Email questions, comments, suggestions, or greetings
to: Dr. Jim Manley jcmanley@csupomona.edu
or Dr. Susan Kullmann Puz, skpuz@csupomona.edu
Educational Goals and Course Requirements
I. Purposes
To bring together students from several academic units to share those curricular issues that provide an intellectual context for the more focused study of their particular areas of concentration.
To integrate university scholarship and experiential field investigations.
To bring faculty together from several academic units to share diverse knowledge bases, perspectives, and methodologies.
To sponsor active student learning based upon a question-centered approach.
To foster the social construction of knowledge within a cooperative learning community.
To honor and respect the wisdom and experience of students' biographies as a resource and text.
To explore different cultures in the construction of multicultural and multiple ways of co-existing in the world.
II. Generic & Particular Course Requirements
Texts:
Jacobs, Richard, Ways of Living, Kendall Hunt, 1996
Portfolio of Written and Expressive Work:
Students will develop a portfolio collection of learning artifacts that represents their essential learning achievements in response to questions and issues under investigation. Faculty will respond with qualitative assessment procedures that depend upon student self-critique. Faculty will use formative and diagnostic critiques to further student learning. Students will have opportunities to use divergent, multi-media and computer modes in the development of portfolio projects.
Field Research Experience:
Students will integrate classroom discussion, text reading, and field experiences as viable references in the response to questions and issues under investigation.
III. Assessment
Portfolio contents will be assessed qualitatively by faculty at the conclusion of the quarter. Students will be evaluated based on their ability to meet standards of both competence and excellence with regard to the elements of the module (identified questions, achievement of learning outcome, achievement of performance expectations, use of learning resources, appropriate learning artifact for portfolio assessment).
All learning artifacts submitted by students will receive a constructive critique by one or more faculty.
Faculty will make decisions based on the intellectual capacity of the student to integrate diverse references around complex ideas and to critically analyze issues and questions, rather than use summative procedures (testing). As an integral part of a learning outcome, students will be able to demonstrate awareness of the ethical and environmental implications of the questions under investigation.
Faculty will encourage the expressive and aesthetic work of students who seek to interpret human experience in metaphorical, aesthetic, and symbolic modes.
See Learning Outcomes for further guidance regarding assessment criteria.
IV. Class Procedures
Classroom attendance and field investigations are required. Active class participation is an essential responsibility of a participatory learning community. Interactive discussion is the major mode of learning. Small group discussions and task force presentations will underline the cooperative learning opportunities for students in the thematic modules.
Elements of the Thematic Module
I. Definitions of the Elements of the Module
A. Questions: Open-ended and problematic questions that will structure student investigations.
B. Learning Outcomes: Descriptive narrations of the intellectual and expressive attributes that the student will possess as a result of the investigation of a particular question.
C. Performance Expectations: Explicit assignments and responsibilities that the students will undertake to explore and research the questions under investigation.
D. Learning Resources: Bibliographies and learning resources that will assist and inform student research and investigation.
E. Assessment Elements: Papers and learning artifacts resulting from student investigations that are organized and gathered in a portfolio collection for student and faculty evaluation.
II. Components of the Module
A. Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Consciousness: Seasons, Food, Birth, Shelter and Death
B. Individualism, Collectivism, and Environmental Consciousness
C. Youth, Education and Environmental Responsibilities
D. Living with an Ethic of Care
E. Environmental Wisdom: Scientific Knowledge and Cultural Context
F. Global Issues: Sustainability, Regeneration and Justice
III. Questions and Learning Outcomes of the Module
A. Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Consciousness: Seasons, Food, Birth, Shelter and Death
Questions:
1. How can we incorporate ways of living of indigenous peoples that are needed to mitigate the negative aspects of the 20th century upon the natural environment?
2. How does economic growth and technology affect indigenous people of the planet?
3. What are non-Western versions of rights, uses of natural resources, sustainability, sensibility and responsibilities?
4. How do different cultures think of origins, or Nature? How does this influence their relationship and behavior with the natural environment?
