Critical caring for people and place

ABSTRACT

What role does caring play in environmental education? The development of caring relationships in formal school settings remains a foundational yet underexamined concept in environmental education research. This study examines the role of caring relationships between people and place in an urban high school in the United States. We draw upon theoretical lenses of caring and justice by egalitarian and feminist scholars to examine the role that authentic caring plays in a teacher's practice and in students’ experiences when engaged in urban park restoration. Findings reveal that the caring role of the environmental science teacher in this study is significant; the teacher's caring/carework mediates how students in his class relate to the environmental learning experiences. Further, through these experiences students in the study likewise initiated care both for themselves and others.

KEYWORDS:

• caring
• classroom research
• environmental education
• social justice education
• outdoor learning

Notes

1. Pseudonyms are used for all participants’ names and locations. Most participants chose their pseudonyms.

2. Inequalities of carework include the economic marginalization of care-giving professions and responsibilities.

3. Superintendent administrative control occurs when a school or district becomes labelled by the state as persistently low performing based primarily upon students’ standardized test scores (however limited and flawed) and graduation rates. Through this process, the superintendent gains authority over staffing schools and has one year to turn around school performance, after which the state can turn over administrative control to an independent administrator if ‘adequate improvement’ is not made.

4. Although attendance rates were officially stated to be 80%, I observed that each spring term the attendance dropped to approximately 55%.