Investigating learning of the embodied self in motion : implications for socio-ecological justice education
Date
2012-02-21
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Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This thesis disseminates a study investigating the contexts and personal movements connected to social-ecological justice learning, experienced by three student-activists throughout their lives. Woven from a range of theoretical orientations, the study’s framework aims to articulate a foundational basis for socio-ecological justice learning. The central subject of the framework is the situated “mind/brain/body” learner – “in motion and in transition” – negotiating intersubjective experiences within influential social, cultural, and ecological contexts (Biesta, 1999; Boler, 1999; Ellsworth, 2005; Lave and Wenger, 1991; McKenzie, 2008; Weis and Fine, 2003). In the life-course of the learner, there are many significant lived experiences through which meaning and value emerge in relation to socio-ecological justice. These experiences of the learning self (Ellsworth, 2005) may serve to support or obstruct socio-ecological justice advocacy. Extending from these foundations, the qualitative study sought – through “narrative learning” (Goodson et al., 2010) and “collective witnessing” (Boler, 1999) – to bring past learning and newly emerging reflection into a collective conversation of the way socio-ecological justice has come into presence in the lives of the three student-activists. To this end the study’s aims are: i) engage in a participatory narrative process in order for participants to explore, witness, and better understand their own previous learning experiences, meaning, and values in relation to socio-ecological justice; ii) through this process, engage participants in current learning about themselves, each other, and their socio-ecological actions; and iii) contribute to the literature on socio-ecological justice learning, particularly on collaborative processes of self-reflection as a potential vehicle for contributing to socio-ecological learning. The study’s methodology adapts a heuristic research model elucidated by Clark Moustakas (1990) through incorporating attributes outlined in a participatory action research (PAR) framework.
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Keywords
environmental education, socio-ecological justice, embodied learning, collective witnessing, pedagogical implications
Citation
Degree
Master of Education (M.Ed.)
Department
Educational Foundations
Program
Educational Foundations