The overarching crisis of our times is a crisis of the way we think. There is an underlying separation – of mind from body, from emotions, from spirit – fundamental to many Westerners’ ways of knowing the world, contributing to alienating beliefs and practices that fail to be personally fulfilling or ecologically sustainable. Education could be means to foreground the sacred character of human-earth relations and mediate ecological imbalances between humans and the natural world. Ecology, Spirituality, and Education draws on ecofeminist theory, deep ecology, and postmodern process theory to explore human knowing as a bridge toward human being, the sustainable health of the human species, and the web of relations within which we reside.
Seeking to foster teachers', and in turn, children's understanding of our interdependence with the natural world, Riley-Taylor (Northern Arizona U., Flagstaff) examines traditional educational ways of knowing and alternate process views (e.g. Jerome Bruner's institutional anthropology). She maps out an "ecospiritual praxis" based on intentional, relational knowing. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
