Affiliation:
1. Department of Adult Education, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
Abstract
In an earlier article in this journal, C. A. Bowers suggests that transformative learning, particularly Paulo Freire’s pedagogy, is a Trojan horse of western globalization, by deepening the ecological crisis and colonizing indigenous cultures. He charges that critical pedagogues avoid their own complicity in neoliberal globalization; he advocates for an alliance between conservative politics and environmentalism; and he promotes a “conserving education.” This article will critique the first three facets of Bowers’ argument: first, by agreeing with the critique of the enlightenment underpinnings in transformative learning theory but resolving them in more nuanced ways; second, by explaining the ontology implicit in Freire that Bowers misunderstands; and third, expanding the critical stream of transformative learning by arguing that every sustainability educator needs a strong political economic as well as cultural analysis, combined with honoring local contexts, including indigenous traditional knowledge.
Cited by
20 articles.
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