Chris Jadallah

Chris Jadallah is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Justice in Education in the School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA. His research examines the social, political, and relational dimensions of teaching and learning with youth and communities as they participate in land-based and community-based endeavors. Specifically, he leverages critical and sociocultural perspectives on learning in his work with the goals of:

1. Creating and deepening opportunities for individuals to leverage their knowledge, practices, and perspectives toward projects of climate and environmental justice,
2. Disrupting conventional hierarchies in environmental decision-making that privilege dominant forms of expertise over the knowledge systems of diverse communities,
3. Supporting learners in deepening their relationships with the natural world in ways that are ethically oriented, politically attuned, and historically responsive.

Jadallah develops research-practice partnerships where he and his collaborators work to jointly co-design, implement, and study learning environments that expand the boundaries for critical engagement in science and environmental education. Across different lines of work, he seeks to foreground and honor the knowledge and practices of diverse communities, operating from the premise that these communities’ everyday practices provide fertile ground in which to anchor generative and future-oriented arrangements for learning, problem-solving, and socio-ecological transformation.

Jadallah is also affiliated with the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the Center for Community Engagement at UCLA. He received his Ph.D. in Science and Agricultural Education from UC Davis, and his B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies from the UC Berkeley.