Importance of Environmental Justice in Geoscience Teaching Group Discussion

Why is it important to bring Environmental Justice into geoscience teaching? We will use this space to record reasons discussed in small group and whole group discussions.

Notes:

  • increase diversity in the geoscience through relevancy
  • engage more people from more backgrounds through relevancy
  • find solutions to environmental injustice
  • environmental justice is specific to cultural context - difference in relationships between class, race and justice in different regional and national contexts
  • shows students how our discipline contributes to solving problems
  • makes geoscience personal to students
  • aligned with students interests and passions
  • might recruit majors
  • driver for students entering geosciences from some majors
  • mechanism for engaging students (refugees, international students, aboriginal groups) in learning about the Earth
  • improve students soft skills as desired by employers
  • opportunity for faculty and students to work across disciplines