Note: I ended up posting this conversation, including my parts (the sections in green italics), as there is much food for thought here. Conversation is illuminating, don't you think?
Thanks Maggie, for thinking to acknowledge this landmark decision on the AEOE website. I think the continuing struggle for equal educational opportunity and racial justice is at the heart of the discussion about diversity in environmental education. It is directly related. Our efforts to bring diversity to our field is part of a larger cultural and political project. Much of our discussion however, often takes place without recognition of the social, political and cultural context that lend the issue of diversity in environmental and outdoor education its meaning. The result, in my view, is too frequently a superficial but well meaning discourse that tends to reduce the historic missions of people for liberation, political and economic equality, cultural self-governance, and equal educational opportunity, to mere techniques for cultural competency, unenforceable diversity plans and ahistorical leadership development.
To help us bridge the gap, we need critical pedagogy. We need to ask ourselves questions about the real nature of what we do and who we are as educators, the hidden impacts of our programs on the diversity of students, parents and communities, the role and distribution of power in our field and how that maintains the status quo within our field and in society at large. We need to ask these questions and more, but we need to answer them too.
A thought in this regard: "A multicultural environmental education critiques the forces which oppress people and nature and seeks their transformation through research, imagination and concerted action."
To bridge the gap, we need to listen to, understand and become part of the Environmental Justice movement which understands and explicitly states its relationship to the movements for Civil Rights and Human Rights as well as to the environment.
Another thought: "Multicultural environmental education recognizes no contradiction between sound educational practices and the commitment of educators to Environmental Justice."
In the face of persistent, and increasing social stratification on the basis of class, race, culture, gender and other factors of diversity, what does our field say? What does it do? What is our role in teaching interdependence not just of ecosystems but of society in its diversity? Three Circles believes that environmental and outdoor educators have a critical role that should proceed from a new vision at the heart of our work: "A multicultural environmental education envisions a multicultural society at peace with the natural world and itself. Our work is an essential catalyst for healing, inclusivity and justice."
.....Now, what would Coyote say about that.........?
running-grass
Note: for more Key Ideas in Multicultural Environmental Education, click here
Your comments are always so insightful and thought provoking... I linked them to my comments on Brown on the AEOE site.
Sometimes, the outdoor school
experience can be one of desegregation, as we
often have more than one school up visiting from different socio-economic
strata and pockets of ethnicity. I like those weeks best – the kids’ guard
is down in the outdoor school environment, I think, and they discover that
inner city kids have a lot in common with suburban kids... They’re
all just kids in the new environment together. Maybe in this way we can be
part
of a real implementation of Brown... At least for the week they are at outdoor
school.
Maggie
Hi Maggie,
I'm glad you brought up the point that the outdoor school experience can be one of desegregation. It is significant that numerous programs do have the diversity of students attending. However, so many programs are still serving a student body underrepresentative of the racial, cultural, and economic diversity of the state--in part the legacy of segregated schools and communities. I'm guessing that county outdoor schools and other outdoor ed programs and facilities, due to mandated requirements or historical associations with public schools tend to have student populations reflective or perhaps even inclusive of the state demographics. Is that correct?
At any rate your observation on the desegregation function of these programs brings up some additional thoughts.
The question I'd ask is, once they are in your program, at your facility, are we interacting, teaching, serving them in ways that are culturally authentic, i.e. that they can identify their own experiences in and relate to, that they feel welcomed and can own? This is the multicultural education piece. Second, to what extent are we bringing the diverse groups, who happen to be present coincidentally for their programs, together in a conscious manner, i.e. bringing their joint participation into the curriculum, indeed allowing and guiding their participation to transform the curriculum and pedagogy of the program? There's lots of the multicultural education material here as well as the cross-cultural education, anti-racist ed and critical pedagogy. And do we do this grounded as educators, in the continuing historical mission of creating a more inclusive and just society, i.e. do we know why its significant that we have this diversity chowing down in the dining hall or building trails in Yosemite and what to do with the opportunity of their presence--i.e. how to ground it and contextualize it in a larger social change process?
Desegregation was and is not a passive project in which students absorb benefits as by osmosis. (As Henry Gates Jr. of Harvard said last week in a dialogue with Cornell West in the New York Times, he doesn't see any automatic benefit to being around white people.) Nor is it an end in itself or without controversy as to its benefits for students and communities. Nor is the desegregation project static and unchanging. We are actively creating a new, multiracial, multicultural society in the shell of what was, (and as we are reminded now during this anniversary period for the Brown decision) what continues to be a highly stratified, segregated society marked by inequalities across the spectrum of social life. Much to learn here from South Africa, (which, by the way, learned all about segregation from the United States and Nazi Germany).
Some years ago, Three Circles Center, on the basis of much research and scores of workshops, and graduate classes I've taught, developed some guiding ideas for the new field of multicultural environmental education. This material is based on the experiences and aspirations of hundreds of environmental educators, students, community activists and others who learned with me what we need to do to effectively meet the challenges of a diverse society. Here are two more:
Multicultural environmental education uses the teaching opportunity to assist students in becoming aware of, understanding, accepting and valuing other cultures and their environmental experiences and traditions.
