Restoring Awareness: Stories of Childhood Experience and Ecological Identity

• Main Author: Haji, Nisha
• Other Authors: Knowles, J. Gary
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Ecological Identity; Spiritual Identity; Childhood Experience; Experiential Learning; 0516; 0518; 0515; 0534
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/29473

In trying to understand ecological identity within adult environmental education, I embarked on an arts-informed exploration of my life history. I realized that everything I know about the environment grew from what I experienced as a child. My childhood experiences are most vivid in my memories of the natural world. I wanted to know more about the relationship between childhood experiences and ecological identity. Based on a personal transformation, and journey toward restoring awareness of the senses and how we know as human beings, I chose my life as the focus of this research. Had my childhood experiences influenced how I relate to the environment? How had they done that? What was it about those childhood experiences? This thesis is the culmination of my inquiry. It is my story and an offering to travel with me to my childhood and make sense of your own experiences in the natural world.