EcoMindedness Across the Curriculum

• In Event: Meanings and Conceptions of Environmental Education

Abstract

The No Child Left Inside Act of 2011 was recently introduced with the intention of bringing environmental education to more schools in the US. This paper provides a framework for understanding how this and other environmental education initiatives might be evaluated based on a Deweyan philosophy of experience. We suggest three guideposts discerned from a study of ecologically minded teachers and a synthesis of the current literature on ecological education: care; interconnectedness and ecological integrity; and aesthetic/analytic ways of knowing. We present these guideposts as qualities of EcoMindedness, and argue that when infused across the curriculum they may actualize meaningful educative experiences.

Authors

• Christy M. Moroye, University of Northern Colorado

• Ben Ingman, University of Denver