Portraiture methodology for environmental justice pedagogy and activist praxis

Abstract

The purpose of this theoretical paper is to provide a praxis oriented example of a qualitative methodology called portraiture for environmental justice and critical environmental education. The five essential elements for a portraiture study are context, voice, relationship, emergent themes, and aesthetic whole. Context is the frame, thus environmental exclusion and the field’s exclusionary past is first examined. Portraiture gives back power and voice to people with marginalized identities in the environmental space, which includes the researcher’s voice as a fourth-generation Japanese American woman, and the voices of other diverse environmental educators and activists. The aesthetic whole demonstrates the importance of attending to voice in environmental education and shows portraiture is fundamental to understanding diverse educators’ perceptions of their environmental science agency, which is defined as “learning science while doing science, which can foster environmental stewardship, civic participation, and meaningful science learning” (Ballard et al., 2018, p. 6).