"Differences That Make a Difference . . .": Bowers, Eco-Justice, and Teacher Education

• In Event: The Way Forward: A Celebration of the Contributions of Chet A. Bowers

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to address the contributions of C.A. Bowers and his conceptualization and introduction of “eco-justice” to widely spread networks of higher education, community activism, and global politics. While contextualizing Bowers’ work widely, this paper focuses on his contribution to eco-justice and teacher education—specifically, the importance of educators, and educational leaders and researchers, in learning to recognize and rethink often un-identified cultural assumptions embedded in Western industrial culture (Bowers, 1997). The objective of this paper is to highlight the work of C.A. Bowers and share how ecocritical scholars in teacher education are inspired by using an eco-justice approach.

The significance of the scholarship brought out in this presentation stems from the conceptual and qualitative research experience of the author in K-12 classrooms, teacher education, and in global networks of political activism to assert that social justice educators and activists committed to critiquing the enclosures of intellectual engagement and critical foundations in teacher education must take into consideration the ways in which language and culture, via carrying forward patterns of the past, undergird the unjust and destructive social and economic ideologies and policies that constitute schooling and thus teacher education.

In this paper, the author shares how Bowers’ conceptual work to introduce eco-justice serves a foundational theoretical framework that contributes to engaging students and colleagues in (re)conceptualizing diversity and examining teacher education situated in higher educational settings dominated by free market ideology. This paper includes an introduction that will clarify and contextualize overarching concept of eco-justice (Bowers, 2001, 2002, 2005b, 2013; Martusewicz et al., 2015) with supporting concepts of ecological intelligence (Bateson, 1972 Bowers, 1993a, 1993b, 1995, 2010, 2011b, 2012; Code, 2007), root metaphors (Bowers & Flinders, 1990, 1991; Martusewicz et al. 2015), and the notion of the cultural commons (Bowers, 2001, 2005b, 2006, 2013, 2016) and then the author will explain—via examples from K-12, teacher education, and global community activism the significance of Bowers’ work. Including accounts from the authors’ close study of eco-justice with Bowers, the paper will culminate by sharing a how Bowers’ work inspires major curricular and pedagogical changes in critical education that includes a set of research questions for considering eco-justice in teacher education.

In conclusion, the paper shares how the author finds eco-justice work in teacher education central to teachers’ understanding, and potentially challenging, the socio-economic conditions that create the illusions of isolation that undermine solidarity and the potential for teachers to be agents of change in support of socially just and sustainable communities. For many of the world’s scholar activist-educators, Bowers’ work opens doors to exposing the roots of Western industrial forms of enclosure and possibilities of revitalizing relationships through pedagogical projects that challenge the cultural assumptions opposing eco-justice foundations for teachers, offers the opportunity to envision and embrace social justice and sustainability.

Author

• John Joseph Lupinacci, Washington State University - Pullman