Proposed Department Vision for the newly formed Secondary and All-Level Education Department at Central Connecticut State University

1. The Identity & Vision of the
Department of Interdisciplinary
Secondary & All-Level Education
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
November 2014

2. Charting a Path of
Educational Relevance
Complementary Educational
Content and Field Experiences
!
Cutting Edge Interdisciplinary and
Critical & Eco Pedagogies for a
New Generation of Teachers
!
Scholarship and Practices that
Push Boundaries and Teach
towards Peace and Sustainability

3. DISALE & Liberal Arts
Complementary Partnership
Emphases, not exclusionary content
Liberal Arts: Emphasize content-specific foci
DISALE: Emphasize general and
interdisciplinary pedagogies and frameworks

4. DISALE & Liberal Arts
Complementary Partnership
DISALE
(General Frameworks & Practices)
Liberal Arts
(Content-specific)
Pedagogies
Traditional, Liberal/Progressive &
Transformative Frameworks
Content-specific practices taking frameworks
into consideration
Diversity &
Sustainability
Foundational frameworks & general
practices
Content-specific practices taking frameworks
into consideration
Classroom
Climate
Frameworks for: discipline, expectations,
Teacher-Student relationships
Content-specific practices taking frameworks
into consideration
Learning
Theories
General frames for Behaviorism, Cognitivism,
Social Cognitivism, Constructivism, and Critical
Constructivism
Content-specific connections taking
frameworks into consideration
Learning
Philosophies
General frames for Realism, Idealism,
Pragmatism, Existentialism, Post-Modernism,
Critical Philosophies
Content-specific philosophies taking
frameworks into consideration
Methods Interdisciplinary, differentiated, culturally
responsive, sustainability-based methods
Content-specific methods connecting with
interdisciplinary, culturally responsive, sustainability-based
methods

5. A Present- & Future-Minded
Educational Vision

6. Teach Today
for a Better 2057
Our current group of traditionally-aged students in 2014 will
likely retire by 2057
Even though students may come back to us during their graduate
years, we need to think about our undergraduate students with
their whole careers in mind providing a dynamic foundational
framework of thinking that can be used for 43 years.
Furthermore…By the time Dr. Love retires circa
2044-2057(unless he wins the Powerball or Mega Millions
earlier!), his traditionally-aged students then will be likely to
retire between 2087-2100

7. A New Sustainable and Cultural
Relationship with Nature
The latest UN Report on the Climate (by the IPCC) released this week said:
Fossil fuels need to be phased out completely world-wide by 2100
Renewable energies growth needs to increase from its current 30% to
80% by 2050
Another report by ecologists released this week said:
Currently, 29% of salt-water edible fish have declined by 90%
representing a total collapse in fisheries
A total extinction predicted by 2048

8. Resist Myopic Thinking
It is imperative to
prepare our teachers to
have broadly
encompassing visions
with dynamic
philosophical and
pedagogical approaches
I know that doesn’t roll off the tongue with
ease, but there it is…

9. A Vision

10. A Vision
Peace achieved through solidarity, affirmation & critique
Humans as deeply interwoven with nature (new ecological identities
that are inclusive of culture)
Empowered democratic societies that grow structures and institutions
with sustainability and regeneration as central frameworks.

11. A Visionary Mission for the Department of
Interdisciplinary Secondary and All-Level Education
The Department of Interdisciplinary Secondary and All-Level Education is committed to preparing
high quality teachers who are able to teach towards the needs of local and global communities, with
an emphasis on urban settings.
CCSU/DISALE-prepared teachers, not only have the technical skills to teach today’s demanding
curricula aimed at nurturing all students to succeed in a contemporary world, they also have abilities
to empower their students to create mindsets and practices that are ultimately needed to help make
the world more peaceful and sustainable.

