This is an updated slide show presentation on ecojustice pedagogy. I've included more work with aesthetics and spirituality.

1. ECOJUSTICE THEORY
& PEDAGOGY
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University

2. You & Nature
What is your relationship with nature?

5. You darkness from which I come,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence out the world,
for the fire makes a circle
for everyone
so no one sees you anymore.
But darkness holds it all:
the shape and the flame,
the animal and myself,
how it holds them,
all powers, all sight—
and it is possible: its great strength is
breaking into my body.
I have faith in the night.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
(translated by David Whyte in Fire in the
Earth)

6. “Now he seeks to become nobody for a while, to disappear into
the woods so that the person he really is might find him.”
(Plotkin, 2003, p. 244)

7. Roots & Lenses of
Ecojustice Pedagogy
Ecofeminism - a feminist theory that describes the
relationship between nature and women; includes an
analysis of the added burden that women face,
especially in third-world nations, when environment is
compromised.
Indigenous Education - rooted in Native American
cultures and philosophies; includes a focus on humans
as part of nature living with reciprocity.
Eco-spirituality - earth-based spirituality

8. Ecojustice Theory
The roots of our domination over each other come from
the same root of domination we feel over the earth.
When biodiversity is threatened so is cultural diversity
Dominant elites exploit the earth and subordinated peoples
for their own benefit.
Social justice, critical social theories, and multiculturalism
are often anthropocentric

9. Summary Points of Ecojustice Theory
1. Eliminating eco-racism
2. Revitalizing the commons to create a balance between market
and non-market aspects of community life
3. Ending the industrialized nations’ exploitation and cultural
colonization of third-world nations
4. Ensure that the hubris and ideology of Western industrial
culture does not diminish future generations’ ways of living and
quality of life
5. Support an “Earth Democracy”--the right of nature to flourish
rather than be contingent upon the demands of humans
From ecojusticeeducation.org

10. Ecojustice Teaching Practice
Students will be more able to:
Identify sustainable social and
ecological relationships
Connect with intergenerational
knowledges
Describe how culture connects
with our relationship to nature

11. Ecojustice Teaching Practice
Students will be more able to:
Decrease the influence of the
media and consumerism
Be more culturally inclusive and
have a greater awareness of
interconnectedness, nurturance,
and reciprocity

12. “Thick Description”
Superficial
Mainstream
Message These two might
set up a binary
Null
Message
Relationships These two generally
show a complexity
Tensions not binary
“packaged” info
Deep

13. ECOLOGICAL
IDENTITIES

14. In the very earliest time,
when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal as he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people
and sometimes they were animals
and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance
might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive
and what people wanted to happen could happen—
all you had to do was say it.
Nobody can explain this:
That’s the way it was.
-Nalungiaq (Inuit)

15. Your Ecological Identity
Who are you?
What is your history?
To what extent are you
defined more by
technology or by
nature?

16. Messages From Water
From What the Bleep Do We Know?

17. Washington D.C. Meditation Experiment
From What the Bleep Do We Know?

18. Hula
“Hula is an important part of our Hawaiian culture.
It leads us to who we are as people today.”

19. Aloha & Haole

20. 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.

21. 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).

22. Footpath = Your View of Reality?
Home Building
Nature?
Sidewalk Sidewalk
Driveway Parking Lot
Vehicle

23. Transcends Humanity
Spirit
Soul
Nature & Soul

24. Soul
“The individual human
soul is one element of the
fabric of nature. You are
not in any way separate
from nature. The wild
world reflects your
essence back to you just
like a still lake reflects
your image.” (Plotkin,
2003, p. 216)
Nature & Soul

25. Soul
“The earth provides us
with not only the means
to be physically born into
this world but also the
spiritual means to
recognize our deeper
identities.” (Plotkin,
2003, p. 239)
Nature & Soul

26. People of the Earth
A deeper sense of self
An awareness of how
one connects to the
place where one is
Connecting one’s
relationships with local
mythologies
Being aware of one’s
energetic self

27. People of the Earth
Tap into spirituality of
nature
Listen to the earth, hear
its ways of
communicating with us
Develop one’s soul
through communication
with nature

28. 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.

29. Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Gods and Gods and God (no
Goddesses Goddesses Goddess) &
communicate communicate salvation are
through the through the found only
actions of nature actions of nature through Jesus.
in the forests and in growth/ The Devil resides
harvest of crops in nature.

