Theorizing a we-speak-for-ourselves storytelling approach for reconceptualizing environmental education in schools of education

Environmental education in schools of education has typically emphasized science or outdoor education rather than environmental racism. This focus tends to deemphasize the role of structural injustice and state violence in environmental degradation. Moreover, the emphasis on STEM contributes to the erasure of the long history of activism by the people most affected by environmental harms. This work aims to address this omission by theorizing a we-speak-for-ourselves storytelling approach for teaching the difficult and traumatic history of global environmental injustice. Specifically, this work posits that cultural productions upholding the we-speak-for-ourselves tenet of the environmental justice movement can make visible the environmentalism of the poor. Regularly employed by marginalized and subaltern groups, this form of activism is associated with the Global South. This work argues, however, that such activism also occurs in the Global North. Without reconceptualizing environmental education in schools of education, students may misconstrue or fail to recognize this type of activism employed for protecting lives. Thus, this work contends that examining cultural productions highlighting the environmentalism of the poor signals an innovative humanities-based pedagogical shift that can help foster understanding of themes, concepts, and lifeworlds not fully explored in the science or social science literature.