|
Social and Ecological Literacies
The Prescott College mission statement begins like this: “It is the mission of Prescott College to educate students of diverse ages and backgrounds to understand, thrive in, and enhance our world community and environment. We regard learning as a continuing process and strive to provide an education that will enable students to live productive lives while achieving a balance between self-fulfillment and service to others. Students are encouraged to think critically and act ethically with sensitivity to both the human community and the biosphere […].”
The MAP faculty believe this commitment to the world community and environment is a particularly important part of the college’s mission. In 1991 when this master’s program was being developed for Prescott College, it was noted by the faculty committee that one could not be a responsible world citizen without close attention to and care for the human and natural environment. The faculty who oversee the program today feel, perhaps even more strongly, that this is still the most important aspect of what makes MAP unique and what makes leaders of the graduates of this program.
Every MAP student is required to incorporate an awareness of and sensitivity to the environmental and cultural contexts in which learning and the application of learning occur. Consideration of these overlapping and complementing issues is a major commitment of Prescott College as an institution and a community of learners and practitioners.
The ecological aspect of this value system begins with our immediate physical, social, and cultural surroundings and expands outward to include every aspect of the natural world of which we are a part. Socio-cultural considerations include every distinction among humans in society from the socially-constructed race, gender, and class to physical, emotional, and spiritual issues and orientations.
Students are expected to develop and demonstrate their awareness of and sensitivity to these diverse dimensions of natural experience through course design, frequent reference in their writings, and consideration of environmental responsibility and social justice in their programs and practice. Every study packet and written or oral presentation should contain some reference to these concerns about personal responsibility and action.
These literacies should be addressed throughout the program. Specifically, students must address these literacies in study plans, study packets, presentations, and e-o-t summaries as well as in the thesis.
Students and, where appropriate, advisors should:
- review these concerns and how they are relevant to one's study in the cover letter, scholarly writing, or something else of each study packet;
- include reference to these issues in the end-of-semester summary, in both the narrative evaluations and the personal assessment;
- develop specific courses, practica, or research projects that address these issues, or include social and ecological concerns as factors to be examined in papers exploring other issues;
- engage in volunteer positions or service activities to be reported on in study packets and e-o-t summaries;
- include these as criteria to be considered and reported on in reviews of practica and internships;
- incorporate reference to these literacies in the thesis plan and thesis;
- and consider the importance of these areas in all academic and personal areas of our lives.
Note: Literacy is being defined in current scholarship as “the ability to think deeply, efficiently, and effectively with concepts and ideas” (Janice A. Dole, Reading Research Quarterly, July/August/September 2000). Humans have many types and levels of literacy; an enthusiastic discussion of the concept of literacies is growing among contemporary scholars.
Environmental studies students may find that developing ecological literacies is easily carried out throughout the course of their studies. Students in other fields may be more challenged to see how the work they do is affected by, or has an impact on, the Earth’s environment and ecological systems. A student in counseling psychology might choose to look at how one’s mental health is affected by their relationship to their physical environment, or how a wilderness adventure program might be used psycho-therapeutically. Ecological systems and concepts should be examined broadly to include not only wilderness and the natural environments, but all aspects of human and natural environment and systems, such as home and work, internal and psychological, and social and political environments. Inquiry and exploration relating to ecological literacies must also include consideration of personal responsibility and social action.
Those students in disciplines specifically focused on social, cultural, or justice themes or doing work with a diverse population might find the exploration of social literacies an obvious and accessible part of their work. Other students may find that the incorporation of social literacies requires them to stretch a bit more. For example, a student studying photojournalism might choose to research how Eurocentric media has portrayed the American Indian. A student examining technology might consider how popular software design is gender biased or how class might have an impact on the accessibility or even the value of technology. Culture should be considered in broad terms that extend beyond race-ethnicity to include nation, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, size, religion, politics, language, enfranchisement, and so on. Social literacies extend beyond individual aspects of identity to include personal responsibility and social action.
Social and Ecological Literacies as they Relate to the Awareness to Action Continuum*
Social and ecological literacies encompass a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary fields, and focus on advancing one’s understanding of human systems and cultures, and how they depend on and influence the Earth’s natural systems and processes. Ultimately, by developing social and ecological literacies one cultivates a deeper sense of moral responsibility to humanity and the Earth, and the ability to make socially responsible and ecologically sensitive lifestyle and behavior choices.
There are distinct phases of learning that can help strengthen one’s social and ecological literacies for the long term. These phases are sequential, cumulative, and temporally elastic. They represent a cogent learning process that is experienced continually throughout one’s lifetime.
Referred to as the Awareness to Action Continuum, these phases include:
AWARENESS and APPRECIATION
... an awareness and appreciation of the diversity of all life on Earth.
KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING
... a basic understanding of how human (social/cultural) systems and natural (ecological) systems function, and how they are interconnected with each other.
ATTITUDES and VALUES
... a respect and concern for social justice and cultural and environmental health, and the ethical motivation to participate in social action and environmental stewardship to enhance that health.
PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS
... the skills needed to identify and critically analyze social and environmental issues, and to contribute to resolving the roots of problems.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY and ACTION
… a deeper sense of moral responsibility to all life on Earth, and the ability to make socially and ecologically sensitive lifestyle and behavior choices
* The Awareness to Action Continuum has been developed in the field of environmental education as a functional step-by-step model based on the Tbilisi Final Report from the Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education (UNESCO 1978). A working version was created by Prescott College faculty member Joel Barnes, Ph.D., and adapted by the MAP faculty with Joel to fully incorporate social and ecological literacies.
Student Ideas Relating to SEL
Here are some approaches students have taken to considering social and ecological literacies.
Return to Handbook Index Page
Last updated August 10, 2008.
|
