Sustainability at the Center of Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools
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Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1-1-2011 Transforming the Soul of Education: Sustainability at the Center of Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools Thomas Eugene Kane Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Kane, Thomas Eugene, "Transforming the Soul of Education: Sustainability at the Center of Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools" (2011). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 270. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.270 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Transforming the Soul of Education: Sustainability at the Center of Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools by Thomas Eugene Kane A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership: Administration Dissertation Committee: Dilafruz R. Williams, Chair Samuel Henry Andy Job Pat Burk Martha Balshem Portland State University ©2011 Abstract Humanity is facing problems on a scale never before encountered. This dissertation traces the roots of modern culture’s destructive relationship to the planet with its habits of over-consumption and exceeding the limits of the planet’s ecological systems. Educational institutions are embedded in and replicate an unsustainable culture. As educational leaders, we need to challenge a system that is morally and ecologically bankrupt while providing a path toward sustainability at the center of teaching and learning. Using a narrative scholarship approach and theoretical frameworks drawn from ecological thinking and place-based learning, this dissertation provides models for transforming secondary education. While critiquing the current model of high school, this dissertation argues that education for sustainability needs to be not only about curriculum change, but a change in the way we think about schooling, the buildings in which we educate, the food we provide and the relationships between schools and the communities in which they exist. It directly addresses social studies curriculum and offers a way of examining career pathways through the lens of education for sustainability. i Acknowledgments First of all this dissertation would not have been completed without the finesse of my advisor, Dilafruz Williams. Dilafruz pushed me to clarify my thinking, adding depth and precision to my work. She mastered the fine art of firmness and support and kept me moving forward when I was sorely tempted to walk away. I am also grateful to my committee and especially appreciate Pat Burke’s feedback on an earlier draft as well as excellent suggestions for further research. I’d like to thank Andy Job for his encouragement and support throughout this process and Samuel Henry for great questions and pushing me along the way toward the finish. I’d like to extend special thanks to Martha Balshem for joining us late in the process and offering great suggestions for further work and thought. I’d also like to send out well wishes to Kim Brown who challenged me to think clearer as I began this final part of the process. Finally, Jonathan Brown brought coherence and conciseness to the emerging strands of this work. Thanks to my mother-in-law, Judith Kessler, who helped along the way to shape my thoughts from essayist into academic mode. Thanks to my parents for their constant support. My Mom always wanted a doctor in the family—I’m not sure this is what she meant. Finally, thanks to my family, who began to see school vacations as a time when I was glued to the computer while they spent time with each other. Of course there would be no family without Erika, who holds us all together. ii Table of Contents Page Abstract....................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments...................................................................................................... ii List of Figures........................................................................................................... vi Preface ..................................................................................................................... vii Chapter I Introduction................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter II Climate Change and Educational Change: Modern Frameworks............................... 11 Roots of Modern Culture and the Educational Failure................................... 11 Definition of Education for Sustainability..................................................... 16 A Transformative Metaphor for Teaching and Learning: The Web of Life.... 18 Sustainability Critique of Modern Education................................................. 23 Extending the Definition of Sustainability..................................................... 24 Critical Theory: A Movement Toward Transformation ................................. 35 From Cenozoic to Ecozoic ........................................................................... 42 Chapter III Overcoming the Educational Status Quo................................................................... 46 Resistance as Teaching Opportunity.............................................................. 46 Critique of the Industrial High School........................................................... 47 iii Small Schools and Learning Communities.................................................... 48 Dare We Do This? ........................................................................................ 50 Chapter IV Ecological Literacy and Place-Based Education ....................................................... 57 The Movement Toward Ecological Thinking and Sustainability.................... 57 Ecological Literacy for Sustainability ........................................................... 63 Living Systems and Ecological Thinking: Creating the Baseline for Sustainability ............................................................................................. 66 Critical Theory and Place: Moving Toward Transformation.......................... 71 Transformative Education............................................................................. 75 Extending David Sobel’s Place-Based Principles to the High School ............ 77 Learning to be Where We Are: Transformative Pedagogy for Transformative Learning............................................................................ 80 Themes and Principles of Place-Based Education ......................................... 85 Chapter V Toward Ecological Thinking in Design and Practice................................................. 89 High School Design and Curriculum............................................................. 89 Building Design............................................................................................ 91 The School Cafeteria .................................................................................... 98 Examining Career Pathways Through the Lens of Place-Based Education and Sustainability..................................................................................... 106 Arts and Communication Business and Management Systems Health Services Human Resources Industrial Engineering Natural Resources iv Closing Thoughts on Career Pathways........................................................ 124 Examining Social Studies Curriculum Through the Lens of Place-Based Education and Sustainability................................................ 125 Economics Caring Economics as an Alternative Global Studies United States History Government Learning from Place-Based People: Indigenous Understandings ................. 148 Conclusion and On-going Challenges ......................................................... 153 Teacher and Teacher Education in the Ecozoic Period ................................ 154 Place-Based Educational Leadership........................................................... 157 References.............................................................................................................. 161 v List of Figures Figure Page 1 Interconnections of Environment, Society and Economy .............................. 25 2 Education for Sustainability.......................................................................... 27 3 The Well Rounded Student ........................................................................... 30 4 High School Sustainability Design and Curriculum....................................... 90 5 High School Curriculum Design for Sustainability...................................... 106 6 Classical Economic Worldview .................................................................. 128 7 Nested Ecological View of Economics........................................................ 129 8 The Era of Oil............................................................................................. 130 vi Preface Parker Palmer (1998) says, “we teach who we are” (p. 1). Cognizant of this, I want to take a little time to explain how I have come to work on this dissertation. This short narrative highlights the need for educational change and