5. How are humans, plants, and animals affected by the seasons? How does geographic placement and cultural context influence this?
6. Why are many rituals grounded in seasonal moments?
7. How do humans mark different life stages? How does this differ in industrialized and indigenous societies?
8. Why do metaphors for human development often draw upon or connect to non-human events? (To life cycle of animals, harvest, seasonal change, solstice, etc.?)
9. What are the global politics of food? How does it impact indigenous societies?
10. What are the social rituals of food in indigenous societies?
11. What are environmentally sound farming practices? What are the essential differences between indigenous and industrialized societies in this regard?
12. How do societies construct scarcity and abundance? How does this differ in industrialized and indigenous societies?
13. How do our shelters fit into, extend, hone, or defy their site/environmental locations? Hoes does this differ in industrialized and indigenous societies?
14. What are examples of our own life which we connect to nature, environment and seasonal movement? How does this differ from indigenous societies?
15. What are some indigenous architectures and how might they serve as models?
16. What is the relationship of the sacred to the natural environment?
17. What is the relationship of the aesthetics and arts of a culture to the natural environment?
18. How does the amount of population density and the allotment of physical space in urban and rural communities influence and impact the environment?
19. What role does language play in cultural perspectives and attitudes toward the environment?
20. What does architecture suggest about the environmental values of culture? How is architecture/design of schools reflective of beliefs about the schools relationship to the environment?
Learning outcomes--Students will be able to demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of :
1. how indigenous people respond to the impact of external cultural forces.
2. economic needs of indigenous people in regard to environmental issues.
3. external forces (corporate, political, economic, cultural) that impact environmental issues in indigenous communities.
4. cultural differences and diversities in regard to environmental issues.
5. how rituals and celebrations commemorate and respond to the natural environment.
6. relationship of religious beliefs to environmental attitudes.
7. relationship between human life cycles and the cycles of natural phenomena.
8. geographical place in the development of culture and the definition of nature.
9. utilitarian and metaphorical messages regarding nature embedded in the arts and crafts of cultures.
10. how various languages affect different perceptions of nature.
B. Individualism, Collectivism, and Environmental Consciousness
1. What are the underlying social, economic and political forces which shape the way people use or abuse the environment, or the way people construct ideas of "nature?
2. Are there principles of exploitation of nature inherent in capitalism? Socialism? Structures of "developing nations"?
3. What are notions of "progress" often given a positive connotation? Has there every been wrong or evil done in the name of "progress"? Historically, how did notions of "progress" develop?
4. What role do transnational corporations play in the use/abuse of the environment? How should corporate us of natural resources be regulated?
5. Is there such a thing as "corporate responsibility" to the environment?
6. What are the relative merits of investment companies that offer "green" investment instruments?
7. What role have regulations played in addressing public outcry over environmental concerns?
8. Why, historically, has the strength of environmental regulation and reform come from a collective, grassroots level?
9. Have all grassroots efforts contributed to education, empowerment, and consciousness-raising of the populace? Of its membership?
10. How have the "Enlightenment" sensibility and ideas of human rights been extended to non-human lives and systems?
11. How does the notion of an interdependent ecology change the way we think about bio-regions rather than mapped boundaries?
12. What are the contributions of Rachel Carson and Caesar Chavez (and the UFW) in relation to food production?
Learning Outcomes--students will be able to demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of :
1. personal perspective of civic responsibility regarding environmental issues.
2. the interplay and interdependence that constitutes the human social environment.
3. how to modify individual and communal behavior to achieve environmental sustainability.
4. relationship of poverty, economic and political power, and the issues of the environment.
5. respective roles of private and public sectors in the joint collaboration regarding the environment.
6. future vocational role and its impact on and responsibility toward the environment.
7. environmental impact of public policy or potential public policy as enunciated by politicians.
