Date of Award
2021
Abstract
In a Western, industrialized context, environmental education is an important method of fostering care and interest in the natural world. This education can include various types of engagement from a formal classroom setting to an entertaining and emergent outdoor program. These structures are designed to engage and teach people about the Earth’s systems and more-than-human ways of being, often in the hopes of inspiring care and stewardship for our planet. Outdoor educators play an integral role in introducing or re-connecting human bodies to the world around them. The structures of white supremacy and colonialism, however, permeate much of the mainstream environmental movement, influencing ways of teaching or engaging, determining who gets invited, and our understanding of who wants to enjoy a relationship with the natural world. Through this capstone, I explore both my own conditioning and assumptions about ways to engage people in the outdoors, and the patterns of domination and oppression that are intrinsic to the field of environmental education. I offer new methods of engagement that decenter the teacher’s knowledge, and invite the intersections of memory, identity, personal experience, and ways of being with land from all beings.
Program Director
Matthew Kolan, Ph.D
Professional Affiliate Coach
Heather Laine Talley, Ph.D
Professional Affiliate Anchor Coach
Heather Laine Talley, Ph.D
Document Type
Project
Recommended Citation
Bender, Marieke E., "Master's Project: Rooting for the Earth: An Exploration Into Human Relationships With Nature" (2021). Rubenstein School Leadership for Sustainability Project Publications. 32.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/rslspp/32