Research often overlooks the cultural significance of outdoor spaces for Black communities and their interactions with nature. Because of this prevalent oversight, there is a lack of emphasis on successful examples of how nature interactions have positively impacted Black children. This research study counteracted deficit models in environmental…

In the United States, a growing disparity exists between the racial composition of teachers and the students they teach. In 2006, 43.1% of K-12 public school students were reported as non-White--in 1990, 32.4% (U.S. Department of Education, 2008). Teachers, however, are predominantly White, 83.3% (U.S. Department of Education, 2007a). Exacerbating…

This is a qualitative study of identities constructed and enacted by four 3rd-grade African American children (two girls and two boys) in an urban classroom that engaged in a year-long, integrated science-literacy project. Juxtaposing narrative and discursive identity lenses, coupled with race and gender perspectives, I examined the ways in which…