Midwest Environmental Education Conference

Environmental education in the US is questioning the status quo and seeking shifts and synergies in ways that seemed a dream a decade ago. Advocacy is no longer about promoting the field, but asking questions about what we should be advocating for. The lack of equity in access to drinking-quality water, healthy food, safe housing and cultural autonomy are, for the first time, broadly recognized as issues that EE must be attentive to. These changes are exciting but have been rhetorical; the role that educators have in making social change is often elusive. Environmental justice is a field that has critiqued the foundations of popular American environmentalism for a lack of attention to equity. This panel highlights environmental justice as a framework that Midwestern environmental education can embrace to generate just curriculum, policy, and science-communication.