12. Foundational Framework:
Sustainability & Peace

13. Principles of
Sustainability
Sustainability
Environmental
Social
Economic

14. Sustainability -
Environmental
The Earth has the ability on global and local scales to replenish itself
within a human generation (25 years)
Evolving mindset of humans as interwoven parts of nature and the Earth

15. Sustainability -
Environmental
The Earth has the ability on global and local scales to replenish itself
within a human generation (25 years)
- Science, Social Studies, English, Math, TE
Evolving mindset of humans as interwoven parts of nature and the Earth
- Social Studies, Science, English, Art, Music

16. A New Sustainable and Cultural
Relationship with Nature
The latest UN Report on the Climate (by the IPCC) released this week said:
Fossil fuels need to be phased out completely world-wide by 2100
Renewable energies growth needs to increase from its current 30% to
80% by 2050
Another report by ecologists released this week said:
Currently, 29% of salt-water edible fish have declined by 90%
representing a total collapse in fisheries
A total extinction predicted by 2048

17. “Progress” Creates
Oppression
We are currently at the stage of global peak oil, and the next 30-40 years will very likely be
focused on rapidly decreasing supplies and is connected to a current energy crisis (Zittel, 2007).
Access to freshwater is becoming increasingly difficult, especially for peoples in third world
countries where freshwater sources are polluted or privatized (Shiva, 2005; Vorosmarty, Green,
Salisbury & Lammers, 2000).
Global warming is creating increasingly unstable and unpredictable conditions in local and
global contexts with experts predicting numbers of environmental refugees in the hundreds of
millions (Bhandari, 2009).
Half the world’s population lives on $2.50 per day or less, and 80% of the world lives on $10
per day or less (Shah, 2010).
Children in cities have higher rates of asthma than children in surrounding suburbs (Kozol,
2005)

18. Is “Progress”
Ecologically and Culturally Sustainable?
Progress !
Technology!
Individuality/Isolation!
Capitalism!
Competition!
Movement away from
nature!
Sustainability!
Cooperation!
Reciprocity!
Nurturance!
Interconnectedness with
each other and with
nature
“Progress” as typically defined in the first world
nations is the opposite of “sustainability”

19. Sustainable
Environmental Teaching
Teach predictions and trends in climate change
including pending societal stresses
Critique anthropocentric mindsets and reflected
practices (in language, especially).
Teach nature-human partnerships and reciprocity
(conviviality)

20. Sustainability - Social
Working towards peace
(non-violent conflict
resolution)
Solidarity - Affirmation -
Critique of Power
Health & Wellness

21. Sustainability - Social
Working towards peace (non-violent
conflict resolution)
- Social Studies, Health, English,
Art, Music, PE
Solidarity - Affirmation - Critique of
Power
- Social Studies, English
Health & Wellness
- Health, PE, English, Social Studies

22. The Map of Diversity
The “map” of diversity has routinely deselected
relationships with nature.
The privileged discourse in diversity studies is
anthropocentric and has created an academic
blindspot.

23. A Diversity Without
Sustainability
Sustainable societies were those that had a strong sense of an ecological
identity, which was culturally constructed like any other identity.
Diversity studies cannot be truly sustainable without ecological identities
as an integral part of the discourse.
Currently, diversity studies favor Western, industrial culture as an
endpoint for social justice. Students of color who have more access and
success within the current structures of schools are used as an end point
for social justice. The structure, itself, is assumed to be just through the
perspective of Western, industrial culture.
Our schools are cultural vehicles forming all children to become docile
workers in a capitalistic, consumeristic structure that creates a global
monoculture that is ultimately unsustainable.

24. Privileging Humans &
Omitting Nature
Racism, sexism (by extension, heterosexism), Capitalism, classism,
Neoliberalism, religionism, globalization, and colonization can all be
traced to a particular version of discrimination that favors humans as
distant from nature (usually through technology, wealth and often
reinforced militarily)
White, European, Christian, wealthy people in positions of domination
have relied heavily on a narrative that treats them as God’s people who
are right, fully human, have the moral doctrine (rationale), and
governmental structure to rule others who are indigenous, poor (or
outside of a capitalistic structure), not Christian.
The first and most important step is to see one self as being removed
from nature in order to be part of today’s privileged, dominant group.

