Stacey Nicholas Endowed Chair of Climate and Environmental Education
School of Education

climate change education, science teacher education, culture of science, humanistic data science education

Google Scholar - Dr. Sezen-Barrie

Linkedin - Dr. Sezen-Barrie

NSF MADE CLEAR (Maryland Delaware Climate Literacy Education and Assessment Project)

NSF WeatherX (Building Data Literacy Among Rural Youth)

Asli Sezen-Barrie's research contributes to the development of equitable and meaningful science learning environments that recognize and integrate diverse ways of knowing and practicing science. Her work, published in top-tier science and environmental education journals, focuses on advancing epistemic justice by promoting inclusive transdisciplinary practices in science and engineering education. She addresses how these practices can help students and educators comprehend complex environmental challenges, including extreme weather events, wildfires, and ocean acidification. Additionally, her research extends to exploring justice-oriented, evidence-based approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation, emphasizing the role of youth and educators in driving these actions.

2024 Outstanding Empirical Article Award, Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
2024 National Science Foundation Service Award
2022 Facilitators Choice Award, NSF 2022 STEM for All Video Showcase
2021 Top Cited Article Wiley /Journal of Research in Science Teaching
2020 Inducted to Phi Kappa Phi National Academic Honor Society
2018 Nominee, Early Career Research Award, NARST (National Association for Research in Science Teaching)
2015 Invited Scholar at Turkish Academy of Sciences at a panel to frame Turkey’s future projects in European Research Council (ERC) Grants on Science, Technology and Education
2015 Leading Faculty for Middle School Science Major, Outstanding Middle Level Teacher Education Program Award, National Association of Professors of Middle Level Education
2011 Inducted to Sigma Pi Sigma National Physics Honor Society
2011 Excellence in Service Award for contributions to Science Education Journal
2010 Excellence in Graduate Studies, Vincent N. and Lois W. Lunetta Fellowship
2009 Nominee, Outstanding Paper Award, NARST (National Association for Research in Science Teaching)
2008 Excellence in Graduate Studies, The Pennsylvania State University
2004 Dean Admin Special Award (For the contributions to faculty administration)

Dr. Asli Sezen-Barrie is the Stacey Nicholas Endowed Chair of Environmental and Climate Change Education and an Associate Professor at the School of Education, University of California, Irvine. She also serves as the faculty advisor for the Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects (ECCLPs), which aim to design and implement innovative, justice-oriented partnerships across the UC-CSU systems. Recently, Dr. Sezen-Barrie was a program director at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Research on Learning, where she co-led the Discovery Research preK-12 program. In this capacity, she contributed to initiatives in science teacher education and justice-oriented climate change education, and represented her division in interagency and cross-directorate programs, including the Wildland Fire Initiative and Critical Aspects of Sustainability. Dr. Sezen-Barrie is the Chief Editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Climate Change Research for Transdisciplinary Science Education (SpringerNature) and the lead author of Data Stories of Climate Change Impacts: Towards Justice-Oriented Education and Action (Harvard Education Press). She holds a Ph.D. in Science Education from Pennsylvania State University and a master's degree in Educational Sciences from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Sezen-Barrie, A. & Tolbert, S. (Editors in Chief, proposal accepted, upcoming in 2025). Handbook of climate change research in transdisciplinary education. (Volume I and II). SpringerNature.

Sezen-Barrie, A., Stapleton, M. & Kang, H. (proposal accepted, upcoming in 2025). Data Stories of Climate Change Impacts: Towards Justice-Oriented Education and Action. Harvard Education Press.

Cleveland, A., Sezen-Barrie, A., Peterson, F., & Lindsay, S. (in press). Quantitative reasoning competencies for student success in introductory biology. Journal of College Science Teaching.

Taylor, J. A., Bowen, G. M., Kubsch, M., Summers, R., Sezen-Barrie, A., Patrick, P., ... & Guzey, S. S. (2023). Crossing boundaries between research and practitioner communities: The role of research use and cross-community journal authorship. Journal of Research in Science Teaching.

Sezen-Barrie, A., Stapleton, M., Marbach, G. & Miller-Rushing, A. (2023). Epistemic discourses and conceptual coherence in students’ explanatory models: the case of ocean acidification and its impacts on oysters. Education Sciences.

Fensie, A., Jain, J., St. Pierre, T., Sezen-Barrie, A. (2023). Engaged learning during distraction: a case study of successful working moms in distance education. Journal of Computing in Higher Education.

Sezen-Barrie, A., Henderson, J. & Drewes, L. A., (2022). Spatial and temporal dynamics in climate change education discourse: An ecolinguistic perspective. In Jiménez Aleixandre, M. P. Critical thinking in Biology Education and Environmental Education Facing challenges in a post-truth world. New York, NY: Springer.

Sezen-Barrie, A. & Avraamidou, L. (2022). “A different kind of middleman”: Lessons from Ms. Crawford on preservice science teacher’s agency and climate change. In E. Walsh (Ed.), Justice and Equity in Climate Change Education: Exploring Social and Ethical Dimensions of Environmental Education. New York, NY: Routledge.

Sezen-Barrie, A., Carter, L. Smith, S., Saber, D, Wells, M. (2022). Research and scholarship in light of the covid-19 pandemic: lessons from a research university in the United States. Innovative Higher Education.