Multicultural environmental education illuminates the idea that all cultures have relationships with their environments, from which they and others can draw upon for understanding and inspiration.
....now, what would Wolfe say about that....?
rg
Note: See Key Ideas in Multucultural Environmental Education for more food for thought
Wolfe is grinning :-)
In answer to your question: “I'm guessing that county outdoor schools and other outdoor ed programs and facilities, due to mandated requirements or historical associations with public schools tend to have student populations reflective or perhaps even inclusive of the state demographics. Is that correct?” I believe that to be true based on my experience with LA County and Merced County, but more desegregation occurs at the outdoor school because even within the county there are segregated pockets – some schools are mostly black, some mostly Hispanic, some white and Asian. I like it when we get a mix of these schools and the students see true diversity.
One way I like to empower Spanish-speaking students at outdoor school is to ask them how they say words in Spanish, then tie the Spanish word into the Latin root of the science vocabulary word. I tell them that if they speak Spanish, they have an advantage in science for figuring out words, as Latin is the language of science and Spanish is based on Latin. Solar system, diurnal, nocturnal, manzanita, carnivore are a few examples that come to mind. I can notice the Spanish-speaking kids growing a bit taller when I tell them this. :-)
Another way that is subtle, yet I think powerful, in which I try to bring multicultural values to my groups is with images. Images are powerful.
I read a story at the end of the week called “In a Nutshell” which is from Dawn Publications. It is a story full of metaphor, that speaks to the interconnectedness of all things, including humans. The story begins with an acorn in a primeval forest and ends with a family buying a house, planting a cherry tree in the soil that formed from the oak that started out as the acorn, and eventually making and eating a cherry pie. The family happens to be African American. This is very subtle, but it is one of the reasons I love this book. I see the looks shifting in children’s faces when they see someone like themselves, or different from what they expected...
A concrete example is that this week, when I read the story, my group was diverse, but not very diverse. I had two African American students, a couple of students who spoke Spanish, one of middle-eastern descent, some cool kids and some nerdy kids, some 5th graders and some 6th graders. When I read this story, one of the white girl’s face visibly brightened when I turned to the page with the black family, and she put her arm around her friend sitting next to her who was black. I don’t know what that meant, but it seemed important somehow – like she was happy her friend was represented. The black student was smiling, too.
I think it works subtly, like the way it worked for people to change the always “he” pronouns to sometimes or 50% “she” pronouns, in that it forced you to think, “oh yeah...” and it put females in your mental imagery and made you include them in your envisioning of whatever was being talked about. I think just the image of a black family makes kids include African Americans in their image of who is connected to nature. My point is, that while it doesn’t seem like much on the surface, I use it consciously as a subtle yet powerful way to break up stereotypes and include diversity in my students’ envisioning of the world as a connected place.
One of my main messages in my teaching week is that of connection, and I hope that kids come away realizing that any separateness they felt from nature is entirely artificial, that we are not only part of nature, but we ARE nature. I would like to find more ways to get them to feel connected to each other as well, as part of a larger community. This week I had some really neat kids in my group and we actually talked about the meaning of life... And about how to make the world a better place (well, I talk with students about that every week, at least in encouraging them to make a difference for the better). One student told me of an organization in Santa Monica for kids helping the homeless! Things like that give me hope for the future.
I’d like to hear about how other people bring multicultural environmental education to life in their lessons, whether on the trail or in the classroom. Anyone have any great specific lessons or activities out there?
Maggie
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Hi Maggie,
I appreciate so much those tips on multicultural teaching in the field. You are building from and on the cultural knowledge of the students and responding creatively to their diversity. They are responding in return. The stories are a key resource and the field of multicultural education is rich with literature. A few of my favorites, Home Place by Crescent Dragonwagon, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor and Tanya's Reunion by Valerie Flournoy and Jerry Pinkney. These stories occur on many levels, and reveal African-American perspectives, histories and links to the land, family and rural lifestyles. Discussions of the stories with students can evoke their own personal stories of land and family. Giving space in the program for their voices is useful and creates the field for rich sharing across cultural, class, gender, linguistic backgrounds and experiences. Recalling the Key Ideas of Multicultural Environmental Education, here are several that I recognize in your work: Recognizing that all cultures have relationships with the natural world which, taken together, are our common heritage; we use the teaching opportunity to help children become aware of, understand, accept and value other cultures and their environmental traditions and histories; and we are practicing creating a multicultural society in the context of our programs, and in the process healing social relationships. Thanks for your great work!
I really agree with you about imagery being a powerful source of learning and change. I've included an article I wrote a few years ago, slightly revised, that describes how images brought me in touch with my own internalized racism, my struggle with it, and how such images interact with the field of environmental education.
Link to article: Building A More Inclusive
Environmental Movement
©By Running-Grass,
Director,
Three Circles Center
Read the article, "Key Ideas of Multicultural Environmental Education" for more insights from Running Grass.
For more information on Running Grass and the Three Circles Center, Click Here
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for incorporating multiculturalism into EE and/or including diverse audiences
in your lessons and I will post them on the web!