8. environmental awareness as reflected in one's civic duty as a voting citizen.
C. Youth, Education and Environmental Responsibilities
1. What are the environmental issues students need to address to live in a changing global world now and in the future? What concrete behavior needs to be changed to enhance living within the natural environmental?
2. What significant cultural, ecological, and environmental problems, challenges, opportunities and educational experiences would students have to foresee, investigate and seek resolutions to in their lifetime?
3. What skills and knowledge will students need to meet the challenges of everyday living within individual lifestyle and civic organizations in a changing global environment?
4. What content and concepts must students acquire, assimilate and synthesize to prepare them for their life roles in a changing global society?
5. What enabling experiences will students need in developing the social interdependency to become an environmentally aware and active citizen?
6. How does the organization of the classroom reflect the individualism of society?
7. In what ways might the ecological paradigm mirror the interdependence of the learning community?
8. What is the responsibility in a learning community for a student to help/teach others?
9. How can a curriculum organized around the environment contribute to a sense of classroom cooperation or social responsibility in the classroom? Or enhance ecological awareness?
10. Will cooperative learning communities impact on social and political institutions?
11. How can youth reconcile their aspirations for future material success and their deep concerns for the natural environment?
12. How can education provide an environmental education without becoming politically partisan in examining the causes of pollution and overdevelopment?
13. How can we redefine the good citizen, in a way that incorporates environmental responsibility?
14. How can an environmental education become integrated with more traditional curriculum?
15. What practical and immediate actions can youth take in their everyday lives to demonstrate their understanding and knowledge of environmental education?
16. How can the ecology of the classroom, serve as an operational metaphor and model for the greater ecological needs of the earth?
17. What is the relationship of the ethics that might govern behavior among and toward other human beings and an ethic that would shape our relationship to the natural environment?
18. How can the leadership of parents provide a family model and structure that reinforces an environmental education?
19. What are the physical attributes of a healthy environment on a school campus?
20. How does a positive physical environment contribute to a positive emotional environment for youth at a school site?
21. How can we determine if apparently affirmative environmental factors are culturally bound and limited to those with a particular cultural identity and orientation?
22. How can youth create their own environments that could represent their own ideas, dreams and feelings?
23. What are the visual and physical symbols of a school setting that reveals the ownership and authority of those who control that institution?
24. What are the aspects of popular culture that define or influence youth in their orientation toward the environment?
25. How do the issues of race, class and gender influence the attitudes of youth about the environment?
26. Who are the environmental heroes, that youth might emulate in the development of their environmental consciousness?
27. If public education becomes effective in developing environmentally informed youth, what impact will that have on the traditional preparation of university graduates?
28. To what degree is Western higher education and traditional disciplinary knowledge inherently unfriendly to environmental concerns?
29. Should the curriculum about the environment be influenced by local community thinking and concerns? How would you structure an environmental education in a logging community?
30. What could traditional and non-Western cultures contribute to the development of an environmental curriculum?
31. How can youth reconcile their aspirations for future material success and their deep concerns for the natural environment?
32. How do you develop profound and memorable events in the classroom relating to human life cycles?
33. How can you utilize a curriculum around the basic life cycles?
34. How does schooling mirror beliefs about culture, values, environment and ways we choose to live?
35. How can the classroom model environmental responsibility?
36. What is the impact of environment (physical, emotional, cognitive, spiritual, aesthetic) on teaching and learning? What can we intuit and what is scientifically based?
37. How are schools (or how are schools not) vehicles for sustainability and regeneration?
38. What is your personal experience with school environments? How might that have been different?
39. What are the roles of cooperation, individualism and competition in teaching and learning?
Learning Outcomes: students will be able to demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of :
1. the classroom environment as an interdependent ecological system analogous to natural systems.
2. integration of theory and practice in the development of environmental education.
3. professional responsibility to integrate environmental education throughout the entire curriculum.
