Teaching at the intersection of diversity, social justice, and ecojustice
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Brown Bag Talk: Teaching at the Intersection of Diversity, Social Justice, and Ecojustice Kurt Love, Ph.D. Central Connecticut State University 11/13/13 Marcus White Living Room
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Brown bag talk presented at Central Connecticut State University on Nov 11, 2013
Transcript of Teaching at the intersection of diversity, social justice, and ecojustice
Brown Bag Talk:Teaching at the Intersection of
Diversity, Social Justice, and Ecojustice
Kurt Love, Ph.D.Central Connecticut State University
11/13/13Marcus White Living Room
Eco-racism
Eco-racism - the relationship between poor environmental conditions and peoples of color and lower socioeconomic classes disproportionately living in those conditions.
Peoples of third-world nations
Environmental conditions of poor neighborhoods in cities (Kozol, 1991, 2005)
European Colonizers & American Indians
Clash of two peoples with two different “ecological selves”
European Colonizers: Nature for profit, land ownership, enclosure, capitalist mindset/values
American Indians: Nurturance, reciprocity, sustainable mindset/values
Genocide: From up to 18 million in 1490’s to 190,000 in 1890, up to 200 million Indians died in the Americas
Land Domination
European Colonizers & West Africans
Clash of two peoples with two different “ecological selves”
European Colonizers: Nature for profit, land ownership, enclosure, capitalist mindset/values
West Africans: Nurturance, reciprocity, sustainable mindset/values
Slavery: About 12 million captured and shipped to the Americas, 645,000 brought to the U.S., nearly 4 million slaves in the 1860 census
Domination for profit via capitalism
Christians & Earth-Based Spiritualities
Movement out of nature and into “Human” as separate from nature
Nature is where Satan resides
Technology is Godly & righteous
Christian missionaries with indigenous peoples globally, views on nudity
Killing of at least tens of thousands of “witches” from 1400s-1600s
Continued persecution of paganism, neopaganism, and Wicca
Shift Away From Valuing Nature
Joseph Campbell stated that we can see the movements of a society based on the highest buildings in an area.
Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Gods and Goddesses
communicate through the
actions of nature in the forests
Gods and Goddesses
communicate through the
actions of nature and in growth/
harvest of crops
God (no Goddess) & salvation are found only
through Jesus. The Devil resides
in nature.
Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Government provides policies of morality
aimed solely at rights of humans
Transcontinental corporations heavily influence governments and national policies
through trade agreements creating the greatest negative impact on the global
environment
Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Aloha & Haole
Aloha “Together, we breathe the sacred breath”
A consciousness that we are inescapably interwoven with each other and the earth. What we do to each other and the earth, we do to ourselves.
Aloha & Haole
Haole “One who is without sacred breath”
A consciousness that does not include an awareness that we are inescapably interwoven with each other and the earth.
A consciousness only of self and an ignorance of one’s energetic and spiritual impact. Often comes with little or no understanding of spirituality or the purpose of one’s soul (soul loss).
A Vision
ECOJUSTICE PEDAGOGY
Disrupting a Mindset of Anthropocentrism
Questioning “root metaphors” in language
Questioning human domination over nature practices
Exposing “technology as our ecology” in curriculum
Analyzing history through an anti-anthropocentric lens
Thick Description includes:
Ecojustice Teaching Methods
1. Teacher-as-MediatorAiming for thick description (relationships and tensions)
2. Investigating MindsetsDisrupting anthropocentric thinking and language
3. Commons-Based LearningUsing the cultural commons as place-based learning experiences
4. Ecological SelvesDeconstructing our technological/ecological selves
Exploring the intersections of cultural value system and ecology
Ecojustice Teaching Methods
5. Sustainable FeastMaking dishes with foods that are in season and from within 100 miles away
6. Community MappingInvestigating the surroundings of an area including its buildings, natural areas, types of land usage
7. Earth-WalkingKnowing the mythological and practical significances of the natural area
Exploring the intersections of cultural value system and ecology
