By bringing together the literary
imagination with ecological literacy (Orr, 1992) through oral readings and a close reading of root
metaphors, I open possibilities for the development of
ecological habits of mind.[1] The
development of ecological habits of mind involves the
enhancement of an ecological consciousness that brings
notions of interdependence, co-implicated relationships,
and the natural world into focus in daily educational
practices (Bowers, 2001, 2002, 2004).
It is through the literary imagination that ecological
habits of mind can be fostered in teacher education.
What follows is an outline of the
ways in which I help students become ecologically literate
(Orr 1992) through close readings of root metaphors at
work in texts that reveal the way language carries forward
anti-ecological ways of knowing and being (both culturally
and naturally) in the world (Bowers 2001, 2002). My example
involves bringing together:
a) a
close reading of root metaphors in an oral reader’s theatre
of The Lorax (Seuss, 1974) that involves both a theoretical
and experiential approach to pedagogy through the development
of ecological literacy (Bowers 2001, 2002; Orr 1992);
b) theoretical
readings on the importance of becoming ecologically literate
informed through an ecojustice framework (Bowers 2001,
2002; Orr 1992) and, finally;
c) a
reflection upon experiences with the natural world through
an ecological hermeneutic inquiry into the close reading
and interpretation of both theoretical and literary texts
by evoking the literary imagination (Davis, Sumara, &
Luce-Kapler, 2000; Sumara, 1996).
Evoking
an Ecojustice Framework and Developing Ecological Literacy
In
my English Intermediate/Senior teacher education class,
we begin by reading Orr’s (1992) chapter on ecological
literacy before engaging in a writing activity outdoors
among tall grass and cedar trees that involves recording
our oldest memory in the natural world. We then read
Bower’s (2002) article, Toward an
Ecojustice Pedagogy, where he outlines an ecojustice education framework that
explains the ways in which language and, more specifically,
root metaphors are linked to the development of anti-ecological
ways of knowing and being that exclude human relations
with the natural world.
For Bowers (2004), several principles of ecojustice
education involve, among other things, the exploration
of:
a) root
metaphors,
b) the
ecological crisis
c) the
cultural and environmental commons (in terms of the ways
in which cultural dysfunction through a producer-consumer
model is related to environmental degradation, and;
d) forms
of enclosure that are at work and embedded in daily life
that need to be named and recognized before any action
can take place (1).
In order to help students
understand these principles, we define new terms such
as root metaphors, the commons, and ecology using the
Ecojustice Dictionary (Bowers, 2004).
Root metaphors are described
as:
The languaging processes carry forward
past ways of thinking that are based on assumptions unique
to the culture; these deeply held and generally taken-for-granted
assumptions, which are derived from the culture’s mythopoetic
narratives and powerful evocative experiences, are encoded
in the words that called root metaphors; the root metaphors
of a culture provide the interpretative frameworks that
survive over many generations and influence values, approaches
to problem solving and activities in a wide range of
daily life; the root metaphors, as meta-cognitive schemata,
also influences the silences as well as what will be
marginalized; the dominant root metaphors in the West
that have contributed to an ecologically destructive
culture include mechanism, a linear interpretation of
progress, anthropocentrism, Cartesian individualism,
patriarchy, and, now, evolution as a way of explaining
which cultures wills survive; these root metaphors reproduce
the pre-ecological ways of thinking, and are also basic
to the continued expansion of the industrial culture;
the root metaphor that serves as an interpretive framework
for addressing ecojustice issues is ecology—which highlights
awareness of relationships and interdependencies with
the commons; as a root metaphor, ecology locates the
individual as a participant within the ecological systems
that we are calling the commons, which is profoundly
different from how an anthropocentric root metaphor (interpretative
framework) leads to thinking of oneself as an observer,
a person who appropriates the environment for personal
gain, or as totally indifferent to the changes occurring
in the environment. (8-9)
From my reading of this
definition, it is clear that root metaphors carry encoded
assumptions about our way of knowing and being in the
world. Many discussions and examples are reviewed through
small group and large group discussion. We then move
to define the commons:
The commons represent both the naturals
systems (water, air, soil, forests, oceans, etc.) and
the cultural patterns and traditions (intergenerational
knowledge ranging from growing and preparing food, medicinal
practices, arts, crafts, ceremonies, etc.) that are shared
without cost by all members of the community; nature
of the commons varies in terms of different cultures
and bioregions; what has not been transformed into market
relationships; the basis of mutual support systems and
local democracy; in the modern world the commons may
be managed and thus kept from becoming enclosed through
private and corporate ownership by being managed by local
and national government—municipal water systems and state
and national parks are contemporary examples of the commons.
