Transformative Sustainability Education: Reimagining Our Future

Description

This book lays out the principles and practices of transformative sustainability education using a relational way of thinking and being. Elizabeth A. Lange advocates for a new approach to environmental and sustainability education, that of rethinking the Western way of knowing and being and engendering a frank discussion about the societal elements that are generating climate, environmental, economic, and social issues. Highlighting the importance of Indigenous and life-giving cultures, the book covers educational theory, transformation stories of adult learners, social and economic critique, and visions of changemakers. Each chapter also has a strong pedagogical element, with entry points for learners and embodied practices and examples of taking action at micro/meso/macro levels woven throughout. Overall, this book enacts a relational approach to transformative sustainability education that draws from post humanist theory, process thought, relational ontology, decolonization theory, Indigenous philosophy, and a spirituality that builds a sense of sacred towards the living world. Written in an imaginative, storytelling manner, this book will be a great resource for formal and nonformal environmental and sustainability educators. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Figures List of Boxes Preface Acknowledgements 1 Seeding Life-Giving Cultures Unearthing Seeds of Life Seeds of Hope for the Planet Epochal Shift: Which Pathway? The Great Transformation Stories of Modernity The Paradox of Science Relationality Emerging Story Seeds of Hope for Humanity Notes and References 2 How Did We Get Here? Historical Context—Part One Scope of Western Civilization Learning from Epochal Shifts and Collapse Seeds of Environmentalism and Justice-Seeking Old Sustainability Critique of Colonialism as the Spread of Death Protesting Industrialism Social Reformism First Wave Environmentalism: Conservation and Preservation End of Colonialism and Old Social Movements Origin of the United Nations Rise of Social Welfare States First Global Existential Threat: The Atomic Age International Development as Industrialism Second Wave Environmentalism The Hippy Generation and New Social Movements of the 1960s Reflections Notes and References 3 Waves of Environmentalism, Development, and Backlash Historical Context—Part Two Rise of Environmental Movements Environmental Movement Organizations Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations Green Politics The Science of Ecology Third Wave Environmentalism Looming Population Crisis Waves of International Development Development as Industrialization Development as Modernization Development as Basic Needs Development as Partnership OPEC Oil Crisis and Economic Disruption The Lost Decade of the 1980s: Debt and Dependency Neoliberal Globalization as Backlash Structural Adjustment Plans as Third Development Decade Sustainable Development: Merger of Environmentalism and Developmentalism Sustainable Development as Fourth Development Decade Derailing Environmentalism and Sustainable Development? Climate Change Gains Visibility Rio and the 1992 Earth Summit Zapatista Revolution: Building Endogenous Sustainability Battle of Seattle: Fourth Wave Environmentalism The End of Development? The Millennial Turn and Fourth Wave Environmentalism Millennium Development Goals 2000–2015 9/11 and Disaster Capitalism Corporate Camouflage and Climate Denialism: More Backlash Climate Accords and Reality 2008 Financial Crash 2015 Paris Agreement, Agenda 2030, and The Future We Want The Climate Justice Movement Another Cultural Shift: Rage and the Silence Breakers Global Pandemic and Nuclear Threat So, How Did We Get Here? Notes and References 4 Environmental Education Situating Environmental Education Antecedents of Environmental Education Emergence of Environmental Education Early Definitional and Boundary Debates Environmental Communication Environmental Interpretation Ecology and EE An Evolving Ecology of EE Approaches Strand One: Naturalist/Conservationist/Environmental Science Strand Two: Environmental Literacy/Environmental Citizenship Strand Three: Deep Ecology/Ecoliteracy/Ecoconsciousness/Ecojustice/Place-Based Education Strand Four: Critical EE/Environmental Justice and Critical Multicultural EE/Ecopedagogy/Land-Based and Indigenous EE/Commons-Based EE/Ecofeminist Education Persistent Conundrums and Growing Critique Science and Social Science Mainstreaming and Margins Knowledge-to-Action Assumption Environmental Advocacy and Education Instrumental Approach or Not? Catastrophe Education The Failure of EE? Adult Environmental Education Notes and References 5 Sustainability Education Situating Sustainability Education Emergence of Sustainable Development The Crisis in and of Education The Assault on Schooling and Higher Education Taking Back Education? Perceived Failures of Environmental Education Other Antecedents to Sustainability Education: Adjectival Educations Peace Education International Development and Human Rights Education Multicultural, Intercultural, and Anti-Racist Education Gender and LGBTQ+ Equity Education Global Education Proliferation of Sustainability The Integrative Promise of Sustainability Education Sustainable Development and Education The “Education for Sustainable Development” Debate Concept and Implementation of ESD Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) 2005–2014: Reorienting Education The Neoliberal Turn in Sustainability Discourse DESD Midterm and Final Reports Post-Decade ESD and the SDGs 2015–2030: Transforming Education Transformative Approaches Competences for Sustainable Development Whole School/Whole Institution Approaches Critique of ESD ESD as Faux/Weak/Technocentric Sustainability Other Approaches to Sustainability Education Sustainability in Higher Education Sustainability Literacy Personal Sustainability/Sustainable Livelihoods Strong/Systems-Based/Ecocentric Sustainability Education Deep/Strongest/Transformative Sustainability Education Just Sustainabilities/Decolonizing Sustainability Climate Change Education Sustainababble, Failure, and Postsustainability? Notes and References 6 Transformative Sustainability Education The Not New and Improved Introduction to Transformative Learning Relationality: Pathways into Transformation Conceptualizing Relationality Quantum Worldview Gaia Theory Living Systems Worldview Facets of Relationality for Transformative Sustainability Education Radical Wholeness Systems Thinking Process Thinking and Energy Fields Communal Individuality Entangled Ethics Moving Towards Wisdom: A Spiritual Pathway Reimagining Transformative Learning Transformative Sustainability Education: Flowing into Relationality Conclusion Notes and References 7 The Modern Story of Education Crisis of Education Social Imaginaries What If? Faces of the Modern Social Imaginary in Education Educating for Proselytizing and Civilizing: A Control/Judge/Reward/Punish Logic Educating for Modernizing: A Schooled Logic Educating for Globalizing: The Profit Logic Educating for Production, Education as Production Recapitulation: Modern Social Imaginary in Education Reimagining Education and Learning Educating for Epochal Shift Dark Times for Empire Beyond the Dark Age Notes and References 8 Our Great Work: Reimagining Education and Our Future Civilization Transition Our Great Work and Education Decolonization, Dragonfly Seeing, and the Pluriverse Theft of Knowledge, Theft of Biodiversity, and Right Relations Returning to the Big Questions Seeds for Reimagining Education An Alive Cosmology A Relational, Participatory Universe Kinship Ethics: A New Moral Order Epistemology as Process, as Wisdom-Seeking Pluriverse Worldmaking: The Alchemy of Change From One-Dimensionality to Pluriversality Revitalizing the Commons Matristic Cultures and the Partnership Ethic Reimagining Our Future, Reimagining Learning A Web of Vernacular Learning Commons Sprouting Seeds of Hope Notes and References Index