25. Neoliberalism’s Roots
Neoliberalism, the favoring of “free market” ideology in business and non-business contexts, is borne out of a desire to
accumulate wealth.
Wealth comes from capitalism, which depends on consumerism
Capitalism and consumerism are fundamentally against close relationships with nature and have long-standing practices
of exploitation with those who are close to nature.
The global colonizers, Europeans, created racism out of desires to control, colonize, and capitalize from those who were
initially closer to nature (subhuman)
Europeans viewed themselves as superior primarily because they became more technological (militarily, agriculturally, and
through the mining of the earth), or created themselves and their self images as being increasingly distant from the earth
and more able to control the earth.
Controlling the earth also meant controlling people of the earth. People who were not as technologically developed did
not have the designator of being fully human.
People who European men did not see as fully human could be destroyed, manipulated, and exploited. People of
indigenous societies, women in general, and poor people were all seen as being closer to the earth and were therefore
routinely dominated.

26. European Colonizers &
American Indians
Clash of two peoples with two
different “ecological selves”!
European Colonizers: Nature for profit,
land ownership, enclosure, capitalist
mindset/values!
American Indians: Nurturance,
reciprocity, sustainable mindset/values!
Genocide: From up to 18 million in
1490’s to 190,000 in 1890, up to 200
million Indians died in the Americas!
Land Domination

27. European Colonizers &
West Africans
Clash of two peoples with two
different “ecological selves”!
European Colonizers: Nature for profit,
land ownership, enclosure, capitalist
mindset/values!
West Africans: Nurturance, reciprocity,
sustainable mindset/values!
Slavery: About 12 million captured and
shipped to the Americas, 645,000
brought to the U.S., nearly 4 million
slaves in the 1860 census!
Domination for profit via capitalism

28. Shift Away From
Valuing Nature
Joseph Campbell
stated that we can
see the movements
of a society based
on the highest
buildings in an area.

29. Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Gods and
Goddesses
communicate
through the
actions of nature
in the forests
Gods and
Goddesses
communicate
through the
actions of nature
and in growth/
harvest of crops
God (no
Goddess) &
salvation are
found only
through Jesus.
The Devil resides
in nature.

30. Shift Away FromValuing Nature

31. Shift Away FromValuing Nature
Government provides
policies of morality
aimed solely at rights of
humans
Transcontinental corporations heavily
influence governments and national policies
through trade agreements creating the
greatest negative impact on the global
environment

32. Shift Away FromValuing Nature

33. Indigenous Religions &
Spiritualities
Pre-date
Christianity
Pre-date Islam
Pre-date Judaism
Earth-based
spiritualities
Found in all parts
of the world

35. CREATING PATRIARCHY
Women are closer to
nature than men;!
Nature is wild, chaotic,
and uncontrollable
Therefore...
Women are wild, chaotic,
and uncontrollable
Adam & Eve

36. REALISM & PATRIARCHY
Women are closer to
nature than men;!
Nature is wild, chaotic,
and uncontrollable
Therefore...
Women are wild, chaotic,
and uncontrollable
Aristotle and Phyllis
(Alexander the Great’s Wife)
"If thus it happened to me, an old man most
wise, that I was deceived by a woman, you can
see that I taught you well, that it could happen
to you, a young man." - Aristotle

37. Christians &
Earth-Based Spiritualities
Movement out of nature and into
“Human” as separate from nature
Nature is where Satan resides
Technology is Godly & righteous
Christian missionaries with
indigenous peoples globally, views
on nudity
Killing of at least tens of thousands
of “witches” from 1400s-1600s
Continued persecution of
paganism, neopaganism, and Wicca

38. Maintaining Patriarchy
A mass killing of women during the
“Burning Times” in Europe & the US
Removal of a religion where
women are spiritual leaders
and the central spirit is
seen as feminine.
!
Origin story: Goddess comes
into her own, splits her self to
have a male half who governs
the physical plane (physical
universe), and we are all aspects
of the Goddess with the
support of the God.