(Bowers, 2004, 1-2)
The commons include both
cultural and natural entities related to our way of knowing
and being in the world. Students are asked to name their
relationships with the commons that are both commodified
and non-commodified. Finally, we define the term ecology:
Ecology comes from the early Greek
word oikas which meant managing the daily relationships and activities within the
household; currently it refers to the interdependent
nature of natural systems—and by extension, the symbolic
systems and human activities we refer to as culture;
it represents the parts as interdependent with the larger
whole such as the interactions between cultural and natural
systems; this interdependence of cultural and natural
systems was expressed by Gregory Bateson when he wrote
that “no system which shows mental characteristics (when
differences are the source of information circulating
through the entire system) can any part have unilateral
control over the whole” (1972, Steps to an Ecology of
Mind, 316); the opposite of an anthropocentric way of
thinking. (Bowers, 2004, 3)
In the close reading of
this definition, my focus is drawn to the notion of ecology as relationships between
cultural and natural systems. Since it is my intention
to bring together ecology and habits of mind in the development
of ecological habits of mind, the term habit involves, “the sense development…hence
the way in which one is” (The Oxford English Dictionary, 1989, 1235). Habit is also closely related
to habitation—a habitual practice in mind and character.
As I bring ecology and habit together, it seems that
ecological habits of mind involve habitual practices
related to relationships between cultural and natural
systems.
Once we have reviewed and
identified root metaphors that are related to notions
of progress and a producer-consumer model as outlined
in Bower’s article, we again reflect upon our own relationships
with the natural world. We compare our own stories about
relating to nature and the commons with stories about
the ways in which our foremother’s and forefather’s related
to the natural world. For example, we might reflect on
the fact that bottled water was not always a common practice
for our foremothers and forefathers, whereas it is commonplace
today. Relationships with natural elements such as water
have changed. Naming these relationships and these changes
reveals how forms of enclosure—such as the closure and
distribution of bottled water—is an important step in
the development of ecological literacy and the formation
of ecological habits of mind. Through a deep exploration
of root metaphors, we can begin to question our relationships
with the natural world. Abram suggests that:
Today we participate almost exclusively
with other humans and with our own human-made technologies.
It is a precarious situation, given our age-old reciprocity
with the many-voiced landscape. We still need that which
is other than ourselves and our creations. (Abram, 1996, ix)
Abram believes that we need to explore
human relations with the natural world. Similarly, for
Orr (2002) “all education is environmental education”
(81). He believes that we should bring education outdoors
and reconnect with the very landscape that Abram is describing.
I believe that by questioning the root metaphors at work
in text/language, English teachers can develop a deeper
understanding of the connectedness of language and the
cultural and natural world.
It is in the naming of
the root metaphors that we can begin to connect how language
influences commodified and non-commodified relationships
in student’s lives and in their communities. Students
can explore how language in general and root metaphors
in particular, participate in both cultural and natural
relationships.
It is through an exploration of the ways
in which human domination over nature is taken for granted
in western ideology that it becomes important to question;
“how western civilization became estranged from non-human
nature—from the natural world and the need for reconnection
through a participatory mode of experience” (Abram, 1996, 137). Once students begin to recognize the ways in which
language is encoded with assumptions about human and
non-human relationships, they will begin to identify
their own patterns of relating with nature. A vehicle
for revealing these relationships is through the literary
imagination, as Orr (2002) suggests that learning to
become ecologically literate can provide a basis for
developing ecological habits of mind.
In my class, I evoke a
reader’s theatre and orally recite Dr. Seuss’ (1971) The
Lorax that we use as an interpretive
text and teaching tool in the study of the development
of ecological habits of mind. We read the text closely
looking at the illustrations. Dr. Seuss (1974) writes,
Way back in the days when
the grass was still green
and the pond was still
wet
and the clouds were still
clean,
and the song of the Swomee-Swans
rang out in space…
one morning, I came to
this glorious place.
And I first saw the trees!
The Truffula trees!
