๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต Spotlight: Rooted Writing in Environmental Education
This story is part of our Prompt Spotlight series, featuring articles by U of A faculty about writing assignments from the special issue โWriting To | With the Real World in the Southwestโ edited by WAC directors Aimee Mapes and Emily Jo Schwaller.
In Rooted: Writing Counterstories in Environmental Education, University of Arizona instructor Leona Davis shares a low-stakes writing-to-learn assignment from the Earth Grant program that invites students to connect environmental learning with family, cultural, and ancestral knowledge.
What the Article Explores
Davis begins with a challenge in environmental education: academic and professional ideas of environmental expertise have often privileged Western scientific traditions while overlooking knowledge rooted in family, culture, place, spirituality, food, language, and lived experience. This article considers how reflective writing can help students recognize these forms of knowledge as relevant to environmental learning and leadership.
The Assignment
Students write a short discussion post about either a cultural practice or a story from their family or cultural lineage that connects to the Earth, nature, or the land where they live. Responses have included food traditions, agricultural practices, family remedies, stories about migration, and memories of spending time on family land.
Students are also encouraged to read and respond to one anotherโs posts, with time for small-group discussion in class. Davis describes the assignment as intentionally low-stakes, giving students space to reflect and make connections without the pressure of a high-stakes writing task.
Why It Matters
The assignment asks students to recognize knowledge they already carry into the classroom. Davis draws on funds of knowledge, counterstory, and writing-to-learn approaches to help students connect lived and cultural experience with environmental education.
For students whose knowledge and experiences are often left out of traditional environmental narratives, the assignment can also create space to see themselves as environmental learners and leaders. Davis emphasizes that this work depends on valuing students' backgrounds and contributions: it depends on an inclusive classroom context that consistently values studentsโ knowledge.
Try It in Your Course
- What knowledge do your students already bring from their families, communities, languages, workplaces, or lived experiences?
Could a short, low-stakes writing activity help students connect that knowledge with a concept or professional identity in your discipline?
Explore the Full Special Issue
Want to see how other University of Arizona instructors are making writing meaningful across disciplines? Read our overview of the special issue, or explore the full issue of Prompt.