Cultivating the Ecological Conscience: Smith, Orr, and Bowers on Ecological Education Page: 61
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of living.37 Its guiding principle could be expressed in the words of Aldo Leopold's declaration
that "a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise."38 Bowers suggests that public school and
university educators use the shared features of traditional cultures as a basis for reforming the
curriculum.39
Bowers' observations on the problematic state of contemporary political labels are useful
to his assessment of some of the most visible schools of thought in contemporary mainstream
educational philosophy. He devotes a great deal of attention to what he sees as the many
deficiencies, in terms of their capacity for contributing to the greening of education, of the
conservative, process, progressive, and critical pedagogy critiques of Western school systems.40
None of these orientations are centrally or for that matter even significantly concerned with
ecological and cultural sustainability, but Bowers is particularly interested in criticizing the
emancipatory educational philosophies of progressive John Dewey and critical pedagogist Paulo
Freire and their followers.41 Bowers argues that because both of these liberal traditions of
educational thought perpetuate the ecologically unconscious assumptions that underlie the quest
to conquer nature, foster North-South cultural colonization, and, like the ideas inspired by
process philosophy, absurdly push for attaining equality in ecologically unsustainable societies,
37 Bowers, Educating for an Ecologically Sustainable Culture, pp. 39, 165-69; Bowers, The Culture of Denial, p.
135; Bowers, Mindful Conservatism, p. 123.
38 Bowers, The Culture of Denial, p. 136.
39 Ibid., pp. 136-42; Bowers, Critical Essays, pp. 179-201.
40 Bowers, Mindful Conservatism, pp. 142-59; Bowers, Educating for an Ecologically Sustainable Culture, pp. 137-
64; Bowers, Education, Cultural Myths, and the Ecological Crisis, pp. 35-116; C. A. Bowers, The False Promises of
Constructivist Theories of Learning: A Global and Ecological Critique (New York: Peter Lang, 2005), pp. 1-101.
41 Bowers, Educating for Eco-Justice and Community, pp. 31-76; C. A. Bowers, "How the Ideas of Paulo Freire
Contribute to the Cultural Roots of the Ecological Crisis," in Rethinking Freire: Globalization and the
Environmental Crisis, ed. C. A. Bowers and Frederique Apffel Marglin (Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Publishers, 2005), pp. 133-50; Bowers, Mindful Conservatism, pp. 147-59; Bowers, Critical Essays, pp.
34-52, 134-46.61
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Hoelscher, David W. Cultivating the Ecological Conscience: Smith, Orr, and Bowers on Ecological Education, thesis, December 2009; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc12133/m1/66/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .