My Research
Literacies of sustainability—the acquisition of textual knowledges on sustainability—and narratives of sustainability further expand the possibilities for humanistic inquiry, particularly for such fields as literature, writing studies, English education, community literacy, and linguistics—Peter Goggin
The profound lesson to be learned from nature is that sustainability is not an individual property, but a property of an entire web of relationships. It always involves a whole community. These lessons can be extrapolated to the world of social relations. Qualities that characterize healthy natural ecosystems, such as diversity and interdependence, support healthy human communities as well. --Michael K. Stone
The profound lesson to be learned from nature is that sustainability is not an individual property, but a property of an entire web of relationships. It always involves a whole community. These lessons can be extrapolated to the world of social relations. Qualities that characterize healthy natural ecosystems, such as diversity and interdependence, support healthy human communities as well. --Michael K. Stone
Secondary School Research
My research within the secondary classroom has focused on place-based theoretical practices that emphasize the "three-legged stool" of sustainability advocated by David Sobel, that is, ecological/environmental, economic, and cultural/social sustainability. Over the past thirteen years, my students have written in several rhetorical contexts, from interviewing nursing home residents, farmers, business owners, prominent women, and local charitable organizations, to individual inquiries into local issues within the school, city, state or region.
Most recently, a secondary colleague, Brenda Klawonn, American history teacher, and I received a Rural School and Community Trust Global Teacher Fellowship, for our inquiry, “Meeting the Past in the Present,” where we will travel to several cities in Europe and New York City to investigate old and new patterns of European immigration in conjunction with contemporary immigration patterns in rural Nebraska. We will explore the complexities and difficulties of past immigration as a means to understand current issues and awareness of prejudices in rural communities.
Most recently, a secondary colleague, Brenda Klawonn, American history teacher, and I received a Rural School and Community Trust Global Teacher Fellowship, for our inquiry, “Meeting the Past in the Present,” where we will travel to several cities in Europe and New York City to investigate old and new patterns of European immigration in conjunction with contemporary immigration patterns in rural Nebraska. We will explore the complexities and difficulties of past immigration as a means to understand current issues and awareness of prejudices in rural communities.
University Research
My current research associated with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is a chapter for the upcoming volume, Writing Suburban Citizenship, edited by Dr. Robert Brooke which is part of a new series published by Syracuse University Press. Eileen Schell and Steven Parks are series editor for the new series, Writing, Culture, and Community Practices. Our book will be one of two launching the series. My chapter, tentatively titled, "Work Ethnographies: Teaching Economic Sustainability" focuses on my secondary students' work ethnographies associated with the dominant work in Hamilton County, Nebraska and the effect of the rural brain drain. My chapter serves as an example of the community inquiry and literacy that may be utilized by secondary and university composition instructors. I will also present an excerpt of this chapter at The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) Tenth Biennial Conference in May 2013 at the University of Kansas in a paper jam session titled "Revising Place-Conscious Composition."
My future research project, "Sustaining the Local Watershed: Place Conscious and Sustainability Pedagogy in Secondary Education" examines the role of place conscious studies and sustainability pedagogy in the secondary classroom. I want to investigate the teaching methods of secondary educators in interdisciplinary teams and how these educators might develop curriculum and advocate for educational changes that accommodate practices encouraging student engagement with the local community, that is, its people, culture, politics, economy and ecosystem. I am particularly interested in editing a collection of essays by secondary instructors who practice place-based education with an emphasis on sustainability. I believe there is a severe lack of emphasis on ecological sustainability within secondary school curriculum, so I hope to advocate and instruct future teachers within my university work. Some of the venues for publishing a book or series I considered for this project include:
Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and Environment (ISLE)
Corwin Press
Parlor Press
Journal of Research in Rural Education
Reflections: A Journal of Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing, and Service Learning
Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy
Heinemann/Boynton Cook
Rethinking Schools
Radical Teacher
I have also produced a video which highlights the lack of awareness or lack of rhetorical understanding of environmental or ecological sustainability within K-12 public schools (with the exception of a few rural students in FFA). I first asked a local expert, Bill Whitney, executive director of the Prairie Plains Resource Institute, "What is sustainability?" I followed with video interviews of student responses and teacher responses. I end the video with the question, "What do we have in our curriculum?" Whitney is highlighted in the final interview when he explains the very successful place-based model for his institute's program, SOAR or Summer Orientation about Rivers.
My future research project, "Sustaining the Local Watershed: Place Conscious and Sustainability Pedagogy in Secondary Education" examines the role of place conscious studies and sustainability pedagogy in the secondary classroom. I want to investigate the teaching methods of secondary educators in interdisciplinary teams and how these educators might develop curriculum and advocate for educational changes that accommodate practices encouraging student engagement with the local community, that is, its people, culture, politics, economy and ecosystem. I am particularly interested in editing a collection of essays by secondary instructors who practice place-based education with an emphasis on sustainability. I believe there is a severe lack of emphasis on ecological sustainability within secondary school curriculum, so I hope to advocate and instruct future teachers within my university work. Some of the venues for publishing a book or series I considered for this project include:
Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and Environment (ISLE)
Corwin Press
Parlor Press
Journal of Research in Rural Education
Reflections: A Journal of Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing, and Service Learning
Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy
Heinemann/Boynton Cook
Rethinking Schools
Radical Teacher
I have also produced a video which highlights the lack of awareness or lack of rhetorical understanding of environmental or ecological sustainability within K-12 public schools (with the exception of a few rural students in FFA). I first asked a local expert, Bill Whitney, executive director of the Prairie Plains Resource Institute, "What is sustainability?" I followed with video interviews of student responses and teacher responses. I end the video with the question, "What do we have in our curriculum?" Whitney is highlighted in the final interview when he explains the very successful place-based model for his institute's program, SOAR or Summer Orientation about Rivers.
