Ecology and Environment Interest Group (EEIG) Column: Fall 2023

Column by: Alice Wexler

Art Education for a Sustainable Planet: Embracing Ecopedagogy in K-12 Classrooms

by Joy Bertling

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In her 2023 book, Art Education for a Sustainable Planet: Embracing Ecopedagogy in K-12 Classrooms, Joy Bertling makes an impassioned statement about the condition of our planet and our responsibility for its future. She asks art educators to embrace the imminent future of climate change and its consequences of disorder, migration, degradation, and conflict. Ecopedagogy is not an addition to the over-subscribed curriculum, but rather a philosophy, a way of seeing the world through the lens of an interdependency of all life forms. A shift is required from the human-centeredness of the Anthropocene to the acknowledgement of the equality and value of all life to avoid continued damage. Our capitalist system of consumerism has exacerbated the imagined hierarchy of human importance, and thus the justification of extraction, exploitation of land and animal habitats, colonialism, and economic injustice. Bertling’s definition of ecopedagogy is as follows:

Ecopedagogy embraces deep ecology—a movement that decenters humans; positions them as deeply entwined in ecosystems; affirms the intrinsic value of all life; and, ultimately, advocates for an end to the anthropocentric domination of nature. (2023, p. 1)

Bertling (2023) invites her readers to revisit the decolonial perspectives of Indigenous and Black feminist onto-epistemologies, which highlight reciprocal relationality and consider humans as embedded in nature rather than the individualism that has dominated our schools in the capitalist and neo-capitalist eras. Also important in our inclusion of historically marginalized peoples is that they are first to experience land degradation, lack of resources, and water impurity—especially on tribal land, often contaminated by abandoned uranium mines. Many Indigenous and Black ecoartists who make art about colonialism and land and water degradation have been underrepresented in the art curriculum.

Bertling (2023) reassures art educators that art content would not be sidelined, but rather applying her carefully constructed suggestions for projects would increase student opportunity by introducing interconnections between the visual arts, science, architecture, performance, and Indigenous knowledges. Such interdisciplinary work is necessary for us, as art educators, to stake a place on our school campuses, where young people can expand their notions of themselves as agents of change and art as a critical form of transformation. In critical place-based environmental education, the school becomes the locus of experimentation, research, and collaborative projects with the community. Place-based education is also considered “slow pedagogy,” which allows students to “slow down and linger in place and to experience place non-verbally,” and consider place as containing “social, cultural, economic, political, and historical arenas” (Bertling, 2023, p. 13).

Bertling (2023) acknowledges the hopelessness and inadequacy felt by individuals, and the question of how one person might make a change within overwhelming global structures. She guides art educators through recommendations, examples, and images of contemporary artists throughout the world who are tackling environmental crisis in their locations.

In the conclusion of the book, Bertling (2023) reassures art educators that we don’t need to learn a new skill, or that we’re not ready to embark on this mission. Importantly, she emphasizes hope as pulling us through the gravity of the climate crisis. It is the only way to ensure we can go forward with this critical work without despairing. And she asks us not to delay.

Please do not discount your abilities. Please do not underestimate your influence. Reach deeply for strength, embrace any resources of joy along the way and trust that your fellow art educators are exerting their spheres of influence in educational spaces across the globe, and that together we can make a profound difference. (Bertling, 2023, p. 144).

Table of Contents

Part I: Foundations for Art Education as Ecopedagogy.
Chapter 1: Ecopedagogy; Chapter 2: Ecological Art; Chapter 3: Contemporary Art Education.

Part II: Contemporary Art and Ecopedagogical Curriculum and Methods.
Chapter 4: Cultivating Relations and Fostering Empathetic Encounters; Chapter 5: Embracing Natural Cycles and Processes; Chapter 6: Collecting and Visualizing Data for Awareness; Chapter 7: Confronting Capitalocene Violence; Chapter 8: Envisioning Alternate States and Ways of Being; Chapter 9: Greening the School and Revitalizing School Culture; Chapter 10: Restoring Ecosystems and Empowering Communities.

Introducing the EEIG 2024 Awards

This year’s two awards to be presented at the 2024 NAEA Convention are for an Outstanding Activist/Community Project and an Outstanding Publication. Submissions for the awards will occur between October 1, 2023, and December 1, 2023. Eligibility for the awards is for projects and publications undertaken between November 1, 2021, and October 1, 2023.

Nicholas Leonard and Alice Wexler, EEIG Co-Chairs