Between the local and the global: The tension of cultivating a bi-directional ecocritical awareness in education

Abstract

Although numerous approaches to cultivating an ecocritical awareness in students exist, much scholarly dialog has revolved around ecojustice education and ecopedagogy. Whereas the former seeks to cultivate a local ecocritical awareness in students, the latter advocates for a globalized “planetary citizenship.” While both cultivate an ecocritical awareness, they focus this awareness in different directions: the local and the global. This tension is illustrated by the 2004 disagreement between Gadotti and Bowers. In this article, I use this disagreement as a starting place to examine this tension and challenge the perceived opposition between cultivating a local and a planetary ecojustice awareness.

Keywords:

• ecojustice education
• ecopedagogy
• Bowers
• Gadotti
• ecojustice ethics

Acknowledgments

I wish to express my gratitude to Nadine Franz for her feedback and recommendations on an earlier draft of this document.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).