Land, Body, Liberation: An Ecofeminist Pedagogical Approach to Place-Based Education

Within this project I applied an ecofeminism framework to the tangible practices of place-based education regarding issues of social justice-based sustainability efforts. In order to recognize the impact of identity-based privileges, I explore how place-based education promotes the development of problem-solving skills, critical-thinking techniques and building meaningful relationships within a community. These goals were achieved by shifting the white settler colonist understanding of human conquest and subjugation over land and bodies from an anthropocentric lens to an androcentric lens. In other words, illuminating the oppressive role the patriarchy has continued to play in exploiting natural 'resources' and the bodies of marginalized peoples for capitalistic gains. I presented and delivered relevant content to the Methow Valley Community, middle school students from The Bush School, and at the Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference at the University of Kentucky. From these experiences, I reflect on the importance of identity representation within the classroom, a positionality and personal biases analysis, and the power of an ethic of care as a teaching tool.