Re-connecting with Nature: Transformative Environmental Education Through the Arts

Abstract

Environmental educators are seeking ways to make learning relevant in an environment in which students are increasingly disconnected from the natural world and the places where they live, and more connected to digital media and technology. This theoretical study, guided by Thomas Berry's influential cosmological vision and David Orr's environmental education work, examines how the arts may re-direct thinking, awareness, and learning and help learners of all ages to re-imagine our connections to the biotic communities, of which we are a constituent part. It also offers a critical view of modern technologies, and how they may be useful in the environmental learning. By examining different worldviews, educational paradigms, the role of arts in learning, and the use of media and modern technologies, in light of childhood identity development, this study explores how a connection to nature and animal species can develop through experiences with the arts and time outside, help students build ecological identities, and promote sustainability in communities. The argument is made for bringing art into the environmental education curriculum in order to promote collaborative learning, a sense of place and community, 'hybrid thinking,' transdiciplinary learning, and a co-creative dialogue with nature and culture.