Lexington Books
Pages: 182
Trim: 6¼ x 9
978-1-4985-3596-0 • Hardback • October 2018 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
978-1-4985-3598-4 • Paperback • June 2020 • $47.99 • (£37.00)
978-1-4985-3597-7 • eBook • October 2018 • $45.50 • (£35.00)
Rebecca Youngis language and literature assessment specialist for Measured Progress and the International Baccalaureate Organization.
Foreword by John Adams
Introduction: A New Story
Chapter 1: Literature and Empathy: A Rationale for Change
Chapter 2: A Taker-Leaver Paradigm: Cultural Representations in Contemporary Fiction
Chapter 3: Popular Science Fiction and Fantasy: Fostering International Perspectives
Chapter 4: Let’s Share the Table: Building Ecoliterate Communities
Chapter 5: Morality and Environmental Responsibility: An Interdisciplinary Reading of Franzen’s Freedom
Chapter 6: Ecopsychology: Harmonizing Our Paths
Afterword by David W. Orr
Bibliography
Confronting Climate Crises through Education envisions the responsibility of public education to engage a citizenry more prepared to address the challenges of a changing world. Young advocates a paradigm shift that positions eco-pedagogy as the central organizing principle of curriculum and assessment design. Each chapter outlines ways literature can serve as a cultural lens for examining the complex patterns of contexts behind our most pressing climate concerns. A focus on fiction and non-fiction exemplars illustrates practical ways educators can develop instruction around the environmental crises we are already experiencing and to inspire more ecologically conscious, globally-minded problem-solvers prepared to confront them.
— Yale Climate Change Connections
If educators take Rebecca Young’s advice to harness the power of imaginative world-making and empathetic reading, perhaps we have a chance not only to confront climate crisis but to persuade young people to take tangible steps to repair and protect our environment. A first step would be to recover the original sense of empathy, with Einfühlung, a feeling-into the inanimate world upon which we depend.— Suzanne Keen, Washington and Lee University
This book could not be more timely or more necessary. The most important questions the planet faces are changing quickly—all of a sudden, survival and fairness seem at least as crucial as that old standby, 'how can we grow bigger?' That world requires a new pedagogy, one whose outlines this volume helps you sense.— Bill McKibben, Author of Deep Economy