Excited to share the public web site of my grad seminar on CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN EDUCATION. In public pedagogy fashion, I'll share readings, resources, activities & designs based on our collective inquiry.
➡️ https://sites.google.com/uw.edu/climateeducation/
We will explore the broad question:
🌿 How should we promote learning in order to create more just, regenerative & flourishing conditions for all Earthly beings, human and otherwise? 🌿
The approach we are taking with the course is that of an interdisciplinary research group focused on exploring educational possibilities. We will collectively inquire, learn, speculate, design, test & share our thinking over the course of the term. You can get a deeper sense of the course focus and approach here:
https://sites.google.com/uw.edu/climateeducation/about
We invite you to follow along through the web site & join in through the #UWClimateEd hashtag.
Course Background & Focus The global climate continues to dramatically change as the result of human activity—with an expanding range of devastating effects around the world (e.g., widespread flooding, heatwaves and animal die-offs, mega-fires, increased and more intense hurricanes, extended
We will be using these books and resources as anchor texts to support our inquiry—supplemented by various readings, podcasts, and media. We will work to identify pieces that are publicly available as much as possible.
https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691220550/the-mushroom-at-the-end-of-the-world
https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/arts-of-living-on-a-damaged-planet
In our first session, we engaged in a new land-based activity for small groups focused on learning to see 'connectivities' and 'ecological caring' in the local setting (as described in the quotes from SHIMMER by Deborah Bird Rose).
We then explored the video "Climate Justice Is Social Justice" by Earthrise:
➡️ https://youtu.be/jY2eWJ-U_VQ
A more detailed agenda is shown in the Session 1 Slides:
You can also explore the full course site from the 2021 run of the seminar—with readings, resources, journal & group projects.
2021 GRAD SEMINAR IN CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN EDUCATION
➡️ https://sites.google.com/uw.edu/climatejusticeed2021/home
2021 COURSE JOURNAL
➡️ https://twitter.com/philiplbell/status/1348321669035614210?s=20&t=KsPgYY8vebJz4kiiSQmoyg
The course is designed to be emergent based on the interests and priorities of the participants and to the current moment, so I fully expect this run of the grad seminar will take us in new directions. Stay tuned. #UWClimateEd
In Session 3, Dr. Kelsie Fowler led an activity she designed to help us explore the eco-climate emotions we are experiencing.
I then shared a variety of resources in the slide deck:
🌿 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1h9Jp-vIr1EbHweg7cUjJyGpvW8blexBa/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=107371385648358842300&rtpof=true&sd=true
We then spent time in small groups identifying emergent areas of shared interest for future reading.
Small groups used the Socio-Ecological History of Places framework from the Learning in Places project as they walked to learn to see multiple histories.
🌿 http://learninginplaces.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/framework_histories_of_place_REV082422_web.pdf
We started discussing readings and media for Session 3 that provide an overview of #ClimateJustice and #ClimateColonialism. You can access the list with embedded links at the course web site:
🌿 https://sites.google.com/uw.edu/climateeducation/readings?authuser=0#h.w1n3btdsyn2m
We are grateful to learn from Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Dr. @farhanasultana, Dr. Kyle Whyte, Abrahm Lustgarten, and Dr. Olúfémi Táíwò.
Our discussion of these readings continue into Session 4 of class.
I ended class by framing an assignment for individuals and groups to conceptualize and design a disruptive encounter for a specific everyday context. This is our first effort to take up an educational design stance in response to the subject matter of the course or our own life experiences.
The goal is for individuals to select an injustice to disrupt in some creative way in an everyday encounter or context. It could be a provocative thought, a counter-story, a conversation, etc.
In Session 4, we spent our time primarily focused on exploring the readings & media described above.
Slides for Session 4 are here:
🌿 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xzCDzuBbzCKVd5bodgUXGfM0pYZh29TP/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=107371385648358842300&rtpof=true&sd=true
As we wade into storytelling as a key social practice for cultivating the cultural transformations needed to respond to the #ClimateCrisis, we reflected on this quote shown from Dr. Donna Haraway. She was building from the powerful feminist insight of Dr. Marilyn Strathern: “it matters what ideas we use to think other ideas (with).”
We reflected on this powerful framework from Deeper Iyer for understanding the dynamic range of roles individuals within groups, organizations, & networks engaged in equity & justice work.
See the Building Movement Project for details…
🌿 https://buildingmovement.org/our-work/movement-building/social-change-ecosystem-map/
We used the framework to explore our own roles, reflect on efforts we have been part of, understand various sociocritical dimensions of the work, and discuss the importance of ongoing dialogue and relationship building within movements.
We ended our day collectively exploring our responsibilities related to the developing situation to #StopCopCity in Atlanta.
We explored various strategies and timescales of just response, the fundamental intertwining of justice efforts (specifically abolition, anti-racism, and environmental protection / land defense), and how to form enduring and action-focused assemblies of coalitional resistance.
Here's a background article from @grist we discussed:
🌿 https://grist.org/protest/atlanta-cop-city-terrorism/
@PhilipBell love Deepa’s Social Change framework so and the reflective praxis book she just released. I have found it to create so much vision and imagination and resilience in people who don’t normally see themselves as activists.
Thank you for sharing how you are facilitating this course, it is resonant and heartening.
Philip Bell
Sane Thinker
Dr. Brooke Kuhnhausen