Analyzing Environmental Education in Northern Mississippi and Its Impact on Student Outcomes

Author

• Vishnu S. Gadepalli, University of MississippiFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-8-2027

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Criminal Justice and Legal Studies

First Advisor

Marcos Mendoza

Second Advisor

Albert Nylander

Third Advisor

Shaila Wadhwani-Greenhalgh

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This thesis examines environmental education in public high schools in northern Mississippi, investigating how educators describe its presence, delivery, and institutional support in communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harm. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with high school teachers across four northern Mississippi schools, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed through iterative thematic coding under Institutional Review Board approval. Five themes emerged: opportunistic curricular integration, time and standards as overriding structural constraints, passive institutional support, student receptivity tempered by limited awareness, and significant variation across school contexts with one magnet school as a clear outlier. The study concludes that environmental education in these schools is structurally marginalized in ways that directly reinforce environmental injustice. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Bourdieu and, Freire, and the sociological literature on educational inequality, the study recognizes the deprivation of environmental literacy as a predictably inevitable product of historical disenfranchisement compounded by contemporary testing mandates and institutional passivity. Meaningful reform requires systemic investment rather than reliance on individual teacher initiative alone.

Recommended Citation

Gadepalli, Vishnu S., "Analyzing Environmental Education in Northern Mississippi and Its Impact on Student Outcomes" (2027). Honors Theses. 3524.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3524

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.