Education Faculty & Librarian Partner with Food Waste Activist
Dr. Kathleen Olmstead, Dr. Peter Kalenda, and Dr. Jie Zhang (Department of Education and Human Development) collaborated with librarian Dr. Logan Rath and Brockport Central school student activist Jeffrey Xue to publish an article in Language and Literacy Spectrum: Empathy throughout the curriculum: Using picture books to promote activism & equity.
Jeffrey also visited Kathy’s Emergent Language and Literacy (EDI 407) classes where he shared his experiences working to disrupt food insecurity and food waste in his school and community. Jeffrey shared ways in which he used literacy as a tool to take action—working with teacher mentors to develop a nonprofit organization that manages a food shelf and community garden.
Logan, Kathy, and Jeffrey worked together to enable teacher candidates to explore the connection between literacy and social action while using resources in the library’s juvenile room. Logan shared his technology expertise to inspire teacher candidates to use multiliteracy-based “passion projects” to enact change in their future classrooms.