4. teaching strategies that empower future students to be environmentally conscious citizens.
5. teaching strategies to activate students in environmentally sustainable practices and behavior.
6. ethical behavior that would contribute to a sustainable environment.
7. cultural influence of attitudes and values regarding the environment.
8. history of the environmental movement and resources available to instruct in this area.
9. how different cultures provide environmental education.
10. impact of built environment on both human beings and the natural environment.
D. Living with an Ethic of Care
1. Can we develop an absolute ethics of care?
2. If there are no absolutes, can we have an ethics of care?
3. Where do obligations come from?
4. How can one resolve the tension between individual rights and social responsibility in these areas?
5. How can one integrate the methodologies of critical analysis with an ethics of care?
6. How can we cooperate to care for "X" (some "other kind") without being paternalistic?
7. Can you care for nature in the same way you care for people?
8. How can you bring a living environment into Nature or Nature into a living environment?
9. In what way or ways does an ethic of care extend to animals? to plants?
10. How has environmental art raised questions of an ethics of care?
11. How does the history of environmental ethics shape today's attitudes and policies toward the environment?
12. What are the origins of the American environmental movement? What has been the contribution of Henry David Thoreau? R.W. Emerson? John Muir? Rachel Carson? Leopold Aldo? Others?
13. What are some non-Western traditions in environmental ethics?
14. How does schooling relate to the major life themes of food, birth, shelter, death? How does school curricula integrate these ideas?
15. Can we find in history the cultural resources to organize an environmental ethic, or is this such a paradigm shift that it requires new conceptualization?
16. What is the influence of the historical religious traditions upon environmental ethics?
Learning Outcomes - students will be able to demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of:
1. ethical dimensions involving the rights of non-human organisms.
2. individual and collective ethical obligations.
3. relationship between the historical religious traditions and conceptions of the natural world.
4. integration of rational analysis and compassionate concern in approaching environmental issues.
5. how aesthetic expressions regarding nature contribute to its preservation.
E. Environmental Wisdom: Scientific Knowledge and Cultural Context
1. Is there more than one epistemology or way of knowing about the natural environment? If so, how do you reconcile or integrate them?
2. Is an epistemology a "reconstruction" of actual practice?
3. Is there an environmental epistemology? (Is "business ethics" different from ethics?)
4. What are some ways of grounding scientific knowledge within a specific cultural context in ways that are mutually compatible and mutually reinforcing in responding to environmental issues?
5. Is environmental knowledge neutral? Are there ethical imperatives embedded in this knowledge?
6. What are ways in which culture has shaped the basic assumptions of environmental knowledge?
7. What is the basis for the tension between presently accepted scientific or academic environmental knowledge and the concerns of environmental activists?
8. Why do we need a new epistemology or paradigm shift to incorporate the environment in our present knowledge? What might that environmental epistemology be?
9. What is going to be the impact of the "information highway" on environmental issues?
10. What kind of a value orientation would ensure the positive application of technology in solving environmental problems?
Learning Outcomes - students will be able to demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of :
1. impact and influence of gender issues in regard to the natural environment.
2. influence of language in defining and understanding the natural environment.
3. problem-solving approaches to the conservation of natural resources.
4. research strategies for addressing environmental issues.
5. skills and knowledge needed to create and use features such as design, temperature control, energy, time and space, in the construction of human living spaces.
6. the balance between the sustainability of human needs and the natural environment.
7. how other cultures perceive and experience the natural environment.
8. multiple capacities to understand and experience the natural environment.
9. role of technology as a problematic contributor to environmental problems and solutions.
10. formulation of assessment procedures that would integrate ethical concerns and technological expertise in applications of environmental issues.
F. Global Issues: Sustainability, Regeneration and Justice
1. What is the relationship of poverty in the world to the degradation of the natural environment?
2. How does public policy in regard to the environment promote or contribute to poverty?
3. What is "environmental racism?"
4. What is the condition of international law in regard to environmental disputes between nations?
5. What has been the history and difficulties of foreign aid to non-Western countries in regard to the impact on the natural environment?
