Jennifer Keller

BIO

The art of teaching involves posing pertinent questions and guiding students toward their own inquiry grounded in their own experiences. Dr. Keller utilizes a participatory, culturally sustaining framework that supports learners in courageously exploring the assumptions of any curriculum through multiple lenses. 

Throughout her teaching and learning, she invites students to ask how we can all work together to create a better future for everyone. She does this by making connections beyond the classroom and school by grounding learning in place. Place based learning sparks curiosity and allows us to unpack the stories that are told and, perhaps more importantly, not told in curricula. This unpacking is critical in teaching and learning because it is essential to generating the solutions to the violence and ecocide that permeate much of the world. Teaching with an intersectional critical perspective, she elevates students’ awareness of the limited and damaging narratives of Western society, economics, and politics that permeate many curricula.

Dr. Keller's research focuses on integrating nature based mindfulness practices like forest bathing into classrooms. She prioritizes a collaborative and participatory approach that centers on the experiences and concerns of participants in their own communities. She relies on a participatory action research (PAR) methodology to work closely with teachers, students, and community members in order to effect meaningful change and evaluate the efficacy of programs and interventions. 

Her latest research project focused on adolescents experiencing stress and anxiety during their 11th and 12th-grade years in the midst of the COVID pandemic. The study was a mixed-methods approach co-created with the participants, who served as co-researchers. Participants collaboratively created the methods, particularly the qualitative methods, in this study on the impact of practicing forest bathing, a nature-based mindfulness practice, on their mental well-being and nature connection.

Courses

• EDSC 2060 Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
• EDSC 5209 Practicum in Teaching
• EDSC 4991 Internship: Student Teaching

Publications

Google Scholar

Awards and Achievements

• Climate and Equity Fellowship, TERC, 2023-2024
• Presidents Doctoral Fellowship, Antioch University, 2019-2021
• New York State Master Teacher Award, State University of New York, 2016-2020

Area(s) of expertise

• Nature Based Social Emotional Learning
• Place Based Education
• Project Based Learning
• Culturally Stustaining Pedagogies
• Science Teaching and Learning