Indigenous educator Gregory Cajete articulates the motivations and questions that drive the presenter’s research. For Cajete, effective education entails ‘finding heart,’ an active process within and beyond the person evident in ethically and spiritually grounded work and being that embodies meaningful connection to and care for others and nature. Finding heart is also foundational to sustainability practice and leadership on and beyond the campus. The presenter will discuss her research related to finding heart through sustainability education. This research entailed a grounded-theory-based study of aspects of sustainability education that motivate or detract from activating hope and agency among undergraduate students. Specific aspects of conceptual and social engagement were examined. The presenter suggests that generating hope and agency among students is a vitally important outcome for sustainability education and suggests relevant curriculum designs for doing so.

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Presenters

Tina Evans, Colorado Mountain College (Winner of 2016 Campus Sustainability Research) Tina Lynn Evans, Ph.D., is Professor of Sustainability Studies at Colorado Mountain College and author of the book Occupy Education: Living and Learning Sustainability (2012, Peter Lang). Her articles on sustainability, sustainability education, and transdisciplinary theory and practice are available via her Academia.edu site. Evans is a founder and member of the advisory board for the Journal of Sustainability Education. She lives in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where she engages with students and community members in permaculture and other praxis toward sustainability-oriented social change.