People and Nature in Asian Stories: Reading and Writing Materials for Eco Education

Novita Dewi

doi:10.9744/kata.19.1.39-46

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to make parents/teachers/writers of children literature aware of eco education through stories about people and nature. Written through the eyes of a child, many conservation stories not only empower the young minds, but they also help adults change their attitude to respect environment. The first part of this article examines such environmental stories as fables, folklores, short stories from Asia, while the second part is a project report on writing eco education materials, i.e. a serial of 3 environmental stories for young adults. Using Ecocriticism and Postcolonial perspectives to analyze the stories, the study shows that the narrative strands found in the stories include (1) depletion of the earth and natural resources, (2) people’s greediness, and (3) preservation of the traditional wisdom. Some stories are still anthropocentric so as to provide no space to explore fully the human-nature relationship in a balanced way. Although animal stories dominate the narratives, it is the specific and philosophic depiction of place and nature that give the stories Asian characteristics in their shared campaign to save our planet. This study concludes that the call for environmental protection can be done through young adult literature in a non-condescending manner instead of the usual patronizing-colonizing method

Highlights

Contrary to the belief that children are innocent and should be protected from learning about harsh realities of life; and that children‘s literature should be simple, sweet and sugary, it is important that teachable lessons are present in the books young people read
Children‘s literature can be used as a medium for environmental education (Lindenpütz 2002)
Problems may occur since books of this kind are often hard to find as shown by several studies on children‘s literature and ecology

Summary

Introduction

Contrary to the belief that children are innocent and should be protected from learning about harsh realities of life; and that children‘s literature should be simple, sweet and sugary, it is important that teachable lessons are present in the books young people read. Environmental degradation is an impending tough reality that people including children have to face, the urgency to raise ecological awareness since the young age. Such messages as environmental conservation, respect for nature, care for all living things can be covered through fables, folklores and other narrative forms, because naturally children like to listen to stories. Children‘s literature can be used as a medium for environmental education (Lindenpütz 2002) This is to say that while enjoyable to read, children‘s literature should reflect human conflicts, values and character education (Livo 2003), expand engagement and provide critical thinking Her study reveals that most books do not meet the criteria

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion