1.
Integrating Environmental Literacy into Core Programsat UNC-Asheville
UNC Asheville
Grace G. Campbell
Humanities Program
UNC-Asheville
April 7, 2010

2. E- Literacy: Rationale
Keep pace with contemporary environmental discourse
Prepare students for eco-focused future
Implement Goals of UNC Tomorrow
Respond to student interest/demand
UNCAsmission - interdisciplinarity/engagement
UNCA Strategic Plan
3. E-Literacy:Definition
NO single definition
UNCA FOCUS ON INTERDISCIPLINARITY
Sciences: empirical /material
Social Sciences: choice architecture/ policy
Humanities: values /culture
4. E-Literacy:Why Core Curriculum?
Every student across curriculum
UNCA Interdisciplinary Humanities Program (team-designed/ team taught)
UNCA Integrative Liberal Studies (ILS) Model (supports new course design)
5. E-Literacy at UNCA:Structural Advantages
custom-published Asheville Readers (Copley)
regional emphasis on outdoor recreation
Small campus (@ 3600 students)
Culture of Team-designed courses
Common Lecture format
Integrative liberal Studies Program (ILS)
Undergraduate Research
6. E-Literacy in Core Programs:New Curricula (2002):
1. Senior Capstone Colloquia
HUM 414: The Individual in the Contemporary World
LS 479: Cultivating Global Citizenship
2. Undergraduate Research
7. E-Literacy in Core Programs: key features
Shared lexicon of terminology
Shared concepts
Emphasis on interdisciplinary significance
(natural sciences / social sciences / humanities)
8. Sustainability as a Core Value(How we talk about it)
past->present-> future
flourishing- of humans / life/ systems
capacity - to endure and flourish
9. E-Literacy: (example)basic concepts in environmental ethics
Anthropocentrism human-centered
Biocentrism life-centered
Ecocentrism system-centered
Theocentrism God -centered
10. E-Literacy in Core Programs:(examples)Shared Concepts
cradle-to-cradle
biodiversity
anthropogenic change
collective action problems
tragedy of the commons
non-renewability
maldevelopment
11. E-Literacy: Auxiliary Learning Outcomes
Understanding Intersections (race/ class/ ethnicity)
Understanding human agency / choice architecture
Awareness of technology - nature / culture split
Greater significance of global studies/multi-cultural studies
Cross-disciplinary cooperation
12. E-Literacy in Core Program: Kinds of texts
easy to excerpt
intersectionality / diversity
can be secondary (Sen, Nussbaum, McKibben)
13. E-Literacy:Examples of texts
Singer, Peter, Animal Liberation
Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights
AmartyaSen, Development as Freedom
Arne Naess, The Deep Ecological Movement:Some Philosophical Aspects
Berry, Wendell, Manifesto: Mad Farmer Liberation Front.
Bryan Norton, Environmental Ethics and Weak Anthropocentrism
Deen, Islamic Environmental Ethics
Dillard, Annie.From: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
Dobel, Patrick, The Judeo-Christian Stewardship Attitude to Nature.
Dykeman, Wilma, Who Killed the South French Broad?
Gordis, Robert, Judaism and the Environment
Hardin, Garret, The Tragedy of the Commons.
Keown, Buddhist Environmental Ethics
Kuhn, Thomas, Scientists and their Worldviews.
Leopold, Aldo, Thinking Like a Mountain.
Leopold, The Land Ethic
Lester Brown, The Economy and the Earth
Lovins, Amory, Technology is the Answer (But What Was the Question?)
McDonough and Braungart, Cradle to Cradle
Paul Taylor, The Ethics of Respect for Nature
Peter Singer, One World
Sallie McFague, The World as Gods Body
Vandana Shiva, Development, Ecology, and Women
Wilson, Edward O, Storm Over the Amazon
Wilson, Edward O, The Diversity of Life

14. E-Literacy:Challenges to curricular change
Perception of lack of faculty expertise
Inquiryor advocacy?
Defining a common lexicon (nature / culture-problematic category)
Disconnect between campus values and campus practices
Standard challenges (overwork!)
Gen Ed: tradeoffs
15. E-Literacy in Core Program: Ongoing Intellectual issues:
historicism vs. greening of core texts
primary texts: ancient vs. contemporary?
(Aristotle, Tao teChing, Bible, Baghavad-Gita, Dhammapada)
16. Integrating E-Literacy:Lessons Learned
environmental champions
unlikely disciplines (Music)
align with campus practices (Student Environmental Center)
unlikely texts (Aristotle)
broad definition of sustainability(economic /social/environmental)
17. Integrating E-Literacy:Lessons Learned
faculty/students to conferences (SENCER and Emory, AASHE)
regional significance (Southern Appalachia, Smoky Mtn. Natl. Park, Cherokee)
Link undergraduate research to campus activities
Connect with faith-based communities (students want this)
18. E-Literacy:Mistakes
problematizing(Depression 101)
value-free ideals
(sustainability is value-laden)
Neglect of urban environment
Starting with Seniors
Book prices
19. E-Literacy: Impacts?
Increased numbers of undergraduate research projects related to sustainability
Increase in the number and scope of courses incorporating e-literacy
Further integration of environment content inhumanities disciplines
20. E-Literacy:Today at UNCA
Upcoming Assessment of (SLOs)
New teaching habit (anecdotal)
look for interdisciplinarity of sustainability content
(Amory Lovin, Bill McDonough, Wendell Berry, Caroline Merchant, Michael Pollan, WangariMaathai, Annie Dillard, Peter Singer, E. O. Wilson, Vandana Shiva, Majora Carter, Lester Brown, Paul Hawken)
living labs: campus facilities as classrooms (Sam Miller complex)
21. E-Literacy:Supporting faculty efforts
Need Signals of Institutional Commitment (Chancellors Task Force on Sustainability)
Faculty Evaluation
EmbeddedAssessment:highlighting existingefforts
Faculty development/ travel $
22. E-Literacy Vision:Unity in Pluralism
Academics - Ecological Metaphor
Emphasis on Systems
Environmental Knowledge -> (Neuraths Boat)