KAEE 50th Annual Conference

Appalachia is often portrayed through a narrow lens with an outdated perspective that overlooks the region's diverse ecology, deep cultural history, and contributions to environmental knowledge. Kentucky sits at the crossroads between rural Appalachian communities and urban populations, creating a unique opportunity to expand how environmental education is taught - and who teaches it - throughout the state. 
This session invites learners to engage in Appalachia as a living, ecologically and culturally rich region and explore how rural perspectives can strengthen environmental education in urban spaces. Inspired by informal and formal place-based education in eastern Kentucky, educators will participate in collaborative discussions and activities to reimagine common environmental education topics - water systems, community-based knowledge, and climate education - through an Appalachian lens grounded in the lived relationships with the land. Attendees will leave the session with strategies to connect urban students with rural perspectives and landscapes, expand definitions of knowledge-holders, and teach environmental topics with methods that are more inclusive of and celebratory towards the Appalachian region.