Marching Out From Ultima Thule: Critical Counterstories of Emancipatory Educators Working at the Intersection of Human Rights, Animal Rights, and Planetary Sustainability

Richard Kahn and Brandy Humes
 

Abstract

It is not altogether uncommon now to hear critical environmental educational theorists speak of the need to develop pedagogical methods that can work both for ecological sustainability and social justice. However, the majority of the socio-ecological turn in environmental education has failed to integrate animal rights as a serious educational issue. In this essay, then, we consider the future promise of a total liberation pedagogy that works to further critical intersectional literacy on behalf of all oppressions and ecological sustainability. Specifically, we adopt a counterstorytelling approach to contextualize the practices of nine new paradigm educators working in both formal and nonformal arenas.
 

Let me deviated even further away from the central theme of my blog for a moment (if only slightly). I was traveling from Philadelphia to Baltimore yesterday, when I decided to indulge my ever-present biscuit craving and patronize my favorite of McDonaldized interstate road-purveyors: Cracker Barrel. For those of you who may never have eaten at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, imagine your local, homogenous, transnationally-corporatized, cookie-cutter eatery with a Southern twist; layered with ‘country’ signifiers (from the blaring bluegrass and gospel music to the service workers’ ‘overalls’) and serving only the finest selections of regional fare (collard greens, biscuits and gravy, and chicken & dumplins).