Ecopedagogies: Practical Approaches to Experiential Learning

227 Pages·2022·14.378 MB·English

by  Ellen Bayer, Judson Byrd Finley

ECOPEDAGOGIES

Ecopedagogies showcases a range of creative approaches that educators across multiple
disciplines use to empower students to access and engage with nature, an increasingly
important consideration in a post-COVID world in environmental crisis.
The volume includes chapters written by scholars from the environmental arts and
humanities, literature, writing studies, rhetoric, music, religious studies, environmental
studies and sustainability, sociology and anthropology, physical education, and out­
door education. Each author walks the reader through the details of how their eco­
pedagogy works, identifies potential challenges while also detailing how to address
them, and explains the rewards to students, instructors, and more-than-human nature
that they have witnessed through the use of these approaches. The contributions
represent diverse types of academic institutions, offering broad applicability to
instructors, including community colleges, private liberal arts colleges, and large state,
regional, public, and private universities. The book explores a series of key questions
about how educators can facilitate meaningful learning experiences with the natural
world, inside and outside the classroom, and it looks at how to foster inclusivity,
navigate problems with access, and explore intersections with environmental justice.
As a practical guide, the book delivers a well-provisioned toolbox containing
exercises, activity guides, and assignments for those teaching environmentally
focused college courses.
Ellen Bayer is an Associate Professor of Environmental Arts and Humanities at the
University of Washington Tacoma, USA.
Judson Byrd Finley is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of
Sociology and Anthropology at Utah State University, USA.
“The digital pivot in post-pandemic education refocuses the perennial problem of
‘getting students out of the classroom and into the wild.’ As the classroom morphs in
ways that ignore habitat—both the inner and the outer wilds—we need models, lea­
ders, and guides to remind us to pay attention to where we are, and to learn how to be
here with others—human and more-than-human. Bayer and Finley’sclear proseand
diverse roster of contributors provides helpful and inspiring guidance for both seasoned
guides and for those taking their first steps into the field.”
David Greenwood, Lakehead University, Canada
“Ecopedagogies provides a diverse set of humanistic and interdisciplinary approaches
to place-based experiential education within colleges and universities, which
highlight the humane promise of learning with and from other species, as well as
the land itself. A resourceful tool for those attempting to explore the terra nullius of
contemporary ecoliteracy.”
Richard Kahn, Antioch University, USA
“Rich in both practical advice and wise reflection, this volume is a treasure trove of
ideas and encouragement for all who seek to embed learning within the wild
community of life. I came away from reading both inspired and invigorated.”
David George Haskell, The University of the South, USA
“[This] is the book I wish I’d had two decades ago when I was an English teacher at a
community college, and a science colleague and I began taking students on field trips.
This wide-ranging collection provides philosophical grounding for getting students
out of the classroom, offers a variety of curricular approaches ranging from A(laska) to
Z(oos), and is packed with practical advice, such as ‘define field loosely’ and ‘meet
your students where they are.’ Importantly, it addresses head-on questions of inclu­
sion, access, and privilege, pointing out that place-based pedagogies that center student
experience through reflection connect students with place and with each other, and
what it means to me ‘in relation.’ This timely collection ends with a chapter titled
‘Cultivating a Restorative Educational Ethic in a World on Fire,’ reminding us that
the stakes are high and the time is short. This is an indispensable field guide for
teaching in the 21st century.”
Holly J. Hughes, Co-editor of Contemplative Approaches to Sustainability in Higher
Education: Theory & Practice (Routledge, 2017)
ECOPEDAGOGIES
Practical Approaches to
Experiential Learning
Edited by Ellen Bayer and Judson Byrd Finley
Cover image: © The cook tent at night, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National
Park; Andrew McAllister (Utah State University Caine College of the Arts)
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Ellen Bayer and Judson Byrd Finley;
individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Ellen Bayer and Judson Byrd Finley to be identified as the authors of
the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-11844-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-11845-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-22180-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003221807
Typeset in Bembo
by Taylor & Francis Books
For my professors who opened the door, and for the stu­
dents who venture out with me.

For Marcel Kornfeld and Mary Lou Larson (1954–2022),

who have created the space that gives so many students

the freedom to roam.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ix
List of Contributors xi
Acknowledgments xv
1 Out of the Classroom and into the Wild: Ecopedagogies in
Action 1
Ellen Bayer and Judson Byrd Finley
2 Composing with Infrastructures: Parapersonal Pedagogies for
Environmental Humanities Classrooms 17
Andrew Niess and Davy Knittle
3 Field Journaling in the Wild: Defamiliarizing Everyday
Environments in Environmental Humanities Courses 32
Summer Harrison
4 Go Boldly!: Empowering Students to Find their Stories in
the Wild 44
Ellen Bayer
5 The World in a Pond: Multispecies Encounters and A Map for
Confluent Classrooms 58
Allison Lee Blyler and Holly Connell Schaaf
6 Saunter like Muir: Eco-Challenges and Experience Projects in
Introductory Environmental Ethics 70
Amanda Hayden
viii Contents
7 Decolonizing Outdoor Education: Reading Muir in Alaska and
Fly Fishing on Lingít Aaní 83
Kevin Maier
8 Nature Revisited: Ecopedagogy in an English–Physical
Education Learning Community 93
Ian MacKenzie and Doug Smyth
9 From Dinosaur to Bears Ears: Engaging Utah’s Public Lands via
Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Experiential Learning 106
Judson Byrd Finley and Keri Holt
10 Connections, Relationships, and the Land: An Anthropology
Field School 118
Kelly M. Branam Macauley, Judson Byrd Finley,
Hubert Burdick Two Leggins, Chris Finley, and Matthew J. Rowe
11 Learning to Think like a Factory 131
Lachell Faure, Darren Paisley, and Brad Tabas
12 Embodiment and More-than-Human Topographies: A Praxis
Tool for Reconfiguring Sense of Place in the Anthropocene in
Online and Limited-Residency Higher Education 143
Mary A. Jackson
13 Inhabiting Sounds: Soundscape Ecology in a First-Year Seminar 160
Damiano Benvegnù
14 Teaching Animal Texts: American Environmental Literature’s
Ability to Connect Students to Animals and Wildlife through
Observation 170
Lauren E. Perry
15 To the Zoo! 181
Jeremy Chow
16 Paradox of Hope: Cultivating a Restorative Educational Ethic
in a World on Fire 194
Levi Gardner
Index 206
ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures
1.1 A student is proud to have reached Panorama Point, at Mount

Rainier National Park, during a snowstorm 7

1.2 Students participating in a sensory experience activity at the

University of Washington Tacoma’s campus Giving Garden 14

1.3 Students paddling the intersection of built and natural

environments in Tacoma, Washington 15

3.1 Sign at the entrance of Drew University’s Zuck Arboretum 33

4.1 Students hiking the Pacific Crest Trail near Chinook Pass,

Washington 46

4.2 Students paddling the Thea Foss Waterway in Tacoma,

Washington, with the Port of Tacoma and Tahoma (Mount

Rainier) in the background 48

4.3 A student enjoying her first hike, at Mount Rainier National Park 53

5.1 Students on the boardwalk in the Amory Woods section of

Hall’s Pond Sanctuary 61

5.2 Students taking observation notes at Hall’s Pond 63

6.1 Senses Hike, from Experience Project 72

6.2 Students viewing environmental themed art at Dayton Art

Institute 75

8.1 Students taking a break for journaling at lac du Poisson-Blanc 96

8.2 Students create a nature art project on Île Saint-Bernard 100

9.1 Students in the classroom at Harper’s Corner Overlook,

Dinosaur National Monument 114