BERG: Environmental education and the language arts

In the Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities (2017), Ursula Heise argues for an interdisciplinary matrix in Environmental Education combining, “humanistic perspectives and methods already developed in many disciplines over the last forty years”. In this talk I propose how this might be achieved drawing on the many possibilities afforded by language arts. I conceive language arts to encompass most modes of human communication, spoken, visual, symbolic/representational, drama, dance, games, ephemeral examples and many more. I draw on my own experiences of teaching and researching in life sciences and environmental science and education over fifty years. In doing so, I take the opportunity to cast a somewhat critical eye on how environmental education has evolved over this time. I discuss my research for a new volume in the Routledge Research in Education Series, 'Engaging with Environmental Education Through the Language Arts', to argue for the role of aesthetics and ‘slow (reflective) thinking’ to achieve what Uwe Küchler sees as the central goal of environmental education for our pupils, and all citizens for that matter, “to develop an appreciation and respect for the natural world … to be steered towards a more sustainable, secure and peaceful future.” I conclude by discussing an agenda for how the language arts for environmental education might be further researched and developed.