How Language Limits Our Understanding of Environmental Education
Titel:
How Language Limits Our Understanding of Environmental Education
Auteur:
Bowers, Chet
Verschenen in:
Environmental education research
Paginering:
Jaargang 7 (2001) nr. 2 pagina's 141-151
Jaar:
2001-05-01
Inhoud:
The article is used to develop a theory of metaphor that helps explain how, in many instances, environmental education contributes to the double bind of helping to address environmental problems while at the same time reinforcing the use of the language/thought patterns that underlie the digital phase of the Industrial Revolution we are now entering on a global scale. In addition, it is suggested that environmental educators need to help students understand the connections between cultural practices and degraded environments, thus overcoming a widespread tendency to associate the word 'ecology' with natural systems rather than recognizing that the culturally influenced activities of humans are now integral, in largely destructive ways, to the workings of natural systems. The narrow meaning of ecology has led to an ecomanagement approach that has had the effect of limiting the larger public's sense of responsibility to that of recycling. It is further suggested that environmental educators cooperate with teachers in other disciplines in order to assist students in understanding and participating in the non-consumer-oriented activities and relationships within their local communities. Learning about the community-centered alternatives to consumerism is part of the solution to the growing problem of global warming and changes in the chemistry of the world's natural systems. But this will involve greater understanding on the part of environmental educators of how the language of the curriculum marginalizes the importance of face-to-face, intergenerationally connected communities, while reinforcing the assumptions that lead to equating technological innovations with progress, to the sense of being an autonomous individual, to viewing the environment as an exploitable resource, and to the belief that science and technology will rescue humanity from its hubris and environmental miscalculations.
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