Ecojustice Education through Pictures

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Originally appears in the Fall 2016 issue

by Erin Sperling and Dr. Hilary Inwood

AS I BEGAN MY JOURNEY as an educator, I felt pulled in two directions, one toward the well-being of the environment and the other along the path of social justice. My background in life sciences had me strongly planted in the realm of living and non-living things, and yet my work as a teacher had my focus on the little people in front of me and their daily realities. At times, I had a strong sense of having to choose between my two passions, the environment and society, and I always felt discomfort in doing so. Why did the well-being of one have to silence the other? When I encountered the concept of Ecojustice, I finally found a sense of peace in reconciling the two paradigms – in effect, with Ecojustice, we can strive to address the challenges of society and the environment at the same time. Thus, Ecojustice Education is the space of learning about the injustices within society and the environment, and attempting to make change toward well-being.

At the intersection of three selected frameworks1 of Ecojustice, it is important to work with participants to uncover the following goals and understandings of Ecojustice education:
1. Resource access as equitable and respectful of the Earth and all of its inhabitants
2. Critical systems consciousness and stakeholder awareness
3. Sustainability as intergenerational
4. Importance of local and global knowledges and cultures

In order to do this kind of work in education, we might employ and encourage some of the following tools and pedagogies:
• place-based
• systems thinking
• action-orientation
• student-centred knowledge building