Ethics research in environmental education
Abstract This paper takes a research orientation towards ethics and, in so doing, frames ethics as processes of inquiry Ethics Research in Environmental Education 1 Twenty-five years ago I moved to the Yukon and began teaching in a small rural school. Most of the students were First Nations. It was...
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| Language: | English |
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2005
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1047.3772 http://www.jickling.ca/images/Jickling,%20Ethics%20Research,%20web.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract This paper takes a research orientation towards ethics and, in so doing, frames ethics as processes of inquiry Ethics Research in Environmental Education 1 Twenty-five years ago I moved to the Yukon and began teaching in a small rural school. Most of the students were First Nations. It was a challenging job, but one that provided many lifelong lessons and I am indebted to many people for these opportunities. One important teacher was Mrs Lucy Wren, a community elder who came to the school to teach the Tlingit language, traditional crafts and to tell her stories. She was also my first environmental ethics teacher -though she wouldn't call it that. Mrs Wren told many stories but I was most moved by the one about how owls came to be as they are today. She told me how, in the old days, owls were much larger than they are now and how, in difficult times, they could threaten children and old people when other food sources weren't available. This story featured conversations with animals, in this case an owl. It also featured a struggle between a wise old woman and a threatening owl. The result was, through some cleverness and trickery by the old woman, the burning of the big owl. But that wasn't the end. As I recall the story, the ashes from the burning owl ultimately became the small owls of today. There are of course many layers to this story that I don't remember and meanings that I don't understand. And, it is Mrs Wren's story to tell. But this brief snapshot of recollections provides a starting point for my story. For me, the work of this story really began when it was contrasted with another story in the school's curriculum. As it happened, this other story was the tale of St George slaying a dragon and rescuing a young princess. What Mrs Wren's story did was to enable me to see a story from my own cultural heritage in a new light. At the time I saw the destruction of a dragon contrasting with a more relational and accommodating, experience with the owl. It struck me that we, at least sometimes, tell ... |
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