Educating for Eco-Justice and Community

Knowledge is power and without it we can simply conclude that there isn’t much we can do without it. But the question remains, where can we get this knowledge that is required for us to make the changes that we want? Knowledge as defined in the dictionary is an ability or abilities that are gained through being educated. Therefore education is imparting and acquiring of knowledge through teaching and learning in institutions. It is from such institutions that we can be able to select the particular course that we want to learn and therefore go on specializing on it and hence becoming professionals in that particular area of study.

This is what is referred to as a career. Since we cannot learn everything at school, we choose the career path that we want to follow and therefore we are advised to take particular subjects to enable us to achieve our objectives. These subjects that we choose are the ones that make up a curriculum. There are also others that are referred to as extra curriculum activities designed to help us relax and recreate our bodies for better learning. Curriculums differ from one institution to another. Some are proven to be more effective than others and hence there has always been a debate on which works better and how efficient and relevant it is to the society and the globe at large. There are several curriculums like outcomes-based education, curriculum integration, postmodern curriculum, eco-justice and eco-pedagogy, etc.

Eco-Justice and Eco-Pedagogy

Eco-justice and Eco-pedagogy is a body of ideas and practices that develop a robust for the collective potentials of people and fostering justice throughout the world. Since the commencement of this movement in 1992 in Brazil, it seeks to establish an interrelationship between the humanity and the earth in order to formulate a mission for education universally to integrate an ecological ethic. This kind of curriculum ensures that the future generation is ethically and adequately cared for. Such kind of curriculum creates a two-way bridge between the future generation and the past or the present generation. This is so because it helps the youth to know which kind of activity to involve themselves in and which one will affect them in a positive manner. Therefore they become good decision makers not only for their own good but also for the good of others too (Freire, 2004).

The residual effect of schooling modern where modern ethos exists makes it difficult for the young people to tackle challenges that affect our ecological and cultural wellbeing. This can go a long way in making it very hard for them to be attached to the culture and hence making them invest less in their future. For instance, people living in an environment which is degraded are able to counter the challenge if they are well equipped. Also the visual culture has provided tools for negotiating the interface between culture and nature, thus enabling humans to engage with the biophysical world in the practical search for food and survival (Bowers, 2001).

According to a research done, it showed that arts influence urban teens and it suggested that there is a connection between their art, their communities and ecojustice issues. In the effort to recognize, participate, and conserve local traditions and spaces a program carried out by Bower was able to help students analyze, criticize and find ways of countering the increase in the destruction of local and global ecosystem and cultures. This program has utilized and mentor the young people to become more aware of their culture which may have been lost many years ago (Wayne, 2004).

Postmodern Curriculum

If education is supposed to be a preparation for life, then it can be asked what kind of life a curriculum helps prepare. Another question that arises is what counts as knowledge and teaching in such a diverse society. It is due to the up rise of such questions that postmodern curriculum is brought into effect. This is because postmodern curriculum is not only base on improving the students’ grades but also to give them a certain mindset towards a particular subject or topic. This is the basic thing to do in order to change the attitude of student towards education as a whole (Doll, 2005).

This is very important especially when you are dealing with students who think that education is a waste of time. For instance, science and mathematical units use tools to explore ways in which a curriculum is understood in both the relevant literature and the students’ professional experience in the context of new technology. In the ancient sense, one is said to be educated even if he/she has gone to college and graduated even if all that he has acquired from that institution will not be of relevant to him/her in his/her future job ( Fleener, 2002 & Glanz, 2000).

For instance in Ethical Reasoning, the writers portrays how we should live peaceably with each other and choose critically what will help them achieve their goals in life. Though this is emphasized, the students choose to believe that life is beyond the concerned of the writer and hence go ahead and ignore the message that the writer is portraying in his article. Donald Schön provided a theoretical framework that links the experience of living in a situation where there is an ever increasing change and the need to learn. It is amazing since our society is ever changing and hence we cannot afford to use the same strategies that were used years back. We must understand, guide influence and manage these transformations (Schon, 1978).

In a closed system, there can be a transmission of information but not a transformation of knowledge. This enables us to raise our standards to a higher plane in order to acquire better results to what are targeting. This helps us to become better people in the society and in our workplace. If this kind of curriculum is put to effect, less time would be consumed in studding things that we may never apply in our lives. We become better people when we are able to use all that we have acquired in learning institutions to apply them are use them to our advantage. And by this we can confidently say that we are making a difference (Pinar, 1995).

Conclusion

It is really a necessity to acknowledge that times are changing and that we should embrace this new curriculum. As the law of madness suggests “Real madness is doing the same thing in the same way over and over again then expecting different results.” By doing this we are able to see the difference in the attitude of students towards education, culture and the environment at large. This suggests that as we embrace this way of learning we are assumed of better results and a better generation that is raised. It would have passed the test of time because for a long time we have done thing the same way and by doing a new thing that yield better results is something to be proud of.