ and teachers’ local experiences. This study explores the collaboration in the first two cycles of co-design and implementation of five PBE lessons in 4th and 5th grade classrooms in two schools in New Orleans, USA, focused on CC-related hazards. Using a design-based implementation research approach, the study was conducted with a principal, two coaches, four teachers, and their 64 students who lived in an area with frequent CC disasters. The entire process positioned teachers as key drivers of the curriculum design, leveraging their expert knowledge of students and local places. Our findings describe the co-design process, specifically highlighting the role of teachers. This study offers key insights for PBE and CC education. First, it demonstrates that centering teacher expertise is a critical design principle. Second, it highlights a ‘teacher-driven’ co-design approach that values teachers’ local knowledge, through co-planning and teaching lessons. Finally, the ‘From and For the Sake of’ framework shows how science learning can be anchored in the social and natural realities of CC in the community, in this case, through teachers’ and students’ storytelling. More research is recommended to investigate the utility of From and For the Sake of Place for teacher learning and agency and that center DBIR to investigate what the approach offers PBE and climate change education.