Ecological Literacy's 5 Core Aspects

In the Cascade-Siskeyou Monument
Photo: Bri Foster

Eco Literacy's 5 Core Aspects

Given E.L.'s broad definition, it may help to narrow our focus slightly.  E.L. has five core aspects (Draft Global Issues Pilot August 2011):

1. Principles of Living Systems: Refers to understanding of the web of life, Earth systems cycles, material-energy exchanges, etc.  The goal is to provide students with a "deep sense of place and an understanding of their local environment."
2. Design Inspired by Nature: The application of our knowledge and understandings of natural systems to the (re)design of human groups, systems, and goods in order to align with ecological principles; e.g. "to transform how humans act in the world to provide food, shelter, energy, materials, and seek their livelihood." 
3. Systems Thinking: A.K.A. 'holistic' or 'relational' thinking; it "involves applying a way of thinking that emphasizes relationships, connectedness and context." 
4. Ecological Paradigm and the Transition to Sustainability: with a focus on ethics, this aspects focuses on understanding how humanity is part of the larger ecological picture and
   "needs to take responsibility for the social and environmental consequences of our activities."
5. Collaboration, Community Building and Citizenship: collaboration and partnership are integral to living systems and require the ability to associate, create links, draw on collective distributed intelligence of many individuals. "Ultimately, sustainability is a community practice."  

I admit that these core aspects are still rather broad, but they at least help us to understand that E.L. is about much more than the standard content of an ecology class.  Rather, E.L. is cross-disciplenary in nature and should help students to think critically about not only scientific topics, but social, artistic, and mathematical topics as well.  My hope for my own future students is that they would be able to explore an 'essential question' about an ecological issue and find avenues of exploration in not only biology, but also history, ethics, literature, etc.  Conversely, I would want them to be able to connect core ecological concepts to non-scientific topics as well.  (An example of this could be explaining how a desert-dwelling population changed their culture and way of life as a result of adapting to an arid environment.  Another example could be the exploration of US politics and democratic governance with regard to natural resource management decisions and policy.)  Essentially, E.L. is not an add-on curriculum, but a means of broadening student learning within the disciplines we already teach.

Over the next several posts I plan to explore more specifically how E.L. may be integrated and find practical tips/ideas for using E.L. to teach various classroom disciplines.