Editorial: De-distancing ‘us’ from the rest of Earth: ecopedagogical analysis and approaches

ABSTRACT

This editorial is an ecopedagogical reading of a double special issue on environmental justice and education. Discussed is how the different scholars argued, in diverse and coinciding ways, how environmental teaching can, and must, de-distance environmental violence upon the othered (often coinciding with socio-historical oppressions) and the rest of Nature. Environmental teaching to identify, deconstruct and then disrupt ideological distancing “their” socio-environmental oppressions from “our” wellbeing and distancing the world (i.e., all humans and human populations) from the rest of Earth is essential in environmental pedagogies. Ecopedagogy is grounded for praxis emergent from such disruptive de-distancing. This editorial argues with the scholars through the following themes: de-distancing humanization and planetarization to counter fatalism, de-distancing “development” and citizenships (i.e., local-to-planetary citizenship spheres) with the othered and the rest of Nature, and de-distancing world-Earth throughout all schooling levels.

KEYWORDS:

• ecopedagogy
• environmental justice
• environmental education
• education for sustainable development (ESD)
• epistemologies of the South

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Greg William Misiaszek

Dr. Greg William Misiaszek is an Assistant Professor at Beijing Normal University’s (BNU), Faculty of Education, Theories of Education Institute. He also holds various positions including Associate Director, Paulo Freire Institute, UCLA; Executive Editor ofTeaching in Higher Education journal; and Associate Editor of the Beijing International Review of Education (BIRE) journal. His recently published book Ecopedagogy: Critical Environmental Teaching for Planetary Justice and Global Sustainable Development (2020, Bloomsbury) deconstructs Freirean environmental learning and literacies, while his Educating the Global Environmental Citizen (Routledge 2018) focuses on citizenships and ecopedagogy. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA’s School of Education in Social Science and Comparative Education, M.S. in distance education (University of Southern California (USC)), and B.S. in Environmental Studies (USC). (www.ecopedagogy.com)