Sezen-Barrie, A. (2022). Uncertainty and Risk in Science and Science Education in the Light of COVID-19. In D. Vyortkina, N. Collins, and T. Reagan (Eds), Keep Calm and Teach On: Education Responding to a Pandemic. New Age Publications.

Sezen-Barrie, A., & Marbach-Ad, G. (2021). Cultural-historical analysis of feedback from experts to novice science teachers on climate change lessons. International Journal of Science Education, 43(4), 497-528.

Cleveland, A. Sezen-Barrie, A., & Marbach-Ad, G. (2021). Conceptualizations of quantitative reasoning for introductory biology courses. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education.

Sezen-Barrie, A., Stapleton, M. K., & Marbach-Ad, G. (2020). Science teachers' sensemaking of the use of epistemic tools to scaffold students' knowledge (re)construction in classrooms. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 57(7), 1058-1092.

Wolfson, J., Stapleton, M., and Sezen-Barrie, A. (2020). How does climate change affect oyster populations? exploring the impact of ocean acidification on shell formation in oyster larvae. The Science Teacher, 87 (5).

Sezen-Barrie, A., Miller-Rushing, A.*, & Hufnagel, E. (2019). ‘It’s a gassy world’: starting with students’ wondering questions to inform climate change education. Environmental Education Research, 1-22.

Sezen-Barrie, A., Shea, N., & Borman, J. H*. (2019). Probing into the sources of ignorance: Science teachers’ practices of constructing arguments or rebuttals to denialism of climate change. Environmental Education Research, 25(6), 846-866.

Sezen-Barrie, A. (2018). Utilizing Professional Vision in Supporting Preservice Teachers’ Learning About Contextualized Scientific Practices. Science & Education, 27(1-2), 159-182.

Sezen-Barrie, A. & Mulvaney, R. (2018). An interactional ethnography perspective to analyze informal formative assessments (IFAs) to build epistemic and conceptual coherence. In G. Kelly & J. Green (Eds.), Researching knowledge and practice in science and engineering education: An interactional ethnographic perspective. New York, NY: Routledge.

Stapleton, M.K., & Sezen-Barrie, A. (2017). A scientist, teacher educator and teacher collaborative: Innovative professional learning design focused on climate change and lessons learned from K-12 classrooms. Innovations in Science Teacher Education, 2(4).

Sezen-Barrie, A. & Kelly, G. J. (2017). From the teacher’s eyes: facilitating teachers noticings on informal formative assessments (IFAs) and exploring the challenges to effective implementation. International Journal of Science Education, 39(2), 181-212.

Stapleton, M. K., Wolfson, J. Sezen-Barrie, A., & Ellis, R. (2017). Looking backwards, looking forward. Science Scope, 41(2), 45–53.

Cheng, D. Sezen-Barrie, A. Barrie, A. C. Akers, T. Peters, K. (2017). Forces in the pair’s death spiral: A mathematics and physics modeling activity. New York State Mathematics Teachers’ Journal.

Cheng, D. Berezovski, T. & Sezen-Barrie, A. (2016). Aiming a basketball for a rebound: Student solutions using dynamic geometry software. Illinois Mathematics Teacher, 63 (1), 34-39.

Sezen-Barrie, A. (2015). Review of “A Cultural-historical study of children learning science: Foregrounding affective imagination in play-based setting”. Science Education, 100 (1), 179-181.

Sezen-Barrie, A. Moore, J., & Roig, C. E*. (2015). Discovering Plate Boundaries in data-integrated environments: preservice teachers' conceptualization and implementation of scientific practices. International Journal of Science Education, 37(12), 2013-2037.

Sezen-Barrie, A., Tran, M.*, McDonald, S. P., & Kelly, G. J. (2014). A cultural historical activity theory perspective to understand preservice science teachers’ reflections on and tensions during a microteaching experience. Cultural Studies in Science Education, 9, 675-697.

Cheng, D. & Sezen-Barrie, A. (2014). STEM on Ice: Using figure skating and modeling to apply scientific concepts. Journal on Mathematics, 3 (2).

Duschl, R. A., Maeng, S., Sezen, A. (2011). Learning progressions and teaching sequences: a review and analysis, Studies in Science Education, 47 (2), 119–177.

2019 - 2024 Weather Extremes with Big Data: Inspiring Rural Youth in Data Science (WeatherX), National Science Foundation

2020 - 2021 Cultivating Engineering Literacy for Future Science Teachers of Maine. Maine Grant Space Consortium

2019-2020 K-12 Teachers’ Conceptualization of Engineering in Rural Science Classrooms, UMaine Summer Faculty Research Awards

2013-2018 Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Education Assessment and Research (MADE CLEAR), National Science Foundation

2015-2016 Visual Analytics for Science and Technology, Department of Homeland Security

2014-2015 Establishing a Water Resource Facility for Teaching & Research, FCSM Fisher Endowment Funds

2013-2014 STEM Sports Project, FCSM Fisher Endowment Funds

2012-2013 Novice Teacher’s Learning to Teach Plate Tectonics in Data Rich Environments, Towson University FDRC (The Faculty Development and Research Committee)

American Educational Research Association (AERA)

National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST)

International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS)

European Science Education Research Association (ESERA)

Program Director (Lead for DRK-12)
National Science Foundation 2021—2024

Associate Professor
University of Maine 2020—2024

Assistant Professor
University of Maine 2017—2020

Education

ECCLPs (Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects)

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=7251

Last updated
08/20/2024