Nesting with/in the Bloom

SAGE Handbook of Critical Pedagogies, 2020

Humans are now coming up against hard limits to our life on earth, and yet, through various ill-measured responses including guilt, panic, despair, and misplaced hope in romantic ideals or techno-fixes, we are effectively leaving the long-term ecological and social consequences to future generations. I recognize that, as an educator and researcher in a time of ecological crisis, I am obligated to take these crises very seriously. In my work with children and young people, the seriousness of this work requires that I be ever-mindful of how my responses may effectively perpetuate and exacerbate ecological and social injustices. In this chapter, I consider how it is possible to cultivate more measured (Gadamer, 2004), yet always imperfect responses in these “ecologically sorrowful times” (Jardine, 2015, p. xv) through a heart-mind-ful and place-based ecological pedagogy (Gadotti, 2003) that is spiritually oriented towards diversity in ways of knowing and connecting with others, an openness to the unknown, and to loving and respectful relations with humans and our more-than-human kin. I explore the possibilities of an ecological pedagogy of joy (Foreman, in Jensen, 2002; hooks, 2003) at the intersection of social and environmental justice, through examples of place-based life writing and poetic inquiry that are oriented towards ways of knowing and un-knowing, writing, and teaching that well up from within, “not out of a sense of duty, but out of a sense of joy” (Foreman, in Jensen, 2002, p. 10). As we re-story our human identity as beings-in-relation (Haraway, 2016), and cultivate our not-knowing, teachers may seek ways to open “our heart-minds” (Macy, 2014 par. 6; also see hooks, 2003, p. 137) towards more generous, careful, imperfect, loving relations.

Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 1990

Postdigital Science and Education, 2022

The pressing problems we face from wars to pandemics erupt against the less dramatic background of the mundane continued destruction of our planet as a habitable realm. In education, technology can be environmentally destructive in a variety of ways. Educators may feel the urge to address these matters but we also know that EdTech solutionism can create new problems as fast as it fixes old ones. Something in the urgency of the fix may be the problem. It may be that we are too desperate to fill a hole in the world that we only see through a hole in ourselves. Hence, in order to truly escape our colonised and domesticated fates, we need to rewild our very thinking. We need to examine the underlying emotional tones and waves that cause us to act as we do against our own interests and that of our planet. This conundrum is explored here through the device of storytelling using a multimodal speculative auto-ethnography to push into realms beyond mere utility and out into conceptual wilds. No fixes or solutions are offered here for the planet. Lifeless celestial objects such as the sun and moon loom large by contrast. Both have walk-on parts in this tale, and watch us as we watch them, with whatever love and kindness we can.

2017

Introduction to Artizein Special on Art, Ecology and Education Jan van Boeckel Guest editor To me, one the most compelling expressions of art, ecology and education coming together happened when I attended a lecture, a decade or more ago, by Timo Jokela, a Finnish professor in art education and environmental artist. He gave a presentation on his work, addressing his audience from a platform. In front of him was a glass of water. "This here," he started his presentation, pointing his finger at the water, "is part of my environment." He then raised the glass to his mouth and took a deep sip. He paused a moment. "Now it is part of me." With his performance or, if you will, artistic intervention, Jokela made something clear. The self and environment are always intertwined and inseparable. I found it, in all its simplicity, a great teaching, a compelling expression of the idea that ecology is not something "out there." My own initiation and immersion in the field happened, I now see in retrospect, when I facilitated a course titled "Art in place, linking art and ecology" at Schumacher College in the United Kingdom, in 2006, with guest teachers Antony Gormley, Peter London and Peter Randall-Page. The grounding idea was that aesthetic and ecological sensibilities are two sides of the same coin. I was drawn by the following description: "Nature has always inspired artists, and art offers a medium for a deeper environmental connection. This course will offer an opportunity to explore the relationship between humans and the natural world … the union between art and ecology." In this new issue of Artizein, the triad of art, education, and the natural environment is the central theme for reflection. Contributing authors and artists present ways in which artistic practices can be a starting point, in its own right, to connect with the earth. Through such approaches, new understandings can be gained, including about our self. The authors dwell upon the experiences that have been gained so far. What are the pedagogical underpinnings that can be articulated? And what would be the relevance of facilitating and promoting such encounters in an age of nature-deficit disorder and climate fear? Which challenges come up when participants, through art, are encouraged to open their senses more fully to the world, at a time when psychic numbing and cognitive dissociation seem to be the default mode for many people, faced with the overwhelming news of the scale of the ecological crisis? This issue of Artizein offers a wide range of perspectives. There are 1 van Boeckel: The World Breathing Me

