Think piece : sustainability education and (curriculum) improvisation
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa
Abstract
In this article I (re)think sustainability education in view of a (re)turn to realisms because existing philosophies have failed to adequately respond to an impending ecological disaster and the fast pace of new technologies. This historical moment has made geologists posit a new epoch, the Anthropocene. I argue that responses to this historical moment must overcome correlationalism generally, and in particular a narrow form of it called instrumental rationality. Correlationalism means that reality appears only as the correlate of human thought. I suggest that sustainability might be liberated from the fetters of correlationalism by invoking a metaphor from jazz music, improvisation. Improvisation that is anti-correlationalist involves being attuned to the reverberations of the earth, to its materials flows, rhythms and intensities. Moreover, pedagogy as improvisation does not merely use the earth as a stage on which pedagogical acts are performed, but pedagogy is bent by the earth. Moreover, sustainability education involves the development of sensibilities that are an amalgam of visual (videre), listening (sontare) and feeling (sentire).
Description
CITATION: Le Grange, L. 2016. Think piece : sustainability Education and (Curriculum) Improvisation. Southern African Journal of Environmental Education, 32:27-36.
The original publication is available at www.eeasa.org.za
The original publication is available at www.eeasa.org.za
Keywords
Sustainability -- Study and teaching, Environmental responsibility, Geology, Stratigraphic -- Anthropocene, Teaching -- Environmental aspects, Stratigraphic correlation
Citation
Le Grange, L. 2016. Think piece : sustainability Education and (Curriculum) Improvisation. Southern African Journal of Environmental Education, 32:27-36