6. How can nations negotiate environmental disputes? What factors should be decisive in settling these matters?
7. How can we protect economically vulnerable nations from environmental abuse by economically powerful nations?
8. What is the environmental impact of wars between nations?
9. How should American foreign policy reward or punish environment achievements or disasters by other nations?
10. What is our ethical and political responsibilities in environmental policy to other nations?
11. How can private organizations and citizens contribute to the improvement of the environment in other nations?
12. What is the relationship between the health of human environments and the health of natural environments?
13. What role should multinational corporations play in the protection of the natural environment? What role have they played in the degradation of the environment?
14. How can the issue of waste management be solved as an international concern?
15. How can the issue of energy conservation be solved as an international concern?
16. How can the issue of air and water pollution be solved as an international concern?
17. How does the exponential growth of the population affect the basic needs of human beings and the environment?
Learning Outcomes: students will be able to demonstrate an informed and critical understanding of :
1. interdependencies of living organisms throughout the world.
2. the impact of environmental issues on international relationships and efforts to achieve peace in the world.
3. the importance of a social conscience that frames environmental issues as matters of justice.
4. responsibility of economically powerful nations to the environmental issues of non-Western societies.
5. role of political democracy in the achievement of environmental justice.
6. relationship between local environmental activism and global concerns.
7. how the adverse environmental policies of one nation or region impacts global conditions.
8. how sustainable environmental policies contribute to environmental improvement.
IV. Performance Expectations
Schedule of Monday module meetings:
Week One:
Bring in one page speculation on what environmental ethics may offer as a way of living. Refer to and use a few questions from syllabus AND draw on readings.
Week Two:
Be prepared to discuss and hand in one page speculation from past Monday. Exercise: after detailed exploration of Singer, Sagoff, and Leopold a draft of how theory can/is/should be applied in our ways of living--graphics on chalkboard, interactive skits, plans for home and school construction (or retrofit) imbued with environmental theory.
Week Three:
Monday Oct. 9--Hand in critique. Field Trip to Center for Regenerative Studies
Prepare to bring an object or image or story to the Oct. 16th class which suggests another culture's way of thinking about nature and human placement within the world.
Week Four:
Student presentation of "other ways" image, object, or story. Some in-class time to assign and plan small group field trip.
Brief discussion of trip to Center for Regenerative Studies.
Field Trip in small groups to evaluate local site and its environmental concerns. Basis for 3 page paper due Week 6 during individual meetings (that is Monday at 8pm for TED and Wed. for IGE). Also basis for in-class presentations Weeks 8 & 9. Students will relate readings, discussions, and syllabus questions to their papers and presentations on local sites.
Week Five:
Role of art in conceptualizing environmental issues; film showing of "Koyaanasquatsi" and discussion
What does Ecofeminism offer in the generation of an environmental ethic? One page paper for discussion due next class.
Week Six:
Monday Oct. 30: Ecofeminism round table discussion. One page paper due.
Write new syllabus questions which are open-ended and in the spirit of inquiry--all questions will offer explorations of "Social Ecology." One page set of deep questions due next Monday.
Week Seven:
Monday November 6: Presentation of and discussion of questions on Social Ecology.
Homework for November 13: Continue to prepare for in-class presentations on local sites.
Week Eight:
Student presentations of fields trips to local sites
Homework for November 20: none
Week Nine:
Monday November 20: Students presentations of field trips to local sites
Homework for November 27: none
Week Ten:
Monday November 27-- Wrap up and evaluation of course
Final Exam Week:
IGE will meet in their separate classroom on Monday December 4 from 6-8 pm
IGE Ways of Living International Project
Our study of environmental issues and of how people live introduces concerns of how to learn about and from other parts of the world. In this collaborative project, students will work in groups of five and will focus on environmental issues of one of the study areas below.