College of Dupage/Palgrave, 2021

In conversation with the eco-philosophical scholarship ofMichael Bonnett and David Jardine, this essay works to further the discussion concerning the fate ofthe earth as it is bound inextricably with the future ofeducation. It analyzes the de-centered, post-humanist phenomenological subject. It presents the notion of “eco-pedagogy” in relation to a view of education that demonstrates a respect for the Earth and the unfolding of the “integrated curriculum of life.” It argues for nature as a “self arising” and value-laden phenomenon that instills in us a sense of awe and respect that grounds and guides our response to nature’s address, communicated in the reticence ofits sway and unfolding, within which we are integral participants. It concludes with a poetic discussion of dwelling that attunes us to the lessons that nature might teach, as evidenced in the intimate conversations to be had, not in the classroom, but on a dense forest path in communion with nature.

The SAGE Handbook of Critical Pedagogies, 2020

To exist in a state of communion is to be aware of the nature of existence. This is where ecology and social justice come together, with the knowledge that life is held in common. Whether we know it or not, we exist because we exchange, because we move the gift. And the knowledge of this is as crucial to the conditions of the soul as its practice to the body. (Griffin, 1996: 151) As an educator, writer and researcher in a time of ecological crisis, I am often overcome with guilt, hopelessness, panic, despair, misplaced hope in romantic ideals or techno-fixes. And yet, I remain mindful of how my various ill-measured responses may effectively perpetuate and exacerbate ecological destruction and social injustices. bell hooks , in an engaged, pluralistic and ethically oriented critical pedagogy, challenges educators to pay attention, 'to look and live and find or create the spaces of joy' (169). I wonder how a pedagogy oriented towards ethical ways of knowing and un-knowing, writing, and teaching that well up from within, 'not out of a sense of duty, but out of a sense of joy' (Foreman, in Jensen, 2002: 10), may heed bell hooks' call, and further extend this spiritual form of impassioned, engaged and loving attention beyond human communities out towards our biotic communities . As we re-story our human identity as beings-inrelation , and cultivate our not knowing, teachers may seek ways to open 'our heart-minds' (Macy, 2014: par. 6; see also hooks, 2003: 137) towards more generous, careful, imperfect, loving relations (Martusewicz, 2005) with human and more-than-human communities alike. Following the principles of ecological pedagogy, 1 which is not only a teaching philosophy, but also may be considered a social and political movement (Gadotti, 2003: 5, italics in original), I seek to respect the principles of the Earth Charter (2000) of respect and care for the community of life; ecological integrity; social and economic justice; and democracy, non-violence and peace (3-5). As I consider how it is possible to cultivate more measured (Gadamer, 2004), yet always imperfect responses in these 'ecologically sorrowful times' (Jardine, 2015: xv), I contemplate an ecological pedagogy of joy through a place-based narrative of Small-Town Stories, and a poetic remembering of A Record Year of climate change in my hometown of Merritt, British Columbia. I end with reflections regarding a heart-mind-ful and place-based pedagogy that is oriented towards pluralistic ways of knowing and connecting with others, an openness to the unknown, and to respectful relations with humans and our morethan-human kin.

Trippin' the Life Fantastic: Reimagining Our Relationship with Nature Through the Artistic Practices of Mark Dion, Tori Wränes, and Marcus Coates, 2018

Humanity's relationship with nature and the natural world has been caught up in contexts of science and the spiritual for centuries. The goal of some artists is to reconfigure and reimagine these complex relationships through various methods and practices. This dissertation critically examines three artists, Mark Dion, Tori Wrånes, and Marcus Coates, who, through their installations and performances, identify vital intersections between humanity, nature, science, and the spiritual.

Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 2021

In this piece, we conceptualize walking in the bush as an act of ecological apprenticing. Even after many years of learning/teaching, we also attune to the limits of our knowledge, seeing ourselves as continually evolving in our practice of nurturing more ethical and responsible apprenticeship relations, both out in the bush and in the classroom. Together, we write about places in the bush that are sacred to us, places around the Nicola Valley and the Nehalliston in the interior of British Columbia. We undertake a holistic and relational dialogue, grounded in life writing and literary métissage (Erika Hasebe-Ludt, Cynthia Chambers & Carl Leggo, 2009). We interpret the work of an ecological curriculum through four interrelated concepts of apprenticing: 1) as a sustained and lifelong, imperfect and unfinished practice; 2) as learning/teaching through sensory heartful attunement; 3) as teaching/learning through wonder; and 4) as a gift which creates relationships and obligations (“boun...

Pedagogy in the Anthropocene, 2022

In this we argue that humans have a duty of care towards nature that must be more effectively and inclusively realised before further willful damage is unleashed on the planet. Our focus is specifically waterscapes in relation to how they interact with other natural, earth and cultural systems. We engage citizen scientists to do some field work on their relationship with a water course of their choice. The data procured, while a small data set, provides further provocation to get students and citizens into nature more, and to meet it on its own terms, 'as its own self' as Deborah Bird Rose (2007) puts it. Palgrave Macmillan CHAPTER 10 Embodying the Earth: Environmental Pedagogy, Re-wilding Waterscapes and Human Consciousness Shé M. Hawke and Reingard Spannring EMBODYING KNOWLEDGE: AN INTRODUCTION In this chapter we argue that humans have a duty of care towards nature that must be more effectively and inclusively realised before further willful damage is unleashed on the planet. Our focus is specifically waterscapes in relation to how they interact with other natural, earth and cultural sys- tems. As Steffen, Crutzen and McNeil declared in 2007 when naming the Anthropocene Epoch and its fallout, “the future of Earth’s environment and its ability to provide the services required to maintain viable human S. M. Hawke (*) Medietrranean Institute for Environmental Studies, Science and Research Centre of Koper, Koper, Slovenia e-mail: [email protected] R. Spannring Institute for Educational Sciences, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 197 Switzerland AG 2022 M. Paulsen et al. (eds.), Pedagogy in the Anthropocene, Palgrave Studies in Educational Futures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90980-2_10

Journal of Ecocriticism, 2012

Poetry has long been employed as a vehicle for protest and, with environmental concerns developing on a daily basis, 'environmentally-conscious' guides to writing nature poetry (or 'ecopoetry') are increasing in number. Yet do these exercises proposed by educators raise responsibility, or merely recognition, of contemporary environmental issues? This paper seeks to answer this question by making a comparative study of the chief literary modes and poetic devices prescribed by these pedagogies-such as protest, mimesis and metaphor. Employing key ecocritical texts to critique the theoretical intentions behind the guides, and contemporary nature poetry to illustrate their potential outcomes, this paper highlights the divergent vocabularies of environmental poetry and environmental policy. Felstiner's introduction to Can Poetry Save the Earth? considers the place of poetry in relation to the environmental crisis '[r]ealistically' and asks 'what can poetry say, much less do, about global warming, seas rising, species endangered […] and so on and on? Well, next to nothing. "Poetry" and "policy" make an awkward half-rhyme at best.' (7). 'Yet', Felstiner continues, 'next to nothing would still be something'. After such candid argument this compromise seems to come at the expense of poetry as Felstiner draws attention to 'an awkward half-rhyme' rather than a device inherent to 'policy' (my emphasis). Nonetheless, Jonathan Bate joins Felstiner to ask '[c]ould the poet be a keystone sub-species of Homo sapiens? The poet: an apparently useless creature, but potentially the saviour of ecosystems.' (327). Although Bate focuses on the place of the 'poet' whilst Felstiner concentrates on the place of 'poetry', obsolescence is confessed to in both. '[W]hat can poetry say, much less do' asks Felstiner as Bate calls the poet 'an apparently useless creature' (my emphases). These comments appear to acknowledge both poet and poetry as overlooked by today's society. Whilst it would be an exaggeration to equate society's neglect of poetry with society's neglect of the environment, and to call poets a 'species endangered' thereby, it is still somewhat accurate to admit the position of poetry is threatened by its waning readership. Thus the poet who believes in Bate's statement, that he or she can become an environmental 'saviour', faces two tasks in balancing poetry and policy: firstly how to pitch work successfully to a wide, if not worldwide audience; secondly how to inspire this potential crowd with a consciousness of 'water and air polluted, wilderness road-ridden, rainforests razed, along with strip mining and mountaintop removal, clearcutting, overfishing[…]' (Felstiner 7).