"No Bad News" in Sustainability Education — but for Whom?

• In Event: Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society, and Opening Imaginations to the Liberating Possibilities of Creative Societies

Abstract

What is the impact of a school policy that asks teachers not to share ‘bad news’ with their students before 4th grade? Further, when is news bad, and for whom is that news bad? Using interviews and participant observations from a larger ethnographic study focused on a small rural school committed to education for sustainability, this paper explores the permutations, both positive and negative, of this policy. Using an ecojustice framework as lens, the paper then considers what the role of bad news might be in education for sustainable communities.

Author

• Jonathan Bell, The Pennsylvania State University