Emily Diane Sprowls
Assistant Professor

Dr. Emily Diane Sprowls

She/her/hers

Biography

Emily’s work aims to collaborate with youth, teachers, and scientists to address students’ concerns about environmental and climate justice. Her research interests reflect her experiences as a K-12 science teacher and environmental educator in alternative, informal, and classroom settings.  Emily has worked on justice-oriented curriculum development and teacher training with schools and environmental organizations throughout North America, including the USA, Mexico, and Panama, thanks to a Fulbright Distinguished Teaching Award and the National School Reform Faculty.  She studies collaborative, transdisciplinary learning in community-based initiatives that focus on student-led inquiry, such as after-school STEAM clubs and participatory science programs.  She spends her free time hiking with her dog and trying to keep wildlife out of the school garden.   

Positions

Full-time Faculty
Faculty of Education and Professional Studies

Education

PhD, Science Education, McGill University
2026
Teaching Credential, Environmental and Life Sciences, Southern Connecticut State University
2003
MESc, Social Ecology, Yale University
2001
BA, Biology, Kenyon College 1997

Languages spoken

  • Spanish

Teaching Areas

Undergraduate Programs

  • Education Concurrent
  • Education Consecutive
  • Summer Indigenous Education Programs

Graduate Studies

  • Education, MEd/PHD Program
  • Environmental Science/Studies, MESc/MES
  • Master of Education
  • PhD in Education (Educational Sustainability)

Graduate Supervision

Accepting Students for Supervision

Research

Research Interests

  • Justice-oriented science pedagogies
  • Climate justice education
  • STEAM education
  • Citizen science and science outreach
  • Participatory research with youth
  • Community-university research partnerships
  • Collaborative learning

Collaborations / Affiliations

  • Informal learning for sustainability science in STEM programs: Navigating emotions and identities to develop relational competencies. SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2024-2027). Collaborator with Allison Gonsalves, Blane Harvey, and Diane Dechief, McGill University.
  • Mua quiriän Bua (I teach you): Indigenous Emberá Forestry Education. Tierras Colectivas de Rio Balsa and the Panama Ministry of Education (2025-2026). Collaborator with Joseph Levitan at the Participatory Ecology Laboratory of McGill University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Open to Media Inquiries

Publications

Sprowls, E. D., Lavigne, S. (2026). La pédagogie STIAM favorise l'inclusion dans l'apprentissage des sciences en incluant les créations et les réalisations artistiques des élèves. Spectre. (AESTQ. 55(1), 32-37. https://www.aestq.org/fr/consultez-spectre/volume-55-numero-1-mai-2026 Wachs, J., Harvey, B., Leite, S., Sprowls, E. D. (2025) Co-creating pathways to social and ecological justice in higher education: The possibilities and pitfalls of collaborative course design. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. 26(6), 1473–1491. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-09-2024-0662 Sprowls, E. D. (2022). Bridging Boundaries Between ESE and Science Education Research and Practice through Collaborative Learning for Climate Justice. In Challenges for environmental and sustainability education research in times of climate crisis (pp. 133–136). Universiteit Gent. https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8768733/file/8768735.pdf

Harvey, B., Sprowls, E. D., & Deskin, Z. (2024, March 6). Campus garden initiatives can help grow the next generation of environmental change-makers. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAM.dhctjchv5 Sprowls, E.D. (2023, August 19). Ecojustice learning through heads, hearts, and hands with Science Educators for Equity, Diversity, & Social Justice (SEEDS). Leadership and Learning for Sustainability Blog. https://learn2sustain.ca/latest/64e087710764ad27db77a604