Transforming the Soul of Education: Sustainability at the Center of Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools

• Main Author: Kane, Thomas Eugene
• Format: Others
• Published: PDXScholar 2011
• Subjects: Environmental responsibility > Study and teaching (Secondary); Transformative learning > Study and teaching (Secondary); Environmental education > Study and teaching (Secondary); Educational change > Environmental aspects
• Online Access: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/270; https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1269&context=open_access_etds

Humanity is facing problems on a scale never before encountered. This dissertation traces the roots of modern culture's destructive relationship to the planet with its habits of over-consumption and exceeding the limits of the planet's ecological systems. Educational institutions are embedded in and replicate an unsustainable culture. As educational leaders, we need to challenge a system that is morally and ecologically bankrupt while providing a path toward sustainability at the center of teaching and learning. Using a narrative scholarship approach and theoretical frameworks drawn from ecological thinking and place-based learning, this dissertation provides models for transforming secondary education. While critiquing the current model of high school, this dissertation argues that education for sustainability needs to be not only about curriculum change, but a change in the way we think about schooling, the buildings in which we educate, the food we provide and the relationships between schools and the communities in which they exist. It directly addresses social studies curriculum and offers a way of examining career pathways through the lens of education for sustainability.