Ecology, Spirituality, and Education: Curriculum for Relational Knowing / Edition 1

by Elaine Riley-Taylor, Shirley R. Steinberg, Joe L. Kincheloe

Overview

The overarching crisis of our times is a crisis of the way we think. There is an underlying separation - of mind from body, from emotions, from spirit - fundamental to many Westerners' ways of knowing the world, contributing to alienating beliefs and practices that fail to be personally fulfilling or ecologically sustainable. Education could be means to foreground the sacred character of human-earth relations and mediate ecological imbalances between humans and the natural world. Ecology, Spirituality, and Education draws on ecofeminist theory, deep ecology, and postmodern process theory to explore human knowing as a bridge toward human being, the sustainable health of the human species, and the web of relations within which we reside.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820455433
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	09/04/2002
Series:	Counterpoints: Studies in Criticality , #201
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	735,945
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)

About the Author

The Author: Elaine Riley-Taylor is Assistant Professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. She received her Ph.D. in curriculum theory at Louisiana State University and has published articles in professional books and journals.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Introduction: No Thing in Isolation: Awakening into Process	1
Part 1	The Ground of Our Knowing	29
Chapter 1	Living Intentionally: Process and Paradox	31
Chapter 2	Other Ways of Knowing as Ecospiritual Praxis	55
Part 2	Toward a Reweaving	77
Chapter 3	Ways of Knowing "Others": Living the Border Life	79
Chapter 4	An Ecospiritual Ethic and Decisions of Responsibility	97
Chapter 5	Place, Community, Cosmology: At Home on the Planet	125
	After-Words: Toward a Radical Re-cognition of Life	153
	References	155
	Index	169

Editorial Reviews

This rigorous and evocative study - influenced by deep ecology, ecofeminism, postmodernism - guides us into a world of relationality and sustainability. It is, to employ Riley-Taylor's apt term, an instance of 'eco-spiritual praxis'. (William F. Pinar, St. Bernard Parish Alumni Endowed Professor, Louisiana State University)
Elaine Riley-Taylor invites us to walk a path with her that traverses richly textured ground; a ground-breaking path in its originality and vision. Riley-Taylor's weaving of personal narrative and philosophical analysis offers an ecospiritual perspective intended for educators faced with increasing alienation, domination, and mind-numbing standardization. Through her poetic methodology of storytelling and creative theoretical integration, Riley-Taylor develops a powerful praxis to transform our epistemological and ethical assumptions. Her message deserves attention: the future of our planet could depend on it. (Wendy Kohli, Director of Teacher Education, The New School, and President of the American Educational Studies Association, 2000-2001)

From the Publisher

Seeking to foster teachers', and in turn, children's understanding of our interdependence with the natural world, Riley-Taylor (Northern Arizona U., Flagstaff) examines traditional educational ways of knowing and alternate process views (e.g. Jerome Bruner's institutional anthropology). She maps out an "ecospiritual praxis" based on intentional, relational knowing. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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