30. Shift Away FromValuing Nature

31. Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Transcontinental corporations heavily
influence governments and national policies Government provides
through trade agreements creating the policies of morality
greatest negative impact on the global aimed solely at rights of
environment humans

32. Shift Away FromValuing Nature

33. When a Science Mindset Takes Over...
We replaced drum beating, gunfiring, gardening and farming
people with ecologists, naturalists, and tourists, under strict
control to ensure that they did not disturb the animals or the
vegetation...Within a few decades miles of riverbank in both
valleys were devoid of reeds, fig thickets and most other
vegetation.
[T]he change in human behavior changed the behavior of the
animals that had naturally feared them, which in turn led to
the damage to soils and vegetation. (Savory, 1999, pp. 20-21)

34. Technology = Ecology
What happens to people
when technology
replaces ecology as the
main viewpoint of
“reality”?
Do we see buildings as
“progress” and areas of
nature as “empty lots?”

35. Ecological Identities
What connections can you see in your content area?
To what extent can your content area shift students’
consciousness about their ecological identities?

36. ECO-RACISM &
EXPLOITING PEOPLES

37. 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)

38. A Brief History of Peoples (Part 1)
Earth-Based Cultures Industrial Culture
First Nations Genocide
Indigenous
Africans
Colonization
Enslavement
Assimilation
Aborigines
Tens of Thousands of Focus on colonization, Western
Years of Earth- globalization, technology, and
Centered Approach profit above relationship with
Earth

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. A Brief History of Peoples (Part 2)
“Third World” or “Developing” Industrial Culture
Africa Ignored
Impoverished
East Asia
Globalization
Enslavement
Dumping Grounds
Central &
South America
Disease, poverty, war- Exploit peoples for the purposes
stricken, desperate of making profits, unless they
conditions have nothing to offer

43. Industrialized Nations Exploiting
Third-World Nations
Economic exploitation via
cheap labor:
Current business practices
from transnational
corporations in
industrialized nations
158 million child laborers
globally (ages 5-14)
Sweat shop labor
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bsOn43bjsdY

44. Industrialized Nations
Exploiting Third-World Nations
14-16 hour work days
Young women and men
Paid as little as possible
First-World’s exploitation of
people of color and women for
profit and First-World consumers
Modern-Day Slavery
Movement away from the Earth
towards technology and
“progress”

45. Noam Chomsky
Critically Questioning

46. U.S. Exploitation of Hawai`i
Cultural colonization via
globalization or “global
Westernization” for the sake of profit
From plantations to hotel high rises
Movement of Hawaiians off of
beaches and into warehouses in
Western Oahu for the sake of
tourism
Military bombings for practice (also
Vieques, PR)

47. “La Chureca,” Managua, Nicaragua
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Season 10 - 2011)

48. Exploiting Peoples
To what extent do the underlying values of your content area
perpetuate exploitation of peoples across the globe and in our
communities?

49. REVITALIZING THE
CULTURAL COMMONS

50. Revitalizing the
Cultural Commons
Cultural Commons
Naturals systems (water, air, soil, forests, oceans, etc.)
Cultural patterns and traditions (intergenerational knowledge
ranging from growing and preparing food, medicinal practices,
arts, music, crafts, ceremonies, etc.)
Shared with little or no cost by all members of the community
nature of the commons varies in terms of different cultures and
bioregions
The basis of mutual support systems and local democracy

51. Revitalizing the
Cultural Commons
What are specific examples
of the cultural commons in
our community?
Why are the cultural
commons important to any
society?

52. Revitalizing the
Cultural Commons
Increases dialogue Diffuses social power
imbalances
Invests in relationships
Strengthens
Increases ecologically democratic
sustainable practices participation
Revitalizes the arts Strengthens local
Lessens the volatility of control
economic systems

53. The Cultural Commons
as Your Classroom
Artists American Indians
Elders Politicians
Journalists Experts in various areas
Historians Community workers &
organizers
Mechanics
Radio show hosts
Writers
Athletes
Poets

54. The Cultural Commons
as Your Classroom
Food shares Museums
Community gardens Libraries
Transportation shares Art shows
Traditional knowledge Craft shows
shares
Lectures
Technology shares
Farms
Clothing swaps

