Educational reform programs inherit Enlightenment root metaphors that frame nature as adversary
Evidence
Bowers explains how current technological and progressive programs of educational reform operate on deep cultural assumptions that came out of the Enlightenment and led to the Industrial Revolution. These beliefs frame our relationship with nature in adversarial terms, view progress as inevitable, and elevate the individual over community, expertise over intergenerational knowledge, and profit over reciprocity. — C. A. Bowers, Educating for Eco-Justice and Community, 6585
Categorization
- DEFINE: Names the book’s core diagnostic categories: adversarial nature-relation, inevitable progress, individual-over-community, expertise-over-intergenerational knowledge, profit-over-reciprocity.
- XREF: These root metaphors are the anti-echo of Reading the Landscape’s interpretive stance and settler-colonial land critique; also interfaces with ecofeminism’s critique of the nature-as-adversary split. — connects to: Education is a struggle against nature that forms each new generation — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2031; Root metaphors are buried cultural assumptions reproduced unconsciously across generations — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 514; Imagining cultures built on alternative root metaphors teaches students that current ones are chosen. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 649 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Root metaphors are buried cultural assumptions reproduced unconsciously across generations
#expands(0.92) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 514 - Education is a struggle against nature that forms each new generation
#exemplifies(0.90) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2031 - Classroom interactions act like root metaphors, transmitting power-laden assumptions students internalize.
#expands(0.80) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 761 - Imagining cultures built on alternative root metaphors teaches students that current ones are chosen.
#expands(0.78) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 649