Ecofeminism
Donald A. McAndrew argues that theory and pedagogy based on an ecofeminist perspective would establish "nature" as "one of the major political concerns in composition studies" along with "gender, race, and class" (377). Even more important, however, is the focus in ecofeminist studies on challenging mainstream Western assumptions about knowledge and about the self, a focus that intersects directly with the work of the environmental studies scholars, such as David Orr and C. A. Bowers. McAndrew writes, "Ecofeminism seems likely to reduce our sense of individuality by increasing our sense of interdependence, both as writing teachers and as beings of nature. The individual as conceived in Western society – the autonomous, free, self-directing center of rational and moral authority – undermines the sense of being interdependent in the larger social biotic community. Our colleges and universities reinforce this view of autonomous individuality by privileging objectivist epistemology, abstract thinking, and lecture-text pedagogy" (378). Obviously, McAndrew advocates a pedagogy that challenges such a view, a pedagogy that restructures relationships within classrooms as "heterarchical" (380) so that knowledge and writing practice occur within the context of more equitable power relations.
This ecofeminist vision of a "heterarchical" classroom recalls the student-centered pedagogies of earlier writing process pioneers, such as Lucy Calkins and Donald Graves, and intersects, too, with calls by proponents of critical pedagogies for empowering students through "de-centering" classroom practices. The difference is that ecological concerns are not only incorporated as "content" but become integral to the organizational model of the classroom. In other words, classroom practice fosters equitable relationships that are founded on a sense of interdependence. Colleen Connolly enriches McAndrew's argument for fostering such a classroom by pointing out that the natural world can be understood "both as a potentially catastrophic biospheric event and as a discursive category" (183). Connolly describes ecofeminism in the composition classroom "as a conceptual framework, an analytic methodology that is constantly aware of relationships – between humans, between humans and nonhumans – and the workings of power within and between these relationships. In this way, it becomes a means for action, asking important and tough questions about our environment and our relationship to it" (185).
This kind of work in ecofeminism not only provides a compelling rationale for the nondualistic pedagogy I am proposing, but it also describes concrete classroom practices that enable teachers and students to pursue the goals of connectedness and sustainability.
Teaching With Technology for a Sustainable Future | Works Cited