Overview

This project will establish a Collaborative that will ultimately work toward adapting K-12 science curriculum materials to focus on health justice issues relevant to communities in Champaign County. A key limitation of most science curricula is that the experiences and science knowledge centered tend to be those of dominant (white, middle-class) groups. Thus, status-quo science education does not address the interests or needs of systematically marginalized communities or support students in taking action toward change. In order to re-shape the curricular landscape, we must broaden the conception of curriculum designers to include diverse partners and stakeholders: school leaders, community education and justice leaders, teachers, families, and students.  

Over the course of a year, this project will bring together interested community partners through a series of workshops to identify generative intersections of goals and expertise. Ultimately, external funding will be sought to extend the work of this Collaborative to co-design locally-relevant and impactful health justice education experiences that foreground students’, families’, and community-based organizations’ deep knowledge. The Collaborative will challenge power imbalances between families and school systems, foster reciprocity and agency, and position us to engage in curricular co-design to improve science and health education for students and communities.

Learn more about this annual commitment by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to address racism and social injustice through research.

Research Team

Christina Krist, College of Education, Department Education Curriculum & Instruction
Barbara Hug, College of Education, Department of Education Curriculum & Instruction
Rachel Whitaker, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Department of Microbiology
Rebecca Smith, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathobiology
Ellen Moodie, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Department of Anthropology
Helen Nguyen, College of Engineering, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Jacinda Dariotis, College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Department of Human Development & Family Studies
David Krist, College of Medicine
Brittany Vill, College of Medicine
Enrique Suárez, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Monica Ko, University of Illinois Chicago

Contact:
Christina Krist
ckrist@illinois.edu

Funding

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign