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Teaching Green: Experimenting with Green Values in the Classroom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2017

David Whiteman
David Whiteman
Affiliation:
teaches political communication and environmental politics in the Department of Government and International Studies at the University of South Carolina. He is the author of Communication in Congress: Members, Staff, and the Search for Information (Kansas 1996) as well as articles in a variety of professional journals. He recently received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to support his current research on the political impact of documentary film, focusing on the role of activist organizations in the planning, production, and distribution of documentary film and video. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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Abstract

One morning the group of students who were leading my “Ecology and Politics” class that day decided that we should hold class outside, in the garden of a nearby university reception center. We ventured out, into a classic South Carolina spring day, with a bright blue sky and trees full of blossoms. On the way, the group discovered that they had forgotten to bring markers to write on the large pad that they were carrying. I let them continue on, to get started, while I headed back to my departmental office to pick up some markers. When I returned, markers in hand, I was treated to a sight that reminded me of what education might be like: a large open-air tent had been erected in the garden for a reception later in the day, and under the tent were my students, seated in chairs in a circle, in the midst of an animated discussion of spiritual ecology. I took my seat in the circle, enjoyed the beautiful setting, turned in my journal assignment when asked, and contributed a few comments to the discussion.

Type
THE TEACHER
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 87 - 91
Copyright
2003 by the American Political Science Association

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Footnotes

Many thanks to John Creed, my coconspirator for the first offering of this course; to Natalie Kaufman and Athey Kaufman, my constant advisors about improving the course; and to all my former students in “Ecology and Politics” (GINT 477).

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