39. Science as a Product of
Sociocultural Values
Galileo Galilei
“The Universe is a clock”
Johannes Kepler
“The Universe is a machine”
Francis Bacon
“For you have but to
follow and as it were
hound nature in her
wanderings...Neither
ought a man to make
scruple of entering and
penetrating into these
holes and corners, when
the inquisition of truth is
his whole object”
Thomas Hobbes
“Nature is dead, stupid
matter”
René Descartes
“We can be the masters
and possessors of nature”

40. Aloha & Haole

41. Aloha & Haole
Aloha !
“Together, we breathe the sacred breath”!
A consciousness that we are inescapably interwoven with
each other and the earth. !
What we do to each other and the earth, we do to ourselves.

42. Aloha & Haole
Haole !
“One who is without sacred breath”!
A consciousness that does not include an awareness that we are
inescapably interwoven with each other and the earth. !
A consciousness only of self and an ignorance of one’s energetic and
spiritual impact. Often comes with little or no understanding of
spirituality or the purpose of one’s soul (soul loss).

43. Sustainable Social
Teaching
Teach skills of solidarity, affirmation and critique.
Teach mentoring and therapeutic skills of
communication
Teach with the inclusion and generation of
ecological identities in partnership with other
social identities and diversity issues.

44. Sustainability - Economy
Strong local
economies and
responsible global
commerce
Reintegration of the
cultural commons

45. Sustainability - Economy
Strong local economies
and responsible global
commerce
- Social Studies,
English, Art
Reintegration of the
cultural commons
- Social Studies,
English, Art, Science

46. Local & Global
Economies
Rethink how we look at the school—to—job pipeline. Reframe
our discourse.
Strong local economies = high employment
Strong global economies = low employment
Many studies show the widespread benefits of developing local
economies while having a responsible interaction with global
businesses.
Rethinking our relationships with the cultural commons can
help build stronger ties in a community and also strengthen
teaching and learning experiences.

47. Sustainable Economies
Teaching
Right now, the emphasis is on making us more
“globally competitive.” This is at the root of many
problems including unemployment.
Localizing economies has a different mindset and
a different set of skills. Prepare teachers to be
able to help their students be able to work in
local sustainable economies.

48. Content Areas Connecting
with Sustainability Framework
Sustainability
Environmental
Science, Social
Studies, Math, English,
Art, Music, TE
Social
English, Social
Studies, Art, Music,
PE/Health, Science
Economic
Math, Social Studies,
Science, Art, Music

49. A Visionary Mission for the Department of
Interdisciplinary Secondary and All-Level Education
The Department of Interdisciplinary Secondary and All-Level Education is committed to preparing
high quality teachers who are able to teach towards the needs of local and global communities, with
an emphasis on urban settings.
CCSU/DISALE-prepared teachers, not only have the technical skills to teach today’s demanding
curricula aimed at nurturing all students to succeed in a contemporary world, they also have abilities
to empower their students to create mindsets and practices that are ultimately needed to help make
the world more peaceful and sustainable.

50. References
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/salt-water-fish-extinction-
seen-by-2048/

51. References
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind. New York, NY, Ballantine Books.
!
Bowers, C. A. (2006). Revitalizing the commons: Cultural and educational sites of resistance and affirmation. New York: Lexington
Books.
!
Doppelt, B. (2010). The power of sustainable thinking: How to create a positive future for the climate, the planet, your
organization, and your life. New York, NY, Routledge.
!
Feagin, J. R. (2001). Racist America: Roots, current realities and future reparations. New York, Taylor & Francis, Inc.
Hardt, M. and A. Negri (2000). Empire. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
Loewen, J. W. (1996). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. New York, NY,
Touchstone.
Martusewicz, R., Edmundson, J. and, Lupinacci, J. (2011). Ecojustice education: Toward diverse, democratic, and sustainable
communities. New York, NY, Routledge.
Merchant, C. (1980). The death of nature. San Francisco, CA, Harper & Row.
!
Nieto, S. (1994). "Affirmation, solidarity, and critique: Moving beyond tolerance in multicultural education." Multicultural
Education.
!
Plotkin, B. (2003). Soulcraft: Crossing into the mysteries of nature and psyche. Novato, CA, New World Library.
Zinn, H. (2003). A people's history of the United States New York, HarperCollins.