Once assigned a study area, each group will do research AND an in-class presentation of their work AND an individual paper of eight pages in length (not including illustrations, maps, etc.).
RESEARCH A way of dividing the tasks amongst members could include one member each to research these AND show a relationship to the environmental issues from your study area: historical background and critical assessment of environmental issue(s) in that area, cultural issues and assumptions which shape the way the local environmental issue(s) and concerns have developed, actions taken by people in that area and/or leadership and organizations which have formed, the relationship between environmental efforts by people indigenous to that area AND efforts by outsider environmentalists, current state of affairs (have there been successes, are legislation or international agreements pending, etc.).
IN-CLASS FORUM Each group will discuss/present to the other groups for 5 minutes on the status of the research (what materials have been useful, who seems likely to agree to be interviewed, what contacts have been useful through the Internet, what seems difficult or frustrating to locate or determine, what books/articles have proven invaluable, etc.). This is also part of your grade. A forum is a lively exchange of ideas which the IGE program promotes rather than a hoarding of resources or ideas. During the forum, it is acceptable and encouraged to ask members of groups other than your own for ideas, for a loan of resources, for help on the Internet, etc. The forum will be held on the "particular" day of week 4.
IN-CLASS PRESENTATION Each group will present for 30-35 minutes and will be assessed one grade per group. The presentations will: make meaningful links to the resources ( draw from the questions from the Study Guide, texts, discussions, etc.) from our class AND be interactive (presenters will engage the class in some activity or discussion--could involve multi-media, etc.). These presentations will be given on the "particular" days of weeks 7, 8, and 9.
INDIVIDUAL PAPER Each student will submit a ten page paper which includes at least two additional pages of illustrations or other graphic materials (for a total of 12 pages). This paper represents the culmination of your research and discussions with your group members. There will be one grade assessed for each student's paper. Also include a "Works Cited" page which lists all the materials you used for the research (books, newspaper articles, Internet articles, interviews, films, music, plays, etc.). This paper is due on the "particular" day of week 9.
1. Japan 5. Brazil
2. Canada 6. Guatemala
3. South Africa 7. Nevada nuclear test site in the US
4. Egypt (Rural life)
STUDY AREAS FOR MANLEY AND JACOBS' CLASS
1. India 7. Alaska
2. China 8. Australia
3. Peru 9. Columbia River area of Washington state--US
4. Kenya 10. Thailand
5. Nigeria 11. Iran
6. Arizona, New Mexico
V. Assessment Elements
Portfolio Assignment # 1: One page speculation on what environment ethics may offer as a way of living. Refer to and use a few questions from syllabus and draw on readings. Due date: M Oct. 2
Portfolio Assignment # 2: One page critique - explore what philosophy as a field has to offer in devising environmentally sound life-ways and what are its limits? Draw on readings, discussions, and syllabus questions. Due date: M Oct. 9
Portfolio Assignment # 3: Bring an object or image or story which suggests another culture's way of thinking about nature and human placement within the world. Due date: M Oct. 16
Portfolio Assignment # 4: Field Trip in small groups to evaluate local site and its environmental concerns. Basis for 3 page paper - Due date: M Oct. 6 (Ted 301) W Oct. 8 (IGE 223) and in-class presentations Weeks 8 (Nov. 13) and 9 (Nov. 20)
Portfolio Assignment # 5: One page discussion - What does Ecofeminism offer in the generation of an environmental ethic? Based on readings - Environmental Philosophy, page 268 (Merchant) page 282 (Plumwood), and page 310 (Salleh). Due date: M Oct. 30
Portfolio Assignment # 6: One page paper - write new syllabus questions which are open-ended and in the spirit of inquiry--all questions will offer explorations of "Social Ecology." Based on reading from Environmental Philosophy, page 354 (Bookchin), page 406 (Kovel), and page 418 (Bradford). Due date: M Nov. 6
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