Educating for an Ecological Civilization: Interdisciplinary, Experiential, and Relational Learning

The new form of civilization we so urgently need will require new ways of thinking and relating —ones that are more socially responsible, ecological, "mindful," and coherent—and new ways of educating ourselves. The essays in this volume describe features of an emerging, relational vision of civilization and some of the educational practices it suggests.

MARCUS FORD taught Environmental Humanities at Northern Arizona for twenty years and is the author of Beyond the Modern University: Toward a Constructive Postmodern University and William James's Philosophy: A New Perspective. He currently is involved in starting a very-small college is Flagstaff Arizona and is working with others to promote the establishment of other, very-small, mission-driven, educational institutions around the country and aboard. STEPHEN ROWE is Professor of Philosophy, Liberal Studies, and Religious Studies at Grand Valley State University. He is also actively engaged in intercultural dialogue and consultation on liberal education though several universities and institutions in China and the U.S. An award winning teacher, his books include Rediscovering the West: An Inquiry into Nothingness and Relatedness (SUNY Press, 1994, in Chinese, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1996), and, most recently, Overcoming America / America Overcoming: Can We Survive Modernity? (Lexington Books, 2012, and forthcoming in Chinese).