Browsing by Author "Alonso-Yanez, Gabriela"

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    Bringing Environmental Identity Research into the Classroom Context
    (2017) Simms, Wendy; Shanahan, Marie-Claire; Alonso-Yanez, Gabriela; Shapiro, Bonnie; Lock, Jennifer; Varelas, Maria
    The problem guiding this doctoral research is that present-day science education does not always promote the action or ‘citizenry’ required to address local and global environmental problems. The question guiding this research, presented across three manuscripts, is how can environmental identity development be fostered in students learning within the classroom context? A theoretical review of the environmental identity literature revealed that multiple interpretations of environmental identity exist, which varied in the significance given to the social context within which identities develop. Social network analysis revealed that Clayton's (2003) interpretation of environmental identity, emphasizing emotional connections to nature and the physical context, has greatly influenced the research. However, this interpretation of environmental identity may be inappropriate for the highly social classroom context. A case study of an in-school sustainability program called Trash to Treasure (T2T) was used to qualitatively explore environmental identity development in students. Participant observations, group interviews, reflective journals, and student artifacts from 35 focus participants were collected. Eight dimensions of student environmental identity development were identified during the T2T program: the opportunity to be an environmental actor with peers, awareness of environmental threat, emotion, personal meaning, social and self-recognition for environmental action, perceived individual agency, and changed behaviour across social contexts. A framework is offered to represent how these dimensions might interact if the desired outcome is fostering a student’s capacity to take environmental action learned at school into other social contexts. The key element appears to be designing activities that provide time and space for reflection on environmental identity actions. A second case study focused more closely on how three students reflected on the T2T experiences. Inquiry reflection, emotional reflection and critical reflection all contributed to environmental identity, however critical self-reflection was notably absent. Five design strategies are offered to support educators: (1) class participation in citizen science to extend the reach of environmental action beyond school, (2) extending inquiry reflection to include problem solving, (3) creating ‘safe learning spaces’ for emotional reflection and identity navigation, (4) extending critical reflection/thinking to include critical self-reflection, and (5) supporting the ‘thickening’ of student environmental identities beyond the classroom.
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    Forest Governance Transitions in Bangladesh
    (2021-06) Siddique, Asraf; Davidsen, Conny; Chowdhury, Khairul; Alonso-Yanez, Gabriela; Rice, Roberta; McKay, Ben
    Forests are becoming an ever-important centre of focus in the backdrop of climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) in developing countries has become a global approach to combat climate change by making forest carbon as a tradable commodity. Many developing countries like Bangladesh have joined in this bandwagon of REDD+ and currently at various phases of implementation. However, like many other developing countries, the governance situation in the forestry sector has been called into question due to its centralized nature of operation, lack of active participation of the people, and violation of rights of the indigenous people. Also, forest regions have a unique colonial upbringing that aims to exploit the forest for revenue generation by making forest exclusive state property. Due to the diverse origin of forest conservancies in Bangladesh and different historical backdrops and conflicts in the forested regions, a one size fits all policy have remained faulty and weak in addressing such problems. This research aimed to explore the historical origin of forest conservancies in Bangladesh and track down the root causes of the forestry sector's current challenges for decades. The findings suggest that the forested regions have unique sets of challenges and those challenges have roots in the historical development of conservancies. Even after trying for four decades of participatory forestry, peoples participation remained tokenistic. Bangladesh also has been implementing collaborative management in the protected areas of the forests. The findings suggest that due to donor and supply-driven approaches, the collaborative management approach remained weak to address the existing challenges. Moreover, as a state, Bangladesh does not recognize the rights of the indigenous people by not even recognizing them as indigenous and continued to use a derogatory approach of identifying them as “small ethnic minority”. Using a post-structural political ecology approach, this research analyses the discourse of forest policy development involving multi-level actors and found critical concerns remained and must be recognized and negotiated to identify forest region-specific challenges to be more inclusive of the rights of the indigenous people.
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    Hacking for collaboration towards redesigning group work
    (2018-05) Hill, Joshua; Thomas, Christy; Brown, Barb; Alonso-Yanez, Gabriela
    In this session you will design scrappy little experiments called “hacks” to work towards redesigning collaboration in your practice. You will use a design thinking process and engage with findings from our design-based research study focused on improving the design of student collaboration through scaffolding, technology and assessment.
