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GoalsOn June 21-23 2002, the Oberlin College Environmental Studies Program, under the sponsorship of a NSF-AIRE grant, hosted a small group of people identified by their thoughtfulness and knowledge of environmental studies pedagogy to discuss in-depth issues central to this subject. They met in the recently constructed Adam J. Lewis Center for Environmental Studies. They spent most of their time in groups discussing questions of interest to everyone engaged in undergraduate instruction in environmental studies. Workshop Participants
David Benzing's LetterDear workshop participants, Plans for the June workshop are taking shape. We have many events planned, among the more notable, Friday evening dinner at the Great lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland. We chose this establishment because the Oberlin Environmental Studies Program is assisting the owners in reconfiguring their beer making operations to be more environmentally friendly. We plan to focus the workshop (initially in break-out sessions) on the question of core competencies, namely what should we strive to impart to our environmental studies majors? Is there a definable set of skills and areas of knowledge that we should expect all of our environmental studies graduates to have mastered? Second is the issue of core subjects. Is there a set of subjects (e.g., energy, climate change, globalization) that should also figure prominently in the educational experiences of the ES major? From what vantage points and to what depth should these subjects be understood? Three broad subject areas come to mind in thinking about core competencies and subjects, namely 1.) the biophysical world, 2.) environmental ethics and personal life style and 3.) political economy. Other workshops have been devoted to curriculum--specifically, to the question of which courses belong in the ES major and related pedagogy. Less time has been spent considering underlying principles and how they are linked, and can be introduced to students through courses, internships, etc. Our goal is admittedly ambitious, but the organizers of this workshop would like to record what this diverse group of educators views as core competencies and what classic and more recent literature best supports the development of these competencies. What pedagogical methods (e.g., lecturer, laboratory, collaborative learning, case studies, problem learning, internships, etc.) are particularly useful to develop these talents, and how do we determine whether we have successfully imparted them? What subject areas should we address, and to what depth? Finally, how do we as educators, especially those of us responsible for teaching an introductory ES course, develop and remain competent in the same areas ourselves? Are there especially effective ways to do this--perhaps regular workshops, minicourses, or publications beyond those available to us now? We want participants to think about these issues in the weeks remaining before June 21. What literature should be familiar to every environmental studies major in your area--what are these texts and what principles, points of view, revelations, or provocations do the authors deliver particularly well? What are the best ways to teach these materials? Finally, how might we fashion arrangements that allow us as specialists in some traditional discipline to keep ourselves current as educators in an exceptionally multidisciplinary field? Most of you have probably read the relatively recent articles by
Soulé and Press and Maniates and Whissel If not, and you
would like an overview of what kinds of ES programs are out there
and related criticisms and challenges, take a look at these papers
at: Maniates, M. and Whissel J. C. 2000. Environmental studies: the sky is not falling. Bioscience 50: 509-517. Soule M and Press, D. 1998. What is environmental studies? Bioscience 48: 397-405. I welcome your thoughts and suggestions on this agenda in the weeks ahead. I'll get back to you with additional details about content along with a detailed schedule of events and how we will apportion our time. David Benzing OutcomeTwo questions were posed at the outset to guide the 29 participants of the two day conference devoted to consideration of the structure and goals of the ES undergraduate curriculum. First, what competencies should we strive to impart in our majors, and to what subject areas should they be exposed? Related issues for thought included pedagogy, assessment, supporting literature, staffing, and facilities. Participants had been asked to read presentations of opposing views on the ES major prior to arrival to Oberlin (Soulé and Press 1998 and Maniates and Whissel 2000; complete ref. elsewhere on this web site). Participants were divided into to two discussion groups each comprised of individuals representing as much as possible all of the academic disciplines present at the meeting. Biologists and political scientists accounted for about two thirds of each discussion group. Several physical scientists, a geographer, a psychologist, an ethicist, and so on made up the balance. The two break out groups addressed both questions during the morning and afternoon of day one. Day two began with a comparison of results of the break out groups by all participants in a plenary session. That task completed, the entire group moved on to consider additional issues as reported below. Day one First, what does "competency" mean? A student is competent when he or she has achieved an expected level of mastery of some basic skill such as writing, speaking, or computer use. It can also mean that the individual has achieved enough understanding about a given issue, philosophical construct, or specific body of information (e.g., globalization, biological consequences of ozone depletion) to appreciate the importance of that issue, to know how much he or she doesn’t know about it, and, if needed, know how to learn more about the issue. The desirability of fostering certain basic competencies is not exclusive to ES programs, but some of them (e.g., writing skills, public speaking) may be especially useful to graduates with this major. Each discussion group produced a list of basic competencies. Emphases differed to the extent that a few items were missing from one or the other of the two lists. On balance, however, the two products were quite similar in the choices of competencies and subject areas and the supporting logic. The list for Group One (subcategories listed under the 14 major categories are illustrative rather than comprehensive) follows:
List for Group Two: Group Two also identified the following specific skills: problem solving, primary research, experimental design, critical thinking, research reporting (writing), listening, speaking,, moral decision making, spiritual connection to the outdoors A number of thoughts that bear mention came up during the discussions of core competencies, specifically: Capacity to integrate disparate information in order to consider complex problems is especially crucial for the ES major as is the related notion of "system thinking" , namely the ability to think systematically about complicated problems. The ES curriculum is indeed multidisciplinary to a large extent, and to master and apply its tools and information to solve problems requires these skills. The ES major/practitioner must be able to recognize and communicate with diverse kinds of specialists. They must understand the premises of diverse disciplines. They must also adequately appreciate the limitations of science as problem solver and the nature of scientific uncertainty and controversy (e.g., the difficulty of predicting specific consequences of a doubling of the concentration of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere). Leadership skills are important, specifically, capacity for consensus building and appreciation of group dynamics and personality. Problem solving is another inordinately important skill for ES—the ability to apply theory, "Applying competencies to problems is basic to ES" . The Humanities help us define human problems and our links to nature and each other and to appreciate the nature of our species, spirituality, aesthetics, and relationships and differences among cultures. Humanists teach us how to self examine, how to approach and analyze issues that concern values, moral dilemmas, and ethics. They teach us that we can’t solve all problems with just science. They help us define our obligations to posterity. ES is defined in part by its unique pedagogy—it calls for " interdisciplinary integration" a truly holistic approach to complex problems stemming from our need to use nature without inflicting undue damage to it. Realistically, our list of core competencies is ideal, not readily achievable given the limited resources available to most ES programs, the time available to impart them to undergraduates, and the need to assure that ES majors also develop significant depth in some specific subject area(s). The question remains how much skill/appreciation of a given tool/construct/body of information constitutes competence? Many of the conference participants reported that their courses, even their introductory ES courses, introduce students to most of the items listed above, but often only superficially. So the question of how much familiarity or skill equals competency remains open. Some of the competencies that are especially desirable in the ES graduate are personal rather than academic, for example, healthy skepticism, affability, propensity to be a team player. To what extend can these traits be taught? The natural and political scientists disagreed about whether the
competencies and pertaining to their disciplines are equally resolved
at this time. The political scientists see their methodologies as
being as refined as those applied by the natural scientists. This
disagreement underscores the continuing impediment to the necessary
cross talk between all of the major players in ES programs (re.
Soulé and Press 1998). Day two The second day of the conference began with a call for suggestions from conference participants by Stephanie Pfirman of Barnard College (spfirman@barnard.edu). Stephanie is one of a group of academics commissioned by he National Science Foundation to help define needs related to undergraduate instruction in ES. This agency is currently identifying how approximately one billion dollars earmarked for environmental science and education should be used for this purpose. Announcements of programs will probably appear in about 15 months. Comparisons of the two lists of core competencies and subject areas revealed much common ground as mentioned above, yet emphasis differed somewhat. Group Two thought more about other cultures, race and gender and the future and methodology, Conversely, Group One was more concerned about historical perspectives and developing capacity to appreciate "place" .
Additional questions: The second day continued with participants deciding to consider six additional questions and issues, specifically: 1. What differences would you like your ES program to make on campus or in the greater community? 2. What do you need to achieve the desired ES outcome mentioned above? 3. Introductory courses, types, content, and purpose 4. Recruitment of under represented minorities to ES and recruitment and careers in general 5. Advocacy for the environment in the Academy 6. Books and articles all ES graduates should read
Question # 1: Participants were polled individually regarding question #1. The responses included: wish to develop a full-blown ES major, wish to promote feeling among students that they can make a difference re. environmental problems, green the campus, that issues of the environment be given higher visibility on campus, that the need to promote eco literacy be embraced across campus, secure the funding to initiate a radio news show, to move from mostly theoretical to more applied approaches (business applications) to ES on campus, achieve better melding of disciplines, esp. humanities, in the ES program, do a better job with non majors, recruit more students into ES and related careers, make ES the best major on campus, make collaboration between ES students and faculty a model for the campus, integrate service and ES learning as a model for campus, get ES more "influential" across campus, get new buildings, including one planned for the sciences, greener, get better collaboration for ES on campus and then develop outreach program based on this collaboration, set an example for broader community (city). Question #2: A textbook that covers the material that should make up a "true interdisciplinary" intro. course, (Certainly no book exists that adequately covers the core competencies as defined at this conference), faculty development workshops (NSF-funded?), pilot projects to convince entire campus of wisdom of going green, pool ideas on how conference