Can STEM Contribute to Wendell Berry's Healthy World?

• In Event: Pedagogies of Responsibility as Relationships of Healing: Wendell Berry, Eco-Justice, and Education

Abstract

Berry’s belief in the nature of learning as a wholistic endeavor that cannot divorce body from place without injury invites closer investigation of how people actually teach, learn, and use STEM. Such “thick description” has the potential to uncover ways that personal ethics and local culture are already interpreting STEM to challenge neoliberal assumptions and build genuine stewardship. I consider the growing interest in place-based education as a means for advancing social change, an explicit goal of EcoJustice Education. Studying and sharing these examples may help those within scientific and educational communities see themselves as part of Berry’s vision for a healthier world.

Author

• Katharine Lynn Adams, Eastern Michigan University