Vagabonds in a Vanagon

Abstract

In this chapter, a personal narrative connects with a number of the themes that appear in modern environmentalism and transformational learning: the existential estrangement (Tomashow, 1996) and individual alienation from educational institutions and experiences (Selby, 1999); the current neoliberal notions of education and curriculum (Pinar et al., 2002); the loss of our place within the natural world (Thoreau, 1965; Kincheloe, 1999); the pedagogical disconnection from learning and that which is readily observable in the natural world; and the personal evolution of transformative learning experiences that cause structural shifts in personal pedagogical practices and actions (Miller, 1996). This narrative also connects with notions of transformative pedagogy (Jardine, 1998; Barrell, 2003) by opening up to the conscious shift that requires permanent changes to one’s pedagogical positioning toward children, schooling, and curricular issues.KeywordsGrand CanyonReflective PractitionerTransformational TeachingPedagogical SpaceFellow TeacherThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.