Without a Possible Vaccine, Ecopedagogical Paradigm Shift Vital to Avoid Ecological Collapse

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Theoretical Frameworks for Hope, Crisis, and Transformation

Abstract

COVID-19 has provided us views into a devastating future if we anthropocentrically ignore Nature. This could have provided us as a dire warning of a devastative future of ignoring environmental crises; however, in most ways we didn’t heed the warnings. There will be no vaccine that curbs environmental devastation, but rather (post)critical teaching for transformative environmental praxis is essential to avoid an ecological collapse. This includes unlearning deep-seated, hidden ideological justifications for environmentally violent acts. The paper delves into an ecopedagogical analysis of what is needed to disrupt (environmental) pedagogies that sustain/intensify the Anthropocene grounded in neoliberalism and epistemologies of the North. I argue the need for teaching ecopedagogical literacy for students to deconstruct the politics of unsustainable environmental violence.

Author

• Greg William Misiaszek, Tohoku University