![Sample our Environment & Sustainability journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5935/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Environment-Sustainability.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This article shares three vignettes, drawn from the life experience of its authors and five years of research at two schools, to illustrate the “choice” many males are forced to make between normalized “masculine” indifference and a stigmatized caring relationship with the natural world. We suggest this dissociation results, for some, in a kind of eco-double consciousness. The first vignette draws on memories from a male author encountering typical threats of violence for continuing to “proclaim” care for forested places. The second describes a cis male child who at the age of eight dubs himself “eco-boy,” but by 10, is resigned to hiding his ethic of care in order to fit in with other boys. The last vignette examines an instance between two six-year-old cis boys, a female researcher, and several ants. We suggest shirking from the significance of these commonplace experiences with the adage “boys will be boys” is an excusatory move and that educators ought to be aware and address gendered expressions of power, violence, and care at a young age when the necessity for an eco-double consciousness first emerges. The conclusion emphasizes the need for educators to trouble masculine norms by finding ways to respond to the normalization of ecological violence, to keep open the possibility of developing eco-care in young males, and to trouble the notion of “boys being boys.”
Notes
1. We include cisgender designations here to add another dimension of description and positioning and to avoid cissexual assumption (Serano, Citation2007). That being said, we have not interviewed students regarding their experiences of gender in these terms and there is a degree of assumption here.
2. It is likely that things are being noticed as a result of these environments.
3. We have many examples of this in our research. “Splash violence” does not appear anywhere in the literature but might be parallel in its actions to the way therapists begin to exhibit symptoms of trauma through working with survivors thereof.
4. C. Russell, Sarick, and Kennelly (Citation2002) write that, “As a verb, ‘to queer’ means more than simply adding gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered content to environmental education. Rather, queering has, at its heart, the project of problematizing heteronormativity, essentialized identities, and the heterosexualization of our theories and practices” (p. 54). For more on “queering environmental education” see C. Russell et al. (Citation2002).
5. This was drawn from research notes taken from a K-7 public school that has no building, where much of the learning experience occurs outdoors and there is a clear mandate towards addressing ecological issues and the natural world as being an active participant and even co-teacher (Blenkinsop & Beeman, Citation2010). This environmental school project views part of its educational mandate as being focused on cultural change toward ecological principles. This includes both the culture of school but also the culture in which school is immersed.
6. Pseudonyms used to protect anonymity.
7. These notes were drawn from a different school, in this case K-4, to the one mentioned in footnote 5, although it has a similar mandate. Note: This is not an isolated incident.
8. Likely a smooth harvester ant from the genus Veromessor.
9. An argument could be made that David was simply feeling excluded and responded in this violent way as a result. Although certainly possible, we postulate that if the ant-crushing shoe were on Liam's foot, killing would not be an option.