The bright-colored tufts
of the Truffula Trees!
Mile after mile in the
fresh morning breeze. ( 74)
The Lorax highlights a way of knowing
and being in the world through a relationship with miles
and miles of wilderness and pristine landscape as readers
imagine the Truffula trees. Yet, many children who live
in densely populated urban areas rarely experience trees,
ponds, or swans. As the story progresses, the truffula
trees are cut down for profit until only one truffula
seed is left. The forest in The Lorax represents
a green landscape in which trees are turned into ‘thneeds’
through a producer-consumer model of capitalism. For
this reason, we identify root metaphors such as progress
at work in the story. The assumption in the story is
that the trees should be cut and used for human consumption
rather than preserving the trees. The characters in the
story clearly subscribe to a model of ‘progress’ whereby
capitalism and a producer-consumer model is inherently
a given.
By reading the story aloud, readers
can develop imagined relationships with nature. For example,
Dr. Seuss elaborates on the ways in which the Truffula
trees enable fish to splash in a shady pond, “Brown Bar-ba-loots”
(that resemble cute bears) frisk about and eat Truffula
fruits. But as the story moves along, Dr. Seuss (1974)
writes,
In no time at all, I had built a small shop.
Then I chopped down a Truffula Tree with one chop.
And with great skilful skill and with great speedy speed,
I took the soft tuft. And I knitted a Thneed! (80)
Before long, out of greed, all of
the trees are cut down and the fish no longer have a
shady pond and the “Brown Bar-ba-loots” are no longer
eating Tuffula fruits. Dr. Seuss (1974) writes,
I’m the Lorax who speaks for the trees
which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please.
But I’m also in charge of the Brown Bar-ba-loots
Who played in the shade in the Bar-ba-loot suits
And happily lived, eating Truffula Fruits.
“NOW…thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground,
there’s not enough Truffula Fruit to go ‘round.
And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies
Because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies!
(97)
Dr. Seuss illustrates how language
can affect subjectivity in his story as readers develop
a relationship to the imaginary Truffula trees. Throughout
his text, he explores the relationship between cutting
one tree and destroying an entire forest as it pertains
to the wild animals and their need for food, in order
for his readers to come to a new understanding in and
about the past. In another way, Dr. Seuss describes the
relationship between trees, animals, and human greed
by demonstrating the destructive behaviour of his character.
For example, at the end of his story is the moral,
“So…
Catch!” calls the Once-ler
He lets something fall.
“It’s a Truffula Seed.
It’s the last one of all!
You’re in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds.
And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs.
Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax
And all of his friends
May come back.” (123)
Ultimately, Dr. Seuss (1974)
urges readers to engage carefully in the natural world.
After a reading of Dr. Seuss, I reiterate the importance
of ecological literacy with my teacher candidates as
we walk outside and pay particular attention to white
pine trees in the natural world and the ways in which
they relate to them. I ask them to revisit memories of
engaging in the natural world with and describe a special
place of being in nature. As a researcher and teacher
educator, reading texts such as The Lorax with my teacher candidates enables me to think about my own
experiences with the natural world in new ways. Writing
about my experience of reading allows me to think about
how reading and engagements with the natural world contributes
to my sense of self in terms of my relationship with
the environment. Bruner’s (1990) conceptualization of self as storyteller is a suitable analogy
for my interpretation of the ways in which ecological
literacy can play a vital role in a quest for identification
with text and natural environments.
Through a close reading
of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, we questioned “common sense” theories about ideology that
were prevalent in the 20th century by discussing
the production and acquisition of knowledge (mental activity)
that was considered separate to physical experience while
in an outdoor context. We challenged our beliefs about
modern theories that situate learning as passive (recording
and labelling things) rather than interpreting things
and producing new knowledge (as we were doing under the
white pine trees). I believe that the literary imagination
has an important role to play in the development of ecological
habits of mind and that The Lorax is one text that may be used as a teaching tool to foster
these habits.
In addition, I theorize
my own experience of engaging with the literary imagination
through mental and physical identifications with ecological
literacy that provide possibilities to interrupt the
status quo, and therefore, for a reader to experience
learning differently in a natural setting. Sumara (1996) suggests that a reader’s experience
continues to be fluid, finding itself lodged in the particularities
of the text and the reading contexts. Ecological literary
forms are influential in the ways readers experience
identity and relationships with the natural world. Keeping
in mind that, according to Bruner (1990) this self finds itself lodged in the cultural-historical situation
as well as in the private consciousness, forms are mediated
and organized by language and the natural world. Literature
and the natural world organize human consciousness in
particular ways, and ecological literacy becomes the
thing that organizes perception.
