Climate Justice Literacy: Stories-We-Live-By, Ecolinguistics, and Classroom Practice

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

Keywords

Text types, text features < Content literacy, Critical analysis < Digital/media literacies, Information literacy < Digital/media literacies, Specific media (hypertext, Internet, film, music, etc.) < Digital/media literacies, Linguistics < Language learners, Critical literacy < Theoretical perspectives, Popular culture < Digital/media literacies, Content literacy, Digital/media literacies, Identity, Teacher education; professional development, 3-Early adolescence, 4-Adolescence, 5-College/university students, 6-Adult

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1051

Abstract

Literacy educators can guide students to examine the stories we live by, or the larger narratives that guide individual and collective sensemaking about relationships between humans and the environment. Drawing from the field of ecolinguistics, the authors consider two ecologically destructive stories we live by: Humans are the center of existence, and consumerism is a main pathway to happiness and fulfillment. The authors also explore three intersecting beneficial stories we live by that center on indigenous perspectives, feminist foundations of climate justice, and youth activism. This work is rooted in three essential understandings about climate change: It is a complex socioscientific topic and escalating problem, engaging with climate change is mediated primarily by a complicated array of motivated digital texts and motivated readers, and climate change is about climate (in)justice. The authors conclude with ideas about being a climate justice literacy educator.

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, v. 63, issue 6, p. 683-691

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