Critical Sustainability in Outdoor Education: Connection to Place as a Means to Social Justice and Ecological Integrity

The socioecological challenges we face have never been so complex, so intractable, and so urgent. And while both justice-oriented education and education for sustainability are growing in colleges and universities across the United States, normative perspectives of outdoor experiential education hav...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Taproot (Cortland, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2014-01, Vol.23 (1)
Main Authors: Rose, Jeff, Cachelin, Adrienne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Language
Adventure Education
Educational Practices
Experiential Learning
Higher education
Informal Education
Integrity
Learner Engagement
Outdoor Education
Pedagogy
Politics
Social justice
Social Systems
Sustainability
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Summary:The socioecological challenges we face have never been so complex, so intractable, and so urgent. And while both justice-oriented education and education for sustainability are growing in colleges and universities across the United States, normative perspectives of outdoor experiential education have fallen behind. In this paper, we oer critical sustainability as a conceptual basis for engaging students in the beauty, perversity, and complexity of our world. Critical sustainability, integrating sociopolitical systems of privilege and oppression with the socioecological imperatives of global health and justice, provides an exciting and promising pedagogical direction. With this conceptual framework, we explore perspectives of nature, placefulness, and our multiple, overlapping subjectivities as students, educators, and engaged citizens. Our task as outdoor educators is to bring the faraway nearby and inspire students to engage in the myriad challenges we face as individuals, citizens, and as members of a global ecological community.
ISSN:1065-5204
2168-8958