Sarah Stapleton
Biography
Sarah Stapleton is an Associate Professor in the Education Studies department, core faculty in Environmental Studies, and an affiliate faculty member with UO Food Studies. Before earning her doctorate, she taught middle and high school environmental science, physical science, chemistry, and general science at public schools in California and as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Gambia, West Africa. Sarah is credentialed by the state of California to teach chemical and biological sciences.
From 2019-2022, Sarah served as Chair, Program Chair, and Past Chair for the Environmental Education Special Interest Group of the American Education Research Association. Sarah serves on the editorial review boards for the Journal of Environmental Education and the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education.
At the UO, Sarah primarily works with undergraduates in the Education Foundations program, pre-service teachers in the UO Teach masters program, and doctoral students in the Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education program. She also advises masters and doctoral students in the UO Environmental Studies program. Sarah participated on the UO Student Food Insecurity Task Force starting in 2019. Sarah served as the College of Education representative on the Provost’s Environmental Initiative Faculty Advisory Board from 2021-23 and was the Provost’s Environmental Initiative Fellow for Spring 2022.
Sarah strives for community-based scholarship and service. She served on the Board of Directors of Food for Lane County, the food bank serving our community, from 2017-23. Sarah is a founding member of the steering committee of Oregon Educators for Climate Education, a group working to advocate for Oregon state legislation for climate education.
Education
Research
Sarah's research uses critical and participatory methodologies to explore social contexts around science and environmental education. Sarah’s context areas for research and teaching are food and climate change. More specifically, Sarah is interested in the many ways food intersects with schools and how these, in turn, impact student health, well-being, and the environment. Sarah also researches and teaches about climate justice and how to teach about climate change in schools in ways that inspire hope and action. Sarah is deeply concerned with social and environmental inequities, and sees research as a form of activism to address them. She also prioritizes her local place and participatory relationships through her research. Her current projects are based in her community and result from participatory collaborations.
Publications
Field, E., Stapleton, S., Lowan-Trudeau, G., Harris, C., Puttur, A. and Nguyen, C. (In press). Climate activism in K-12 formal education across North American contexts. In Routledge Handbook of Grassroots Climate Activism.
Stapleton, S.R. and Reif, K. (2022). Teaching outside as Third Space: toward school science that acknowledges student ecological expertise. Environmental Education Research. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504622.2022.2087862
Stapleton, S.R. (2022). Where am I in STEM? Critiquing STEM through lived experience as a science education researcher. Critical Education. https://ices.library.ubc.ca/index.php/criticaled/article/view/186466
Stapleton, S.R. (2021). Bringing teachers to the table: the need to teach food in teacher education. Food, Culture and Society. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15528014.2021.2012925
Stapleton, S.R., and Meier, B.* (2021). Science education for resiliency: promises and challenges of indoor agriculture. Journal of Research in Science Education. 59(2). 169-194. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tea.21724?af=R
Stapleton, S.R. and Lynch, K. (2021). Fostering relationships between elementary students and the more-than-human world: a longitudinal study. Journal of Environmental Education. 52(4), 272-289. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00958964.2021.1955650?journa...
Stapleton, S.R. (2020) Nevertheless, they persisted: How a group of “noisy moms” overcame dismissal and helped to improve school food in a small US city school district. Gender, Place, and Culture. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0966369X.2019.1710475
Stapleton, S.R. (2019) Towards critical environmental education: a standpoint analysis of race within the American environmental context. Environmental Education Research. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504622.2019.1648768
Stapleton, S.R. (2019) Parent activists versus the Corporation: a fight for ‘school food sovereignty’. Agriculture and Human Values. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-019-09955-w
Stapleton, S.R. (2019) Boundaries, gatekeeping, and oppression within science education research. In J. Bazzul & C. Siry (Eds.), Critical voices in science education: narratives of hope and struggle. Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-99990-6_2
Stapleton, S.R. (2018). Data analysis in participatory action research: using poetic inquiry to describe urban teacher marginalization. Action Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750318811920
Stapleton, S.R. (2018). A case for climate justice education: American youth connecting to intragenerational climate injustice in Bangladesh. Environmental Education Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2018.1472220
Stapleton, S.R. (2018). Teacher participatory action research (TPAR): A methodological framework for political teacher research. Action Research. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1476750317751033
Stapleton, S.R. & Cole, P. (2018). School lunch and student food insecurity: A teacher’s observations and reflections. In S. Rice & A.G. Rud (Eds.) Educational Dimensions of School lunch: Critical Perspectives. Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-72517-8_9
Stapleton, S.R., Cole, P., Washburn, M., Jason, M., & Alvarado, T. (2017). Views from the Classroom: Teachers on Food in a Low-Income Urban School District. In I. Werkheiser and Z. Piso (Eds.), Food Justice in US and Global Contexts: Bringing Theory and Practice Together. Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-57174-4_11
Stapleton, S.R. (2017). Oral traditions, changing rural landscapes, and science education. Cultural Studies of Science Education. 12(1). 189-98. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11422-016-9749-1
Stapleton, S.R. (2015). Food, identity, and environmental education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education. 20. https://cjee.lakeheadu.ca/article/view/1346
Stapleton, S.R. (2015). Environmental identity development through social interactions, action, and recognition. Journal of Environmental Education. 46(2). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00958964.2014.1000813
Stapleton, S.R. (2015). Supporting teachers for race-/class-/gender-responsive science teaching. Cultural Studies of Science Education. 10(2). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11422-014-9655-3
Honors and Awards
2022 Gray Family Foundation grant. Collaborative effort with Beyond Toxics: Teachers Environmental Justice Curriculum Writer’s Retreat.
2021-22 Environmental Initiative Faculty Fellowship, Office of the Provost, University of Oregon
2021 Excellence in Research/Outreach Early Career Award, College of Education, University of Oregon
2020 Sustainability Award Finalist for Published Research, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE)
2020 Williams Instructional Proposal Award, Teaching for Climate Activism, University of Oregon
2019 Sustainability Excellence in Teaching Award, University of Oregon Teaching Engagement Program and Office of the Provost