55. UCONN Mentor Connection 2007
1. John Callendrelli (CT Chapter of Sierra Club)
2.Kathleen Holgersen (UCONN Women’s Center)
3.Lauren Bentancourt (Miss Connecticut 2007)
4.Dale Carson (Native American Elder - Abenaki)
5.Ned Lamont (Democratic Candidate for CT Senate 2006)
6.Matthew Hart (Mansfield Town Manager)
7.Chet Bowers (Ecojustice Professor, University of Oregon)
8.Laurie Perez (Journalist, Fox 61 News)
9.Bobby Sherwood & Colin McEnroe (Producer & Talk Show Host WTIC
1080AM Radio)

56. Cultural Commons
To what extent can you draw from people in our
community for your content area?
Who are those people specifically? How would
you want to use them?
To what extent can your content area be
incorporated in a “pedagogy of localization?”

57. EARTH DEMOCRACY

59. Earth Democracy
Earth has a right to thrive and not
be contingent on the needs of
humans
Humans are not separate from
nature and live in balance with
nature
Humans not taking resources from
nature or creating concentrations
of pollution that destroy the
environment Vandana Shiva, 1952-
Externalities from The Corporation

60. “Shapeshifter”
Brian Jungen

61. Plastic Ocean
Millions of tons of
plastic collectively
at least the size of
Texas floating in
the Pacific Ocean

62. Plastic Ocean
Millions of tons of About 6 times more
plastic collectively plastic than plankton - a
at least the size of major food source for
Texas floating in animals
the Pacific Ocean
CNN Report

63. Earth Democracy
To what extent can your content area contribute to a
mindset of “Earth Democracy”?

64. HUBRIS & IDEOLOGY

65. Science as a Product of
Sociocultural Values
Galileo Galilei
Johannes Kepler Francis Bacon
“The Universe is a clock”
“The Universe is a machine” “For you have but to
follow and as it were
hound nature in her
wanderings...Neither
ought a man to make
scruple of entering and
penetrating into these
Thomas Hobbes René Descartes holes and corners, when
“Nature is dead, stupid “We can be the masters the inquisition of truth is
matter” and possessors of nature” his whole object”

66. “Science Mythology”
• The best way to understand nature is to isolate and atomize it. In fact, all
other ways are subordinate and borderline socially inept.
• Capitalism and government have no governance over scientific research
• Science includes the only right ways to determine truth
• Any other ways of assembling truth are simply ignorant and part of what
Carl Sagan calls a “Demon Haunted World”
• The previous statement is culturally neutral. In fact, ANYTHING that
science claims is true is culturally neutral.
• Science is always moving us towards an ultimate and undeniable truth
about the universe
• There are no mystical aspects about the universe; there are only aspects
that science has yet to understand

67. Hubris and Ideology
Root metaphors:
Words that carry forward cultural value systems; these are often mystified
Hubris:
Bowers argued that we often use root metaphors in our language that ultimately express
hubris, ideology, and have long-term negative consequences both culturally and ecologically
Examples:
Individualism
Progress
Technology
Savage
The Corporation

68. Is “Progress”
Ecologically Sustainable?
Progress Sustainability
Technology Cooperation
Individuality/Isolation Reciprocity
Capitalism Nurturance
Competition Interconnectedness with
each other and with
Movement away from nature
nature
“Progress” as typically defined in the first world
nations is the opposite of “sustainability”

69. “Progress” Creates Oppression
We are currently at the stage of global peak oil, and the next 30-40 years will very likely be
focused on rapidly decreasing supplies and is connected to a current energy crisis (Zittel, 2007).
Access to freshwater is becoming increasingly difficult, especially for peoples in third world
countries where freshwater sources are polluted or privatized (Shiva, 2005; Vorosmarty, Green,
Salisbury & Lammers, 2000).
Global warming is creating increasingly unstable and unpredictable conditions in local and global
contexts with experts predicting numbers of environmental refugees in the hundreds of millions
(Bhandari, 2009).
Half the world’s population lives on $2.50 per day or less, and 80% of the world lives on $10 per
day or less (Shah, 2010).
Children in cities have higher rates of asthma than children in surrounding suburbs (Kozol, 2005)

70. “Progress” Creates Oppression
“Progress”
Neoliberal Mindset Capitalism
Meritocracy
Public Education Corporatism
Merit-Based Pay NCLB RTTT
“Winners” & “Losers” “Winners” & “Losers”

71. Dominant Cultural Value
Systems

72. Dominant Cultural Value Systems
For-profit
Hyper-consumerism
Humans-over-nature
Earth as “collateral
damage”

73. “Sustainability” Creates Social Justice
“Sustainability”
Nurturance & Reciprocity
Public Education Economic Balance Ecological Balance
Growth & Support Access to Resources Biodiversity
Diversity

74. Evolution and
Social Darwinism
Biological evolutionary theory argues for the “survival
of the fittest”
Darwin argued that poor people should not be having
children because they will create more poor people.
The social elites (during the Victorian period) greatly
favored this argument.

