Revolutionary Learning: Education Culture & Ecology ((3 Credits))

Catalog description

Many discerning citizens are becoming increasingly aware that essential work toward ecological sustainability and social justice should be grounded in an understanding of how cultural beliefs and practices frame the world in which we live. They also recognize that cultural institutions, such as formal education, represent a critically important place where cultural beliefs and practices are transmitted to new generations of citizens. This course examines the underlying assumptions that drive curricula of modern educational systems and explores both the process (how we learn) and content (what we learn) of education. How do we teach and learn culturally and ecologically? What constitutes ecological and cultural ways of knowing? How can ecological principles inform curriculum content as well as the process of teaching and learning? How can we move beyond just having ecological ideas to nurturing ecological identities and ecological selves? How do we become, as Arne Naess urges us to do, a member in the council of all beings? This course will draw on domestic and international examples of exemplary models of ecologically sound and social justice oriented educational philosophies and practices, This course was previously LIB-640539.