We want our children to survive: An interview with Sharon Nelson-Barber

Abstract

Sharon Nelson-Barber, a sociolinguist, directs Culture & Language in STEM Education within WestEd’s Science and Engineering content area. She is co-founder of POLARIS—Pacific/Polar Opportunities to Learn, Advance and Research Indigenous Systems—a research and development network that supports healthy communities by integrating Indigenous perspectives with new frontiers of knowledge that strengthen educational transformation. In this interview, we talk to Nelson-Barber about the Indigenous communities she works with and is a part of in the Pacific and Polar regions and the pressing climate change stories that illustrate the seriousness and urgency of adaptation. In the context of climate-induced displacement of Indigenous homelands, Nelson-Barber emphasizes the importance of engaging multiple knowledge systems when thinking and strategizing around climate change education. Thinking within the tension between standardization and localization, Nelson-Barber underscores how careful collaboration with Indigenous elders, Knowledge Keepers, and communities is vital for adaptation knowledge to be passed down within communities and for education systems to be responsive to local contexts.