Chris Jadallah
PhD Candidate, Science and Agricultural Education
Education
PhD in Science and Agricultural Education, In
progress
School of Education
University of California, Davis
B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies, 2016
College of Natural Resources,
University of California, Berkeley
Research
My research examines what and how people learn through participation in participatory, collaborative, and community-based approaches to scientific research. Specifically, I study the individual and collective learning processes that occur through these initiatives as they relate to the conservation and stewardship of diverse places, with special attention to how power dynamics between scientists, conservation professionals, and communities mediate and structure opportunities for participation and engagement. Additionally, I am interested in how people learn in, with, and from the natural world through culturally-sustaining and embodied approaches to science and environmental education, and how these learning environments can be designed to support equity and stewardship.
I bring an interdisciplinary lens to this work, drawing from fields such as the learning sciences, science education, science and technology studies, and natural resource sociology to better understand how these sorts of community-based environmental projects may:
1. Create and deepen opportunities for individuals and communities to contribute their knowledge, values, and perspectives in shaping scientific and conservation endeavors.
2. Provide learners with opportunities to pursue their own interest-driven and personally meaningful environmental inquiries in which they both deepen their individual expertise and contribute said expertise to social-ecological stewardship as part of consequential, collective activities.
This work is informed by ethnographic and participatory methodologies in addition to critical and sociocultural perspectives on learning, with implications for designing learning environments that value multiple knowledge systems to advance healthy and just social-ecological systems.
While my previous research has investigated native bee conservation and diversified farming systems, my current work with The Center for Community and Citizen Science is situated within the context of community-based monitoring, dam removal, and watershed restoration at multiple sites in the Western United States.
Interests: citizen science, community science, environmental education, learning, social-ecological systems, stewardship, engaged scholarship
Fellowships
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow 2018-2023
Contact
ccjadallah@ucdavis.edu
