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Hello ALL,

Thanks for helping form an action research community around the Critical Pedagogy of Place.  I am sending you all Revolutionary Love (See bottom of page).

WHO WE ARE:

VISION: To combine ecological literacy development with school reform to achieve a more equal and just society.

MISSION: To develop leadership skills and empower youth to address environmental justice issues. We embody the mission from Awakening the Dreamer to promote a socially just, spiritually fulfilling and environmentally sustainable human presence on the planet.

VALUES:  We are a leadership cohort showing that diversity equals health: in our environment and in our human communities. We believe that diversity is the innate architecture of being. Programmed into every living cell and visible in all environments is diversity. We model ways to improve the health of our human communities. We measure ecological through the external and internal development of groups and individauls as they learn to do what Paulo Freire calls reading the word and "reading" the world.

We believe that environmental justice is based on the implementation and realization of human rights as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ratified by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.  With human rights as the outcome, we utilize the definition of environmental justice from the EPA as the "fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." (see U.S. EPA Environmental Justice)

PILOT:

2010-2011 East High School SLC: 14 Students 7 different nationalities - This school has an average of 2000 students enrolled, 40 percent are racial minorities, 700 speak a language other than English at home and 90 are international students living in the United States from a refugee background. This year's leadership cohort is composed of 7 women and seven men who bring knowledge from, American, Bosnian, Burundi, Karen, Mexican, Peruvian, Somalian, and Thai ethnicities. As a metaphor we will be embarking on a hero's journey as described by mythologist Joseph Campbell.  Collectively we discover the power in each one of us to find solutions to the social and ecological inequities we see in our communities.

Various short films of this pilot program can be seen here: http://vimeo.com/groups/wwrp

Fall Trip Oct 9-11 2011:

Did you ever struggle in your early high school years to find your voice and become a leader?  Even many adults struggle to find their voice to utilize their compassion and insight through personal and political power.  This school year I have been working with a group of students to co-create what Parker Palmer calls a community of truth.  Practicing what critical pedagogues know as co-creation of knowledge through participatory action research we are learning to combine ecological literacy development with school reform to achieve a more equal and just society.   We are developing leadership skills and empower each other to address environmental justice issues. We embody the mission from Awakening the Dreamer to promote a socially just, spiritually fulfilling and environmentally sustainable human presence on the planet.  We are becoming a leadership cohort showing that diversity equals health: in our environment and in our human communities. We believe that diversity is the innate architecture of being. Programmed into every living cell and visible in all environments is diversity. We model ways to improve the health of our human communities. We measure ecological through the external and internal development of groups and individauls as they learn to do what Paulo Freire calls reading the word and "reading" the world.

We believe that environmental justice is based on the implementation and realization of human rights as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ratified by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.  With human rights as the outcome, we utilize the definition of environmental justice from the EPA as the "fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." (see U.S. EPA Environmental Justice)

Here is the beginning of our investigation into our own working description of what environmental justice might look like in our communities.  Please email me ryan@thewilderness for the passcode to this video:

HISTORY:

For three years Mike Lloyd and I, along with a team of teachers, parents, adminstrators and students addressed research that showed how ninth grade students were a high risk population for failing classes and dropping out of school.  Lloyd freshman info.zip

In 2005-06 I worked 1/3 of my time as 9th grade dean of students and found that the majority of truancy citations were being sent to one zip code and therefore it was not simply 9th grade students but rather the students from a low income neighborhood primarily students of color.

Below are just two slides from action research done by Rebecca Richardson-

You can see the full report here:

Rebecca Richardson Inquiry Project_report_short.pdf.   

These students are from 9-12th grade high school students in Salt Lake City.

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My work is to respond to the issues and trends noticed by Mike Lloyd, Rebecca Richardson and myself over the last 6 years -Here is the letter I gave to the East High Principals:

To:

Dr. Paul Sagers

Marylane Grisley

Martin Yablonovsky

I am currently enrolled in a master’s program called Ecological Teaching and Learning through Lesley University. This upcoming fall I will be engaging in an action research project intended to improve my teaching practice and the educational experience of the teachers and students I work with.  The question I am exploring is: What happens to teacher and student well being when I share a form of activism related to climate change awareness?

The group of students that have been nominated for this Wilderness Rites of Passage experience will become a leadership cohort that explores the idea that diversity equals health: in our environment and in our human communities. The action research this cohort will explore during after school meetings and during a 4 day back-packing trip is that that diversity is the innate architecture of being and must be utilized to its full potential to address ecological issues on a global scale. Diversity is programmed into every living cell and visible in all ecosystems. In my science classes we observe how biodiversity is an indicator of a healthy ecosystem. Socially we have the opportunity to experience how ethnic and cultural diversity can improve the health of our human communities if we learn to value the voices of all students.

As a leadership cohort we will begin work that will also impact the lives of many others in our school and in our neighborhood as the students will choose an action project related to increasing awareness of ecological literacy.

This project will have long term implications for English Language Learners and other high school student leaders interested in the value of diversity. During the four day wilderness backpacking trip in southeastern Utah we will participate in both adolescent and adult rites of passage that focus on the value of diversity to empower us individually and collectively to take action on the needs we see in the world. One outcome of the rites of passage is that every participant, students and teachers, will select a personal action project that addresses the needs of their community.

I intend to use recommendations from the action research done by Rebecca Richardson (Visibly Invisible 2010) to guide my curriculum and interactions with students. These practices are also described in my research proposal, which can be made available to you if you would like a comprehensive view of my intended research. In order to engage in this research process, and to positively impact my own teaching and the experience of my students, I need to obtain your permission. Please fill out and sign the following permission statement. As stated above, if you wish to gather more information about this research, please let me know and I will provide it to you. Thank you very much for your time.

Sincerely,

Ryan Pleune

I ______________________________________ give Ryan Pleune permission to conduct an action research project with students at East High School during the 2010/2011 school year.

Signed,

__________________________________________________

Date_______________________________

To accomplish this work we will need to use revolutionary love -

Revolutionary Love: From the Critical Art of Pedagogy (Duncan-Andrade and Morrell 2008):

"What is revolutionary love?  How is it practiced in the context of education? And how can teachers be taught to love in this way?"

"First of all we feel that revolutionary love is the love that is strong enough to bring about radical change in individual students, classrooms, school systems and the larger society that controls them... something else will be required of teachers to achieve the kinds of outcomes described in this book.  That something else is not easy to predict, nor is it easy to quantify.  It looks lik endless dedication, an unjielding belief in the brilliance and potential of every student, and the commitment to stop at nothing to get kids to learn.  It demands the energy and passion to present learning as an amazing opportunity for young people to prepare themselves to be engaged citizens and social actors."

Please use the UPLOAD FILES button on the right to upload any files you think will be useful.   Also feel free to comment at the bottom.

This is the writing that is influencing a lot of my current work - This is just one "tribe" of many - see video below:

The Best of Both Worlds - Critical Pedagogy of Place.pdf

Thanks,

Ryan 801 633-3474

These two videos have also informed my work: