Ideological, Cultural, and Linguistic Roots of Educational Reforms to Address the Ecological Crisis

C. A. (Chet) Bowers taught at the University of Oregon and Portland State University, and was granted emeritus status in 1998. In retirement he was still active professionally, writing and giving invited talks at international conferences that focused on educational reforms promoting a more sustainable future. He was invited to speak at 42 universities in the United States, including Harvard and Stanford Universities. Invitations to speak at 41 universities in other parts of the world included the University of Trondheim, University of Zagreb, University of Queensland, University of Cape Town, Rhodes University, York University, University of Toronto, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Trinity College (Dublin), Universidad Catolica Boliviana San Pablo, Swiss Foundation for Environmental Education, Seoul National University, and National Chung Hising University (Taiwan). Notably, he was asked by Vice-President Al Gore to be the featured speaker at a dinner/seminar (held at the Gore residence) on the influence of metaphorical thinking on environmental and technology policies. He was one of six Western scholars, along with the former Chinese Minister of Culture, invited to speak at the International Congress on Culture and Humanity in the New Millennium, sponsored by the government of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Bowers gave the John Dewey Memorial Lecture in 1982, and in 1991 was voted the most outstanding environmental faculty at the University of Oregon. In June 2016 he gave an invited talk at a major international conference on educational reforms that address the ecological crisis.

'The term "specialist" is inappropriate to describe a writer whose work transverses so many intellectual boundaries...this collection represents some of the finest interdisciplinary scholarship available anywhere, and its importance is difficult to overstate.'—David J. Flinders, Indiana University, Bloomington

• Contents 1. Where to Start in Addressing the Cultural/Linguistic Roots of the Ecological Crisis: Challenging the Misconceptions Underlying Modern Consciousness 2. The Cultural Aspects of the Ecological Crisis (A) An Ecological Paradigm for Understanding Language Issues 3. The Relational and Emergent Nature of Cultural and Natural Ecologies 4. Language Issues that should be the Central Focus in Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies 5. Why the George Lakoff and Mark Johnson Theory of Metaphorical Thinking Fails to Address the Linguistic Issues Related to the Ecological Crisis 6. The Cultural Construction and Uses of Data (B) The Cultural Commons 7. The Political Economy of the Cultural Commons and the Nature of Sustainable Wealth 8. The Cultural Mediating Role of the Teacher/Professor—Across the Disciplines 9. Educational Reforms in an Era of Global Warming and Digital Insecurities (C) Clarifying the Difference between Individual and Ecological Intelligence 10. The Challenge Facing Educational Reformers: Making the Transition from Individual to Ecological Intelligence 11. Gregory Bateson’s Contribution to Understanding Ecological Intelligence 12. Rethinking Social Justice Issues within an Eco-Justice Conceptual and Moral Framework (D) Critique of Technology 13. Educational Reforms that Contribute to Democratizing the Uses of Digital Technologies 14. The Digital Revolution and the Unrecognized Problem of Linguistic Colonization 15. Has the Authority of Data Consigned Wisdom to the Junk-Heap of History? 16. Is the Digital Revolution Driven by an Ideology? 17. Is the Digital Revolution Sowing the Seeds of a Techno-Fascist Future?