Ecopedagogy

Ecopedagogy is a movement that grew out of the theory and practice of critical pedagogy, the body of educational thought shaped by the philosopher and educator Paulo Freire. Its mission is to build a strong appreciation for the collective potential of humanity and to advance social justice worldwide, pursued as part of a future-oriented, ecological and political vision that opposes the globalization of ideologies such as neoliberalism and imperialism while cultivating a critical ecoliteracy. One of its central goals is to develop culturally relevant forms of knowledge grounded in ideas such as sustainability, planetarity, meaning an identification with the whole earth and its inhabitants rather than with any one nation or culture, and biophilia, a love of all living things. In education, ecopedagogy extends critical pedagogy's concern with power and justice in the classroom to the ecological crisis, treating environmental questions as inseparable from the social and political questions critical pedagogy was already asking.