United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship
Historically Marginalized Groups in Two Countries Addressing Climate Change
Dr. Anne Browning-Aiken, Ph.D., Pima Community College (Arizona)
Peter Becskehazy, M.A., Pima Community College (Arizona)
Dr. Ann M. MacLellan, Community College of Baltimore County (Maryland)
2021-2022
Introduction:
You are a part of a collegewide effort to increase access to education and empower students
through "open pedagogy." Open pedagogy is a "free access" educational practice that places you
- the student - at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative
learning environment. The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in
our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community. This is a
renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your
community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of Anthropology, Political Science, and
Sociology to achieve SDG #16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions with a focus on Institutional
Frameworks and international cooperation for Sustainable Development, Violence Against
children, and National Sustainable Development Strategies (NSDS).
Learning Objectives:
Understand differences between two or more countries regarding how historically marginalized
groups can take advantage of national and international institutions to contribute to climate
change mitigation.
Indigenous or marginalized groups often face the most serious consequences of climate change
such as soil or water degradation.
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Do these historically marginalized people have access to reliable climate information?
How do climate related institutions reach out to them?
What opportunities do they have to participate with civil/NGO organizations in identifying
ways to locally mitigate climate changes?
Can they interpret information to formulate realistic mitigation goals with the various
institutional levels?

Purpose/Rationale:
This active learning practice is designed to increase your academic skills, increase community
connections, and improve social justice for our community.
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Provide credible, science-based climate change education resources
Educate students about climate change
Provide success stories about what students and others are doing to help protect and conserve
natural resources to encourage schools and classrooms to learn outside and take action
Increase participation in and understanding of citizen science programs related to climate
change mitigation so that students learn the importance of being a good steward
Share information about what the partner agencies are doing to address climate change
Understand the role of citizens, public land management agencies, and non-governmental
organizations in protecting and conserving natural resources.
Understand cultural, historical, political, and economic differences between two or more
countries regarding how historically marginalized groups can take advantage of national and
international institutions to contribute to climate change mitigation.

Instructions:
Chose two different marginalized groups in two different cultures. Identify their major climate
challenges and the potential causes of these problems. What potential ties have these groups
already developed with government and non-government institutions, and what else might they do
to strengthen their power to influence decision makers? What might each marginalized group
learn from the other about local climate change mitigation?Identify an historically marginalized
group in the US and one in another country and investigate how the two historically marginalized
groups address climate change.
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Within the field of comparative politics you will understand how the country’s history,
regime, political institutions, political culture, and political economy contribute to its potential
to address climate change challenges.
You will compare the potential for the two groups to use conflict mediation and contemplative
meditation to address climate change conflicts..
You investigate how both a governmental agencies and a leading non-governmental
environmental agency in the U.S. and in another country support historically marginalized
groups confront climate change challenges.

You will learn how to conduct academic research to complete the assignment and to avoid
plagiarism

You will learn how to distinguish reliable sources of information from less reliable sources on the
internet by using Academic Search Premier, eHRAF,Gale in Context: Global Issues, and Gale
OneFile: Communications & Mass Media.
You will also examine the country through the lenses of anthropology and ethnography. What are
its symbols, myths, rituals and rhetoric about climate changes? You will learn how to conduct
ethnographic interviews with climate scientists and with an historically marginalized group.

Format Requirements:
You will produce a comparative MLA formatted research paper of 6-10 pages, double spaced and
film a 5 minute production of the results of this research for the class to view for 25 points.
You will also serve 20 hours of learning (volunteer work) with an agency that helps community
groups with climate change adaptations and write a reflective paper about that agency's efforts.

Historically Marginalized Groups in Two Countries Addressing Climate Change is licensed
by Dr. Anne Browning-Aiken, Ph.D., Pima Community College (Arizona); Peter Becskehazy,
M.A., Pima Community College (Arizona); and Dr. Ann M. MacLellan, Community College of
Baltimore County (Maryland) under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC
BY-NC)