Social Metaphors and their Implications for Environmental Education

Abstract

Summary That ideologies exist is seldom questioned. It can easily be seen that they exist in other cultures. Ironically, the ideologies of patriarchy and capitalism cannot acknowledge that theirs, too, is a perspective and not a single truth. This capability to cloud thought is the power of ideology to shape the social order. The focus of this article is cultural influences on environmental education. It examines some of the means of transmission of culture and ideology which a society adopts: metaphors, myths and institutions. The close link between inequalities of social classes, ideology and natural resource use is established. Of particular interest are the metaphors for women's thought processes and epistemology. Women's ways of acquiring knowledge seem particularly relevant to understanding ecosystems. The power which the metaphors exert over environmental education is illuminated. Trends in environmental education, although now more holistic in approach, seem to still serve to bring the curricula to equilibrium with the dominant ideology.