participants have used case studies, etc. to help effect this goal in courses elsewhere, i.e., pool teaching materials, finds ways to include inter disciplinary teaching in all ES courses—how is it done? models?, national meeting, including workshops, on how to be interdisciplinary with a "visionary emphasis", a means to evaluate ES programs (with NSF-funded staff), establish web sites and list serves on how ES programs work, job opening and job searches, etc. Question # 3: Introductory courses come in at least three general types, the broad survey, case-based, and place-based. The conference participants generally agreed that students need to come out of the introductory course with a feeling of hope as opposed to "ain’t it awful" . A number of examples of intro course were given (e.g., create a utopia). The group agreed that introductory courses should promote excitement and creativity, interdisciplinary thinking, and integrated problem solving. It must not be a gut! Intro courses range all over the map in content and pedagogy. Most are tailored for prospective ES majors and the general audience. Resources are too thin at most institutions to manage separate courses for these two audiences. So called capstone courses would be better named keystone courses if indeed they function to bring things together—in this case at the end of the major rather than at its beginning. Question #4: Most of the participating institutions reported little success in recruiting under represented minorities into ES. ES is believed to appear to be a white upper middle class enterprise/profession according to many meeting attendees. ES must be made relevant to the immediate needs of minorities, identify minority authors, feature environmental equity and justice in curriculum. Outreach that involves solution-based collaborations between white students and students of color (e.g., potential program between Oberlin College and Clark University) should be tried. Raise consciousness that ES is especially relevant for a largely urban based constituency. We also need to convince students that election of ES-based professions or ES preparation applied in many other kinds of work can lead to rewarding careers. We need to better define these vocations. Recruitment of all kinds of students to ES seems to have leveled off since the early middle 1990’s possibly because until recently the environment hasn’t been as well exposed in the media as it was during some earlier times. High school preparation is not particularly conducive to interest in ES in college, ES seen by some as a weak major. We need to sell ES as a major that can lead to substantial opportunity for rewarding careers "callings". We need to demonstrate how traditional professions (e.g., chemistry, medicine, biology, economics) now place value on an ES competency. Create outreach programs for HS teachers to get them engaged in the environment. Introduce environmental issues in traditional courses (e.g., ozone dynamics in general chemistry courses, environmental legislation in political science courses). Help career planning offices get up to speed on opportunities for ES graduates, internships, etc. Track recent graduates to get more information to provide to prospective ES majors (this may require some hard work). An appendix in the back of Peter Raven’s book describes some career opportunities for ES graduates. The Middlebury College web page contains information on job opportunities. Question #5: ES is vulnerable to being dismissed as primarily the realm of the
tree hugger. We need to be mindful of this problem lest we suffer
the fate of some other programs like Woman’s Studies. Nevertheless,
we should strive to develop passion, but also welcome those students
who prefer to be at least outwardly more dispassionate. ES is probably
advantaged somewhat by the "positivist paradigm" inherent
to the natural sciences. Are we too defensive about advocacy? Faculty
should be good models of what we want in our students—reasonable
advocates who practice what they teach. Activism is good when it
is based on good thinking and self reflection. We should be open
about our advocacy rather than cryptic like some other professionals
are about their commitments (e.g., certain economists). Question #6 Silent Spring,, Rachel Carson, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1962 Distillations from the conference by this observer (D. Benzing) We need to demonstrate to students how technology ties us irretrievably to the environment--how this technology quite artificially allows Planet Earth to sustain six billion humans. We must at once reform this technology to keep it from destroying the global biosupport system while preventing that enterprise, once reformed, from "evicting" us (or all but the most privileged of us) from life worth living. In essence, we need to teach our students to think critically about technology. The ES curriculum represents a point of convergence of disparate views and ways of thinking that are usually articulated in isolation within the traditional academic disciplines. New knowledge and insights can come from the meeting of minds that should occur within the experience of the ES major. Our greatest intellectual challenge as specialists and teachers is learning to talk to each other so that students benefit as well. The discouraging critique of ES as multidisciplinary, hence a fragmented major lacking sufficient depth (Soulé and Press) is true only to the extent that we fail as instructors and scholars to make these bridges. The greening of a campus is an excellent way to foster the creative thinking and synthesis that we seek to instill in ES students. And who else if not colleges and universities should demonstrate the way to a sustainable future? "Tree hugging" is often eschewed by ES faculty in favor of cool professionalism, yet we should seek to foster informed passion about environmental problems in our students and be no more defensive about it than our medical colleagues feel when they exhort students to dedicate themselves to the sick and dying. We need to maintain positive attitudes about the state of the environment
and the human condition. It’s not fair or productive to allow
any fatalistic feelings we harbor about global change, or the capacity
of our species to modify its current destructive cultural trajectory
to infect or discourage our students. The best way to demonstrate
optimism is to be models of environmental responsibility and advocacy
ourselves. |