Teaching Environmental Literacy: Across Campus and Across the Curriculum

15 Environmental Literacy and the Curriculum: An Administrative Perspective

15 Environmental Literacy and the Curriculum: An Administrative Perspective Catherine Larson Spanish and Portuguese When I was first invited to join an environmental literacy working group at my university, I feared that as soon as the experts began talking, I would be found out as the ringer in the group—I was not a true, deep, forest green, though perhaps a light shade of chartreuse. My area of research is not a scientific discipline but Hispanic literature. Furthermore, my life outside this institution has precious little to do with sustainability or the interconnectedness of the environment, society, and the economy, although I possess a fair amount of intellectual curiosity and my family does recycle pretty enthusiastically. Still, I wasn’t really sure why I had been asked to participate, other than the fact that I was the associate dean for undergraduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the faculty leaders of the group were most likely making strategic invitations. Because I work with the curriculum on both macro and micro levels on a daily basis, I decided to become involved, and I became a believer in the power of this grassroots e√ort to change policy and to a√ect the way we all ‘‘do’’ the business we do. In fact, what I came to understand and embrace was that this concept— 172 ⭈ catherine larson helping to create more environmentally literate citizens (students, faculty, sta√, and administrators), greening the campus by involving academic programs, the physical operations of the university, and purchasing decisions—really is for everybody. We all coexist on this planet, and we all share the responsibility for determining its future. Pedagogical initiatives involving environmental literacy are intended to educate people, to make them more aware of their individual and collective choices, and literally to change behavior. In what follows, I will explore from an institutional perspective some of the ways in which such an initiative might work at a large, public university. As an associate dean from the liberal arts and sciences, it is fair to say that my perspective emanates from there. I will also consider how such an initiative might be woven into the fabric of academic life of an entire university. Inclusiveness The question of ownership is central to discussions linking the environment to pedagogy in a university setting—and, I would submit, it should be as allencompassing as possible. The environmental literacy initiative that was developed in our university was, from the beginning, conceived of as belonging to everyone, from newly arrived freshmen to members of the Board of Trustees, from the person responsible for purchasing zucchini for the residence halls to the faculty member teaching a course on the relationship between the environment and public policy. The governing philosophy, then, was that the initiative should require each of us to take ownership, although in a number of di√erent ways. Clearly, because the constituent groups are so varied, the overall initiative also requires a menu of options and opportunities that will enable everyone to buy in. In the early days of the project, as I went through my own process of coming to terms with the issues at stake, I had three key questions regarding the relationship between this initiative and the curriculum: 1) What teaching and learning strategies might enable us to foster environmental literacy, and how should they be prioritized? 2) How could we make at least some of the working group’s suggestions happen operationally? 3) What policy issues would specifically relate to undergraduate education at the level of the College of Arts and Sciences? For example, would we need to consider changing degree requirements for all students —and how might that a√ect everything from programming the degree audit system to time-to-degree issues? What might be the intended and unintended consequences if we added a required environmental literacy course? Could we achieve many of our goals by heading in other directions—and, if so, what might they be? Environmental Literacy and the Curriculum ⭈ 173 Strategy The first concept with which I came to terms was one I have already noted: the issues involved in environmental literacy are not just a ‘‘science thing’’—they a√ect all three of the distribution areas that comprise the arts and sciences: the arts and humanities, natural and mathematical sciences, and social and historical studies. Because these issues are central to what the arts...