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    Innovative Methods to Study School System Dynamics
    (University of Calgary, 2016-05) Alonso-Yanez, Gabriela; Brown, Barb; Friesen, Sharon; Jacobsen, Michele; Werklund School of Education
    The transformations currently underway in many school systems point towards teachers becoming actively engaged in research, as well as finding ways to bring new educational research knowledge into school classrooms. In this paper, we discuss two methodological approaches that have strengthened our own research of schools systems: Social Network Analysis and the Social World Arenas framework. We suggest that these analytical approaches are useful tools for studying complex adaptive systems in education and provide the means to improve teachers’ scholarship of teaching and learning.
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    An Investigation Of Laboratory Activities For Non-STEM-Majors During The COVID-19 Pandemic
    (2021-08-04) Gilbert, Brian Christopher Tidbury; Seidel, Jackie; Sullivan, Erin; Alonso-Yanez, Gabriela; Towers, Jo
    Laboratory activities have been an aspect of teaching chemistry for the past 200 years. However, their effectiveness in the teaching of chemistry content and skills have, until recently, been largely unexplored. This is especially the case for non-STEM-majors taking introductory and general chemistry courses, who were found in a review of the literature to often be regarded as a lower priority for research efforts due to goals of increasing STEM-major engagement. In an attempt to fill this gap in the literature, this study was designed to investigate if introductory chemistry laboratory activities foster the development of science identity in non-STEM-majors. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued into its second wave and people began discussing the future of laboratory activities, the purpose of this study shifted as well. As a result, this study looked at the influence of in-person activities for non-STEM-majors and sought to help support decisions on whether non-STEM-majors should return to in-person laboratory activities in introductory/general chemistry post COVID-19 pandemic. Making use of qualitative research methods, data was collected through a set of interviews with one student and three instructors at the University of Calgary and then analyzed for convergent themes. Results indicated that in-person laboratory activities are beneficial to non-STEM-majors for three primary reasons: 1) The disciplinary skills taught in chemistry laboratory activities are beneficial for daily life beyond laboratory settings; 2) Laboratory activities present students with a toolbox of skills that transfer between disciplines; and 3) Chemistry laboratory activities improve student science identity by showcasing the processes of science. Additionally, participants presented two considerations for returning to in-person laboratory activities following the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) Laboratory activities should change to emphasize student creativity and intrigue in order to improve their accessibility and effectiveness of teaching STEM-majors and non-STEM-majors; and 2) Accessibility of laboratory activities may be improved by implementing remote learning models that have been explored during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as making use of recordings and alternative methods of participation.
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    It's Not About Ideas, It's About Concepts: Teachers' Experiences Desiging Robotics Tasks
    (University of Calgary, 2017-05) Alonso-Yanez, Gabriela; Duong, Kaitlin; Edge, Caytlin; MacLellan, Andrew; Polakovic, Dominika; Werklund School of Education
    Research reports that use of robotics construction kits allow children to improve planning, reasoning, and problem-solving skills while also providing opportunities to engage in collaboration and teamwork. Incorporating robotics tasks in the classroom also provides a playful way for teachers to integrate engineering content, while also providing concrete applications of science and mathematics content. In this paper, two robotics tasks are described in detail and implications for STEM learning in the elementary classroom are discussed.
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    Stories of Empowered Alberta Teachers: Enacting Responsibilities in Indigenous Education
    (2023-04-30) Meade, Sarah M.; Poitras Pratt, Yvonne; McDermott, Mairi; Alonso-Yanez, Gabriela
    Teachers in Alberta are tasked with adhering to the Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action (2015b) and the Teaching Quality Standard (Alberta Education, 2018) related to Indigenous education, despite having little formal Indigenous education in their formal schooling. In this action-based qualitative study, I employed a decolonizing methodology, grounded in the principles of participatory action research and oriented by critical pedagogy to explore how teachers are enacting their responsibilities as champions of Indigenous education. Using Photovoice and sharing circles as methods, the findings that surfaced in the data revealed that, in enacting their responsibilities in Indigenous education, Alberta teachers in this study are: encountering resistance and racism, embracing a pedagogy of discomfort (Boler & Zembylas, 2003), engaging in critical reflection and navigating oppressive structures in the education system. The methodology employed in this study can be replicated in future studies and could be used to develop professional learning for teachers in Indigenous education.