Reflections
on the Literary Imagination and Ecology
Linking literacy and ecology involves
an engagement with the natural world as described above.
Davis, Sumara
& Luce-Kapler (2000) suggest
that 20th century cognitive theories that view learning
as a systematic process are changing toward an ecological
approach to meaning-making. That is, learning theories
are evolving to include complex learning theories that
function from a new set of assumptions that include but
are not limited to the fact that by linking ecological
literacy and children’s literature, the literary form organizes
the reader’s experience, sense of self and the natural world in
particular ways by physically engaging and being in the natural world. By adding the
natural dimension of nature to a reading experience as
described above, I work to organically organize a reader’s
experience, and at the same time, teach about the importance
of making relationships with the natural world.
Davis
et al. (2000) suggest that metaphor
organizes how humans literalize text. Metaphors go unnoticed
as they are literalized during the reading process. Language
begins with metaphor both in reading and writing and
metaphors are evoked in the imagination. Metaphors for
cognition also became literalized during the early 20th century.
Such metaphors include the camera, whereby a human takes
a mental picture of the outside world. Similarly, current
metaphors include computers. These metaphors are shifting
to include notions of language as technology. Late 20th century
complex learning theories involve holist, constructivist,
social constructivist, cultural and critical discourses,
and ecological theories. An importance is placed on the
role of both memory and collective memory in complex
learning theories.
Paying
particular attention to one’s evolving identity as it
emerges and changes through reading is a hermeneutic
act. Culler (1997) understands
this as he states:
Stories, the argument goes, are the
main way we make sense of things, whether in thinking
of our lives as a progression leading somewhere or in
telling ourselves what is happening in the world. (83)
Theorizing about language in teacher
education classrooms is important work in order to help
students develop an ecological sensibility to literacy.
After several weeks of debate about the dominant paradigms
alive and well in language and literacy education, my
students and I read consider Orr’s (1992) assertion about
the “impoverished mental landscapes” that students are
so often dealing with in school. He writes, “If literacy
is driven by the search for knowledge, ecological literacy
is driven by the sense of wonder, the sheer delight in
being alive in a beautiful, mysterious bountiful world”
(1992, 86). Orr (1992) draws on Rachel Carson’s understanding
that children simply enjoy being in the world and have
an innate sense of wonder. So one could say then, that
children are already predisposed to ecological literacy.
It becomes clear that teachers need to help foster such
a predisposition throughout a child’s education between
K-12. For Orr (1992), ecological literacy involves relationships
with healthy natural systems, the outdoors, aesthetic
appreciation, and the possibility to see things whole
and in a relationship, rather than seeing things classified
and subdivided. Orr (1992) believes that all education
is environmental education, which is complex and involves
dialogue and an engagement with the natural world and
natural systems.
An
Ecological Hermeneutic inquiry
I purposely juxtapose ecojustice
theoretical foundational readings with the reader’s theatre
reading of The Lorax to evoke my students to literary imagination. Through a close reading,
we define root metaphors such as progress (which implies
linearity), anthropocentrism/individualism, and consumer-producer
relations. Then we consider how these are different than
the root metaphor, ecology (which implies relationality
among everything in a holistic, rather than linear manner).
We explore further definitions of terms that may be useful
in the ecojustice dictionary.
My reading and teaching
of Dr. Seuss’ (1971) The Lorax is used hermeneutically as an interpretive text both
in the classroom and afterwards as I ruminate on the
processes described above. For example, in my role as
writer of my research, I am reminded that “researcher”
can be defined in relation to hermeneutic reporting (Smith, 1991). In order to write with
a hermeneutic attitude, as a researcher, I am attentive
to language and ecology through spending time in the
natural world. I work to deepen my sense of interpretability
and interconnectedness of life, and I understand that
it is through the hermeneutic imagination that there
is creation of meaning.
According to Smith (1991), these four important
aspects of hermeneutic reporting reveal that the researcher
takes part in and reports on interpretive practices.
