Faculty Seminar

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Faculty Seminar (4 credits)

The faculty seminar will vary year to year depending upon program leadership and the interests of the faculty leading the program. Designed for maximum flexibility, this seminar will allow faculty from virtually any discipline the opportunity to bring their areas of interest and expertise to the program.

The 2008 faculty seminar will be taught by Jay Roberts, Instructor of Education at Earlham College. See course description below:

ENVIRONMENT, CULTURE, AND CURRICULUM

This course will focus on the theoretical and philosophical discourses located within the intersections of education and environmentalism. As a new field of study, a variety of names and labels have been attached to this mode of inquiry including: Place-Based Education, Eco-Progressivism, Neo-Environmentalism, Critical Ecology, and Eco-Justice Education to name some of the most prevalent. The authors selected below attempt to move beyond a study “about the environment” to a larger analysis and critique of the cultural norms, systems, and structures (including schooling) that structure our relationship with the natural world. In the words of one author:

"Courses in environmental education often focus on scientific analysis and social policy--not cultural change. Children are exposed to information regarding environmental problems and explore such topics as endangered species, the logging of tropical rainforests, or the monitoring of water quality in local streams and rivers. Some adopt manatees or whales, or create school-wide recycling programs. These topics and efforts are without question commendable, however, missing is a recognition of the deeper cultural transformations that must accompany the shift to a more ecologically sustainable way of life” (Gregory Smith).

In the end, a study of environmental education can be (ought to be) as much about the various ways schools (and society) construct environmental relationships and knowledge systems as it is about specific curricula or unit plans.

Proposed Reading List:

Bonnet, Michael. Retrieving Nature: Education for a Post-Humanist Age

CA Bowers (1997). The Culture of Denial. New York: SUNY Press.

Abram, David (1997). Spell of the Sensuous.

Louv, Richard (2005) Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.” Algonquin Books.

Hay, Peter (2005). Main Currents in Western Environmental Theory.

Orr, David. (2003) The Nature of Design.

Shiva, Vendana (2005). Earth Democracy.