Everyday environmental education: five practices of ecologically minded teachers

Abstract

In this article, I report the findings from a qualitative study involving seven ecologically minded teachers who participated in a Critical Friends Group. Ecologically minded teachers are not necessarily trained or required to teach about environmental issues, yet they do so because of their values and beliefs. The participants shared the following five practices: exposing externalities, emphasizing active learning, providing multiple perspectives, asking critical questions, and collaborating with others. I describe these practices and make recommendations for future research.

Keywords:

• Ecologically minded teaching
• environmental education
• Critical Friends Groups

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 For other examples, see Fawcett, Bell, and Russell (2002); Linds, Goulet, and Sammel (2010); Robertson (2017); and Turner (2015).

2 Freeman et al. (2014) generated the following definition of active learning: ‘Active learning engages students in the process of learning through activities and/or discussion in class, as opposed to passively listening to an expert. It emphasizes higher-order thinking and often involves group work’ (8413–8414).

3 Though he did not use the term, Clint was doing ecocriticism with his students. Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and nature. According to Glotfelty (1996), ‘Ecocriticism takes as its subject the interconnections between nature and culture, specifically, the cultural artifacts of language and literature. As a critical stance, it has one foot in literature and the other on land; as a theoretical discourse, it negotiates between the human and the nonhuman’ (xix).

4 What they did not often discuss during our CFG meetings, however, was how they handled student beliefs that were at odds with their own. In other words, if a student claimed that global warming was a hoax, how would they respond? Did they validate that student’s opinion? Would they have probed further to find out more? What did they feel was the right way to handle student perspectives that undermined their goals as ecologically minded teachers?

5 To be sure, being an ecologically minded teacher is not the same as being an EcoJustice educator. In a very basic sense, there are three aspects of EcoJustice education: understanding that local and global ecosystems are essential to all life, challenging the deep cultural assumptions that undermine both human and more-than-human communities, and restoring the cultural and environmental commons. As I have described it, ecologically minded teaching primarily addresses the first, less often the second and third. Ecologically minded teachers help students understand, for example, that there are consequences to mass industrialization, that economic growth might temporarily increase material wealth but will decrease the long-term availability of resources, and that there are more sustainable ways of living that prioritize the health and welfare of humans and ecosystems. From an EcoJustice perspective, though, the first aspect is just the beginning. The next steps are to examine the historical and contemporary cultural roots of ecological and social crises and, even at the same time, to revitalize the relationships and exchanges that are economically, environmentally, and culturally sustainable.

6 Historically, the environmental movement has struggled with issues of diversity (Bonta and Jordan 2007; Jordan and Snow 1992).