These requirements influence my inquiry into the ways
in which teacher candidates can become ecologically literate
by engaging with cultural objects and the natural world
inside and outside of classrooms. Bowers (1990) states,
“Thinking of the classroom as an ecology that is, in
terms of interactive relationships and patterns, is the
best way of understanding the interconnection of behaviour
and learning” (xi).
From these positionings,
I begin to understand that I am able to engage the literary
imagination through fiction as an ecology of ideas to
help students connect with the natural world. In other
words, I help students to realize their ability to evoke
memory of their own experience in the natural world.
An excerpt of my rumination in the natural world:
My
interest in the natural world stems back to my childhood
when I could play freely in the woods for hours. However,
at the age of 10, my family moved to a large city and
my experience with the natural world became limited.
I no longer played among pine trees on a regular basis.
My understanding of the significance of my childhood
experiences in the forest did not develop until graduate
school when I started to learn about the origins of environmental
education in Canada and its Indigenous roots. For example,
reading texts such as The geography of childhood:
Why children need wild places (Nabhan & Trimble, 1994) juxtaposed with Educating
for ecojustice and community (Bowers, 2001) helped me to better understand the ways in which language
perpetuates the hyper-separation of humans and nature.
It
is through the narration of my environmental autobiography
chronicling my relationship with the natural world that
I am better able to consider the influence of the aesthetic
of the forest in relation to the development of my identity
and ecological habits of mind.
[1] My
conceptualization of “ecological habits of mind” brings
together Willinsky’s (1998) notion of "habits of
mind" (19)—i.e. those that are acquired in terms
of the ways we learn to understand and divide the world
through our literary imagination via dominant cultural
stories—with Orr’s (1992) understanding of the importance
of developing ecological literacy. Drawing upon these
same concepts, I have written about what I have termed
the development of “ecological habits of mind” and “anti-ecological
habits of mind” elsewhere (Young, 2005a; 2005b; 2006)
as I traced the origins of environmental education to
both imperialism and Indigenous Knowledges.
References
Abram, D. (1996). The
spell of the sensuous: Perception in a more-than-human
world. New York: Pantheon Books.
Bowers, C. A. (2001). Educating
for eco-justice and community. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press.
Bowers, C. A. (2002). Toward
an eco-justice pedagogy. Environmental Education Research,
8(1), 21-34.
Bowers, C. A. (2004). EcoJustice
Dictionary. Retrieved July 31st, 2007, from http://www.ecojusticeeducation.org
Bowers, C. A., &
Flinders, D. J. (1990). Responsive teaching: An ecological
approach to classroom patterns of language, culture and
thought. New York: Teachers College Press.
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts
of meaning.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Culler, J. (1997). Literary
theory: A very short introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
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& Luce-Kapler, R. (2000). Engaging minds: Learning
and teaching in a complex world. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Nabhan, P., & Trimble,
S. (1994). The geography of childhood: Why children
need wild places. Boston: Beacon.
Orr, D. (1992). Ecological
literacy: Education and the transition to a postmodern
world. Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press.
The Oxford English Dictionary.
(1989). London: Oxford Press.
Seuss, D. (1974). Dr.
Seuss storytime. New York: Random House.
Smith, D. (1991). Hermeneutic
Inquiry: The hermeneutic imagination and the pedagogic
text. In E. Short (Ed.), Forms of curriculum inquiry. Albany, NY: State University of
New York Press.
Sumara, D. (1996). Using
commonplace books in curriculum studies. Journal of
Curriculum Theorizing, 12(1),
45-48.
Willinsky, J. (1988). Learning
to divide the world: Education at empire's end. Minneapolis,
MN: University of Minneapolis Press.
Young, K. (2005a). Curriculum
of imperialism: Good girl citizens and the
making of the literary
educated imagination. Journal of the Canadian
Association of Curriculum
Studies, 3(2), 41-54.
Young, K. (2005b). Developing
Ecological Literacy as a Habit of Mind in
Teacher Education. The
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Young, K. (2006). Girls
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and the contest for Brownies and Girl Guides. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, York University, Toronto,
ON.
About the Author
Kelly Young is an Associate Professor
in the School of Education and Professional Learning
at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. Canada.
Her research interests are interdisciplinary and include:
language and literacy, curriculum theorizing, arts-based
research, and ecojustice environmental education and
leadership. She can be reached at kellyyoung@trentu.ca
