Localism and Sustainable Education

• In Event: Eco-pedagogy, place, & permaculture in the age of post-truth: how do we midwife a biophilic society?

Proposal

It can be difficult to conceptualise personal behaviours as relevant to such abstract entities as global society or civilisation. But whether one breaks the law or not, picks up rubbish or litters, can be clearly understood in terms of local-level engagement/responsibility. Because living together is more vivid as local phenomenon, many people view learning about local life as foundational for socialisation in schools, especially in early-years.

Arguments for educational localisation from a philosophical or cultural view have had implications for language education and curriculum. One example is Taylor’s arguments for cultural recognition in Quebec. Taylor argues that Quebec should have authority over its language policies for the sake of its local community interests, which are distinct from those of the Canadian nation-state (1992). Often, subunits of nation-states influence curriculum beyond decisions over language of instruction. In British Columbia, students will learn about British Columbia as well as Canada in schools.

Some curricula emphasise the environmental context of the local, in other environmental education and education for sustainable development. Recent calls for place-based education and pedagogies of place emphasise the local environment as natural, social, and political (Gruenewald, 2003). Gruenewald mentions how a critical pedagogy of place can help students learn about how ‘subjugation of people—urban or rural—is further linked in the global economy’; how ‘global economics’ intersects with racism, classism, and sexism; and ‘the homogenisation of culture under global capitalism’ (2003, p. 6; p. 4).

Understanding the local as politically framed is part of critical pedagogy. As Freire observed in Pedagogy of the Oppressed local people’s needs and interests can be at odds with government interests. His solution was a pedagogy focused on the needs, lives, and experiences of local people. These views have been taken up by thinkers in North America like Henry Giroux and Peter McLaren, as critical pedagogy against racism and classism more generally (e.g., 1989).

Education for local identity can also be framed by indigenous perspectives. From the view of indigenous educators, many societies and schools are oriented toward previously colonial and settler populations, who disregard the native or original human inhabitants and residents and stewards of the land. Through the processes of colonisation and nationalisation, indigenous viewpoints were historically disparaged and dismissed as uncivilised. Indigenous education may then include and positively recognise indigenous views and experiences, assimilate people from historical settler groups to indigenous ways (rather than asking indigenous youth to adapt and change), and develop an understanding and appreciation of the local environment in relation to indigenous groups.

However, this does not mean that the local is entirely unproblematic, or uncontested. To describe local identity in a particular way is to participate in practices of cultural politics and to stake a claim, as much as it is to make impartial, neutral observations. The local is not necessarily more ‘pure’ or straightforward in relation to civic education for living together. This presentation discusses emerging appeals to localism, and localisation, in political and educational thought. Their relevancy to education is then critically examined.

Author

• Liz Jackson, University of Hong Kong