75. Applied Social Darwinism
How has Social Darwinism been applied to
or connected with:
Native Americans?
African Americans (during slavery,
segregation, currently)
Australian Aborigines?
Eugenics?
Nazi scientists?
Capitalistic practices? Free-market
practices?

76. Hubris & Anthropocentrism
To what extent does your content area perpetuate a
practice of hubris and anthropocentric thinking?
To what extent can your content area critically examine
this perpetuation?

77. ECOJUSTICE
PEDAGOGY

78. Disrupting a Mindset of
Anthropocentrism
Thick Description includes:
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

79. Ecojustice Teaching Methods
Exploring the intersections of
cultural value system and ecology
1. Teacher-as-Mediator
Aiming for thick description
(relationships and tensions)
2. Investigating Mindsets
Disrupting anthropocentric thinking
and language
3. Commons-Based Learning
Using the cultural commons as place-
based learning experiences
4. Ecological Selves
Deconstructing our technological/
ecological selves

80. Ecojustice Teaching Methods
Exploring the intersections of
cultural value system and ecology
5. Sustainable Feast
Making dishes with foods that are
in season and from within 100
miles away
6. Community Mapping
Investigating the surroundings of
an area including its buildings,
natural areas, types of land usage
7. Earth-Walking
Knowing the mythological and
practical significances of the
natural area

81. References & Resources
Bhandari, N. (August 4, 2009). 75 million environmental refugees to plague Asia-Pacific. Retrieved March 28, 2010,
from http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47944
Bowers, C. A. (2001). How language limits our understanding of environmental education. Environmental Education
Research, 7(2), 141-151.
Bowers, C. A. (2002). Toward an eco-justice pedagogy. Environmental Education Research, 8(1), 21-34.
Bowers, C. A. (2005). The false promises of constructivist theories of learning: A global and ecological critique. New York:
Peter Lang.
Bowers, C. A. (2006). Revitalizing the commons: Cultural and educational sites of resistance and affirmation. New York:
Lexington Books.
Cajete, G. (1994). Look to the mountain: An ecology of Indigenous education. Durango, CO: Kivaki Press.
Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in America's schools. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.
Kozol, J. (2005). Shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York, NY: Crown.
Martusewicz, R. (2005). Eros in the commons: Educating for eco-ethical consciousness in a poetics of place. Ethics,
Place and Environment, 8(3), 331-348.
Norberg-Hodge, H. (1991). Ancient futures: Learning from Ladakh. San Francisco: Sierra Books.
Norberg-Hodge, H. (1997). Our body and our economy. In L. Friedman & S. Moon (Eds.), Being bodies: Buddhist women
on the paradox of embodiment (pp. 76-86). Boston: Shambhala.
Plumwood, V. (2002). Environmental culture: The ecological crisis of reason. New York: Routledge.
Savory, A. (1999). Holistic management: A new framework for decision making. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.
Shah, A. Poverty facts and stats. Global Issues Retrieved March 28, 2010, from http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/
poverty-facts-and-stats
Shiva, V. (2000). Tomorrow's biodiversity. New York: Thames & Hudson.
Shiva, V. (2002). Water wars: Privatization, pollution, and profit. Boston: South End Press.
Shiva, V. (2005). Earth democracy: Justice, sustainability and peace. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.
Starhawk. (2004). The earth path. New York, NY: HarperOne.
Vorosmarty, C. I., Green, P., Salisbury, J., & Lammers, R. B. (2000). Global water resources: Vulnerability from climate
change and population growth Science, 289(5477), 284-288.
Zittel, W., & Schindler, J. (October, 2007). Crude oil: The supply outlook. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://
www.energywatchgroup.org/fileadmin/global/pdf/EWG_Oilreport_10-2007.pdf