From action.RAN.org

Ecopedagogy; an approach to an education of the earth and it’s citizens

“O mundo nao é, o mundo esta sendo”

The world is not (stagnant, just as it is) the world is becoming. ~Paulo Freire

How can we, as citizens of the planet, participate in the creation of a world that we want instead of sitting idly by and allowing those who are profiting off of extraction and exploitation create our world for us? What kind of education is really relevant today, given our current globalized and capitalist condition?

These are some of the questions that are asked by ecopedagogy, which it attempts to respond to. Ecopedagogy is a discourse, a movement, and an approach to education which is alive; it is open and fluid to be defined in the moment by anyone who engages critically with it. In this way it remains continuously relevant. There are however, some basic principles outlined in the Ecopedagogy Charter, which have been elaborated and interpreted by subsequent works. Some of these principles include;

• Popular Education: Ecopedagogy is an extension of Paulo Freire’s seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Many of the concepts of power and oppression are expanded to include the non-human world as oppressed as well. As a heir of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Ecopedagogy is grounded in popular education in which power is shared, participatory dialogue is the key methodology, learning leads to action, and learning starts from and responds to the learner’s lived experiences.

• Post-Issue activism: Issues of social and economic justice, democracy and ecologal integrity intersect and are interdependent. Ultimately none of them are possible without all of them intact. Educators can choose which ever issue their learners are most personally connected with however as an “entry point” or location to start from to then move towards an integrated understanding of the others.

• Planetary Citizenship: Our lived reality is becoming globalized, we should globalize our sense of community, responsibilities and our commitments as well. We must recognize ourselves as earthlings, with all beings representing our brothers and sisters, and yet sound ecological practice will result only from bioregional acts and understandings of our location and dwelling.

• Art Education: Ecopedagogy encourages people to develop the capacity to feel, intuit, imagine, create, relate, and express themselves. In this way we move from object to subject, able to participate in articulating and creating the world we want. This implies that the multiple languages/ intelligences of theatre, music, visual art, photography, dance etc. are fundamental to engage with as tools of expression and creation in the educational project.

• Care: Dis-care of each other and of the planet has contributed to our current planetary crisis. Care can “conjure the strength to search for peace in the midsts of conflict”, “rescue the dignity of the condemned” and “permit a revolution of tenderness to prioritize the social over the individual.” ~Leonardo Boff, “Saber Cuidar”.

• Anti-Oppression: Ecopedagogy is anti-racist, anti-classist, anti-sexist, and anti-speciesist. It is against the ranking of oppressions, and instead seeks to understand the complex ways in which various forms of oppression co-originate or intersect due to common causes. Yet, it also recognizes that in any given instance, some forms of oppression may be more primary than others, and so understanding how multiple levels of oppression arise or take historical precedence is equally important.

• Transformation: Ecopedagogy recognizes the need for societal and economic transformation. It understands that sustainability is in conflict with the current political, economic, and cultural status quo that fuels the growth of a globalized society of militarism and transnational capitalist development.

• Praxis: Ecopedagogical learning is not complete until action is taken; Ecopedagogy encourages creative and emancipatory action based in reflection and dialogue with a collective of oppositional voices led by the voices of those most impacted by the situation the action is addressing

• Utopia: Ecopedagogy is unabashedly utopian – not in the sense of idealistic daydreaming about the possibility of another sort of world, but rather ecopedagogy is uncompromising in its refusal to accept the suffering of this one as de facto. Ecopedagogy intends to re-educate planetary citizens to become builders and shapers of this possible future sustainable world.

A note on the history of Ecopedagogy

Paulo Freire, Moacir Gadotti and Francisco Gutierrez were having lunch in Sao Paulo Brazil one day in the late 1990’s and came up with the word and basic concept of ecopedagogy. Along with organizing the International Meeting, “The Earth Charter in an Educational Perspective”, all three of them then set out to write books on the subject. Gadotti wrote “Pedagogy of the Earth” Gutierrez wrote “Ecopedagogy and Planetary Citizenship” Freire however passed before he was able to write another book. Since then Leonardo Boff of the Liberation Theology movement and multiple others have joined them in Latin America to form what has become an ecopedagogy movement. There are currently 3 Ecopedagogy centers in Brazil, one in Costa Rica and multiple articles, practices and resources in Spanish and Portuguese on the internet. While the concepts of ecopedagogy have some roots in works from English speakers such as Richard Kahn, Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme and Fritjof Capra there are no books and few articles about ecopedagogy in English. Recently, Ecopedagogy Association International and the Green Theory and Practice Journal were founded to address this.

For more information, also visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecopedagogy