On World Environment Day, A Note About the Future of Environmental Learning
By L’Oreal Thompson Payton and Elisabeth Booze
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. This is the common introduction to “going green,” and unfortunately it’s where environmental education — let alone environmental justice — often ends.
Today — on the United Nations’ World Environment Day — we’re thinking about what it takes to reinvent environmental education for the modern age.
Environmental education hasn’t been systematically reconsidered since the 1970s, when Earth Day was first established. The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 saw additional federal funding allocated to help schools maintain environmental curricula, but the language of the former movements of Nature Study and Conservation Education still dominate environmental pedagogy. The need to reimagine environmental education is two-fold: first, there is an opportunity for environmental education to become a space where young people and adults work together to explore, build, and collaborate within place-based, interdisciplinary environmental learning experiences. And, it is critical that environmental pedagogies recognize environmental justice as social justice.
“What we’ve been taught in schools and from society has been white-washed, which is why it’s even more crucial that the environmental curriculum includes environmental justice history: the impacts of Dr. Robert D. Bullard and Hazel Johnson had on the movement; the relationship that Black and Indigenous communities have to the land; and consider environmental justice courses as a requirement,” explains Sabs Katz,co-founder and head of communications at online resource hub Intersectional Environmentalist. “Whether it’s learning environmentalism from the classroom, social media, or surrounded by nature, it’s important to highlight and amplify these silenced voices in order to understand the true impacts of the climate crisis on the most vulnerable communities.”
In an effort to reinvent both how environmental issues are taught and dramatically expand what is taught in environmental curricula, organizations such as Conejos Clean Water in Antonito, Colorado are moving learning spaces outside and putting an explicit focus on the link between social and environmental justice. With a mission “to build public awareness and encourage advocacy and education around environmental, social, economic, and food justice issues in the Conejos Land Grant Region,” Conejos Clean Water formed the Justice & Heritage Academy to offer “place-based” learning situations.
“Our curriculum centers around water quality, air quality, food justice and then, of course, the social justice piece and teaching kids how to advocate for themselves responsibly,” Mike Trujillo, executive director of Conejos Clean Water explains.
Examples like the Justice & Heritage Academy are also re-thinking how young people learn about these critical issues, like using fly fishing and seeds to teach students about math and geometry, or incorporating storytelling to encourage students to express themselves. It’s all part of the culturally relevant, future-focused curriculum at Justice & Heritage Academy.
We know that to make a change in our environment, education is just one part of the puzzle. Lyons is doing similar work at the Black Environmental Collective to make sustainability culturally relevant to Black people.
“What we need to drill down on are the socio-political determinants of health — economics, education, health, the social community, the overall wellbeing of communities, specifically talking about Black people,” says Lyons.
This ideal is more than a call to action for shifts in curriculum. It is a critical move to ensure young people are prepared to co-create a more just future for our people and planet. It is protection for the most vulnerable. It is a moment of social responsibility that sits on our collective shoulders.
Other Organizations You Should Know:
Mní Wičhóni Nakíčižiŋ Owáyawa (Defenders of the Water School) (Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Camp, North Dakota)
What began as a resource school for parents to educate their children of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ resistance camp has evolved into a high school opening in 2021 that will center “indigenous and land-based education.”
The Organic Farm School (Whidbey Island, Washington)
“As a learning center, the Organic Farm School trains new farmers to develop and manage small farms focused on ecological, economic, and social regeneration — simultaneously offering opportunities for our community and others to learn about their role in strengthening local/regional food systems.”
Who else is doing environmental justice work we should know about? Share below in the comments or let us know on social media.
