VIRTUAL MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY
Abstract
We propose to share with this conference an innovative approach to ecological and regenerative social justice curriculum for university students. Prescott College embodies a deep commitment to social and environmental justice by embedding active and experiential approach throughout our curriculum and community partnerships. We set out decades ago to teach students to navigate their own involvement in the crises of the 21st century, and we have accomplished this on a couple of fronts fairly dramatically: a deep collaboration on Indigenous land rights and field station in East Africa, and a graduate track for masters and PhD students that connects students to community based organizations. We do our work in a way that models cross-sector partnerships that could be replicable for other higher education providers. This work has led us to vision the next iteration–curriculum regeneration etc., and we look to bring both to this conference for feedback and collaborative thinking.
Emily Affolter, PhD, is the director of and faculty for Prescott College’s Sustainability Education Ph.D. She guides doctoral students as they tackle the big questions where social and environmental justice meet real-world teaching, leadership, and learning. Emily earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the UW, where she specialized in Multicultural Education and worked directly with Dr. Geneva Gay, the founder of culturally responsive teaching. Emily’s current work, writing, and workshops are all about making education more culturally responsive, equitable, and sustainable.
Pavel Cenkl is the Dean of Academic Affairs at Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona, USA and the Founder and Director of the Regenerative Learning Network. His work focuses on the intersection of transformative learning, community and ecology and building a more regenerative and resilient educational future. Pavel works internationally and writes and speaks widely about curriculum design and pedagogy, global learning networks, environmental humanities and philosophy, regenerative democracy, and education. He has developed programs in ecology, humanities, outdoor skills and recreation, regenerative food and farming, and more. Pavel’s most recent book is Transformative Learning: Reflections on 30 Years of Head, Heart, and Hands at Schumacher College (with Satish Kumar, 2021);
Mary Poole is a historian of U.S. and African history, with an emphasis on histories of social movements, racial capitalism, colonialism, feminist and other critical social theory, and Indigenous decolonizing research methods. She earned her PhD at Rutgers, which led to her first book, The Segregated Origins of Social Security: African Americans and the Welfare State (UNC: 2006). She Co-Directs the Institute for Maasai Education, Research & Conservation (MERC), and is co-author of Decolonizing Maasai History: A Path to Indigenous African Futures, (Zed Books/Bloomsbury, 2025);
Dr. Cirien Saadeh is an Arab-American educator, community organizer, and community-trained journalist working at the intersections of journalism, social movements, education, and sustainability. She works as a community organizer and community journalist and teaches at Prescott College, where she coordinates two social justice programs. Saadeh holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability Education and developed the “Journalism of Color” framework to build power in marginalized communities. In 2026 she will launch a handbook and zine focused on anti-racist community journalism.