Towards Critical Environmental Education

This volume discusses theory, philosophy, praxis and methods in Environmental and Ecological education, and considers the junction with the main visions and issues of Critical Pedagogy. The volume and its separate chapters address four axes, which can also be seen as the guidelines of the content as well as the central objectives of the book.The first axis concerns the missing theoretical and practical pieces at this point in time. The volume considers the issues that are not included in contemporary Environmental Education, and thus, deprive it from critical orientations. This implies that in Environmental Education, very little discussion exists about the political, economic, racial, gender and class issues that in most cases govern the actions of leaders and stake-holders. The second axis concerns what has been done so far and in what directions. This involves descriptions of theoretical approaches or actual applied methodologies in the classroom, such as curricula or syllabus used or the kind of actions certain educators have taken to infuse the issues of justice and critical reflection within the Environmental Education teaching agenda. The third axis examines proposals. It looks at ways to enrich domains of Environmental Education with the argumentations of Critical Pedagogy. The fourth axis concerns the way in which proposals can be effectuated. This part contains specific methodologies and teaching sequences, depicting ways of including major aspects of Critical Pedagogy and Critical Education in Environmental Education. Examples are: Non-anthropocentric ecological approaches in the classroom, political activism in the Curricula, mixture of field activities and political activities.

Autorentext
Aristotelis S. Gkiolmas is a member of the Teaching Staff at the Department of Primary Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He obtained a Bachelor (B.Sc.) in Physics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and he worked many years as a Science teacher, in all levels of the Greek Secondary Education. His research interests include Environmental Education, critical pedagogies, teaching about social and environmental Justice and understanding complexity in societies, in education and in Nature.
Constantine-(Kostas) Skordoulis is Professor of Epistemology and Didactical Methodology of Physics at the Department of Primary Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He teaches Environmental Ethics, Didactics of Science and Theory of Scientific Knowledge. He has published extensively on socio-scientific and environmental issues and has been involved in organizing the international conferences on critical education. His latest book is: From Environmental Ethics to Political Ecology: an ecosocialist perspective.

Inhalt
Foreword Shirley Steinberg

Chapter 1: Our Human-Centered Focus is Killing Us (A case for returning to our original notion of diversity)

Donald Trent Jacobs, Katrina Rogers, David Blake Willis and Henry Fowler

Chapter 2: Hell: Critical Environmental Pedagogy through Popular Dystopic Films.

William (Bill) Reynolds

Chapter 3: Finding an Environmentally Sustainable Future through Indigenous Hip Hop Culture Bradley (Brad) Porfilio

Chapter 4: Why Class Matters in Environmental Education Joe Henderson

Chapter 5: This Branch is an E: Duoethnographic Conversations between an Educator and a Parent Jackie Seidel & Stephanie Westlund

Chapter 6: Toward an Interspecies Critical Food Systems Education Teresa Lloro-Bidart

Chapter 7: Ecocritical Environmental Education: Pedagogy for Resisting Human-Supremacy Johnny Lupinacci

Chapter 8: "Paulo Freire and a Curriculum for the Capitalocene." Samuel Day Fassbinder

Chapter 9: Critical situated learning and environmental education Marcia McKenzie & Andrew Bieler
Chapter 10: Critical Environmental Education with an ecosocialist vision or Natural Disasters taught as Socially-driven and Class-oriented phenomena: The point of view of Critical Pedagogy Constantine Skordoulis

Chapter 11: Integrating struggles for Environmental Justice into the Curriculum: A Critical Pedagogy viewpoint (* Three case-studies from Greece: Keratea's sanitary landfill, Chalkidiki's gold mines and the struggle regarding Asopos river)

Aristotelis Gkiolmas

Chapter 12: Critical situated learning and environmental education

Marcia McKenzie & Andrew Bieler

Chapter 13: "There is only the We": Education for Environmental Equity and Justice Cynthia Thomashow

Chapter 14: Creating Environments for Equity, Race, and Disciplinary Ideologies in Urban Teacher Education.Kerry Dixon & Valerie Kinloch