Ecological Identity Writing: A Foundation for Transformative Learning and Planning in Environmental Education

• In Event: 63.064 - Environmental Education Across Subjects and Milieus: Investigating Student Learning and Inclusive Climate

Abstract

At the beginning of a course titled Foundations of Environmental Education, graduate students engage in a range of writing genres to build awareness of their own ecological identities. In the final stages of the program, students revisit and reflect on their original work and build a proposal for a learning project to be used in their personal/professional work. Data analysis and post course interviews reveals areas that participants believe have been most significant development/enhancement of awareness of ecological identity. The research contributes to studies of the nature of commitment in environmental education, and literature on the value of autobiographical work as a resource to understand the ways that commitment and deep interest may be built and sustained in ecological/environmental education.

Author

• Bonnie Lee Shapiro, University of Calgary