Teaching at the Edge of the Apocalypse: Fostering Meaningful Action through Interdisciplinary Eco-pedagogical Frameworks on Urban-Serving Campuses

Workshop Presentation
Ellen Moore,  Ellen Bayer,  Elizabeth Bruch,  James Gawel  

To effect meaningful change and encourage action, educators constantly need to adjust their pedagogies in response to shifting political, scientific, social, cultural, and environmental terrains. In Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse, Sut Jhally (2017) claims that although we know we are teetering on an ecological precipice, we have not yet committed to substantive sustainable change on a global scale. To address this problem of inaction, this workshop is designed to encourage the creation of innovative, interdisciplinary “ecopedagogies” involving environmental justice and global environmental degradation. The session encourages interactive conversations with participants around several key themes related to ecological and social justice, including: developing interdisciplinary frameworks for active learning to foster action and participation in students; using classrooms to increase engagement with the surrounding communities and support an urban-serving mission; recognizing and integrating other perspectives in teaching sustainability, including transnational, restorative, and Indigenous ecological experience and knowledge when and where possible; and student engagement through authentic undergraduate research and service learning. The presenters are faculty from the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma and represent different disciplinary backgrounds, including science, law, sociology, and communication. Each will present a short case study of their “ecopedagogical” classroom work that attempts to bridge the global to the local and addresses the relationship between environmental degradation and social inequity. Overall, the workshop recognizes the urgent need for educators to adopt creative ways to engage students, especially on urban-serving campuses, in meaningful sustainable change.