Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T14:55:45.805Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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).

References

Bruffee Kenneth1999 Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence, and the Authority of Knowledge2nd ed. BaltimoreJohns Hopkins University Press
Caspary William1996 Students in ChargeTeaching Democracy by Being DemocraticTheodore Becker and Richard Couto Westport, CNPraeger27 52
Cooper MaesPamela RobinsonMolly McKinney1994 Cooperative Learning in the ClassroomChanging College Classrooms: New Teaching and Learning Strategies for an Increasingly Complex Worlded. Diane Halpern. San FranciscoJossey-Bass Publishing
Estes Caroline1990 Consensus and CommunityTurtle Talk: Voices for a Sustainable FutureChristopher Plant and Judith Plant PhiladelphiaNews Society Publishers94 103
Fisher Berenice1987 The Heart Has Its Reasons: Feeling, Thinking and Community-Building in Feminist Education Women's Studies Quarterly 15 3 4Google Scholar
Gabelnick FaithJean MacGregorRoberta MatthewsBarbara Smith1990 Learning Communities: Building Connections among Disciplines, Students, and Facultyeds. San FranciscoJossey-Bass
Greens/Green Party USA 2002 Ten Key Values and Program of the Greens: EducationOctober 23, 2002 www.greenparty.org.
Hollick MalcolmChristine Connelly1999 Learning from Ecovillages Worldwide Communities: Journal of Cooperative Living 104 (Fall 1999)62 64Google Scholar
Kinkade Kat1994 Is It Utopia Yet?: An Insider's View of Twin Oaks Community In Its 26th YearTwin Oaks, VATwin Oaks Publishing
Left Green Network 1989 Principles of the Left Green NetworkProceedings from the Conference of the Left Green Network Ames, IA
Masterson John1998 What Learning Communities Teach AAHE Bulletin 50 (April)8 9Google Scholar
Mayberry MaraleeEllen Cronan Rose1999 Meeting the Challenge: Innovative Feminist Pedagogies in Actioneds. New YorkRoutledge
Merchant Carolyn1992 Introduction: What is Radical EcologyRadical Ecology: The Search for a Livable WorldNew YorkRoutledge1 14
Occhipinti John2000 Active and Accountable: Cooperative Team Learning for Comparative PoliticsPresented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association WashingtonD.C.
Orr David1992 Ecological LiteracyEcological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern WorldNew YorkState University of New York Press85 95
Pepper David1996 Defining EnvironmentalismModern Environmentalism: An IntroductionNew YorkRoutledge10–17
Sanders Arthur2000 Teaching Introductory American Politics as Part of a Learning Community PS 33 (June)207 212Google Scholar
Schneidewind Nancy1985 Cooperatively Structured Learning: Implications for Feminist Pedagogy Journal of Thought 20 (3)74 87Google Scholar
Whiteman David2000 Looking at Community for Alternative Possibilities Communities: Journal of Cooperative Living 108 (Fall 2000)41 45Google Scholar