My Program Proposal

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."   Howard Thurman
Introduction:

I find the cover page quote by Howard Thurman to be provocative.  As expressed in my personal statement, I have a number of passions that “make me come alive.”  I am inspired by the natural world, by being with my family, by leading a largely yogic lifestyle, by pursuing self-sufficiency.  I could focus on these personal interests and lead a blessed life.   However, at my core one of the things that drives me and causes me to feel most alive is making a difference in the world.   It is with great excitement therefore, that I prepare this proposal for a PhD program that aligns my most deeply held passions with learning and service that the world does, indeed, need.

Creating sustainable communities is one of the great challenges of our time.   In the early 1980’s, Lester Brown defined a sustainable society as “one that is able to satisfy its needs without diminishing the chances of future generations to meet their own needs.”  This definition speaks to the responsibility of each generation to pass on to our children and grandchildren a world with as many opportunities as the one we inherited.   How we go about achieving such sustainability and what it exactly means in practice is a matter of some debate, but the fundamental premise and need for action in this arena is increasingly hard to challenge. 

Leading thinkers in sustainability such as Fritjof Capra, Paul Hawken, David Orr, and E.O. Wilson assert the key to an operational definition of ecological sustainability is the realization that society does not need to invent sustainable human communities from scratch but can model them after nature’s inherently sustainable ecosystems.  The implication of this definition is that the first step in the endeavor to build sustainable communities must be to become ecologically literate by developing an understanding of the principles of ecology and organization common to all living systems.   “Eco-literacy” must therefore become a critical skill for leaders in all spheres of society and should be the most important part of education at all levels.   A growing number of organizations are developing systems of education for sustainable living, based on ecological literacy.  This involves a pedagogy that puts the understanding of life at its very center; an experience of learning in the real world (growing food, exploring a watershed, restoring a wetland) that overcomes alienation from nature and rekindles a sense of place; and a curriculum that teaches children the fundamental principles of life.

If eco-literacy is the first step on the road to sustainability, the second step is to move toward eco-design in which ecological knowledge is applied to the fundamental redesign of technologies, social institutions, and the built environment.  Eco-design is a process in which human purposes and needs are carefully meshed with the larger patterns and flows of the natural world.  Fortunately, there has been a dramatic rise in ecologically oriented design practices in recent years.  This “new” area of practice draws upon the ancient wisdom of natural systems and processes and ultimately can help people to create sustainable communities in which they can flourish without using up the natural capital, the planet’s resources and ecosystem services,  on which the well-being of all living creatures depends.

It is my intent to focus my doctoral studies on using eco-literacy and eco-design as a framework for re-envisioning our communities as places where children can connect with and learn from nature in their daily lives, both through the educational system and through opportunities designed into the fabric of the community.   Focusing the creation of sustainable communities through this lens recognizes the urgency in ensuring that young people have the opportunity to connect with nature and grow to become informed and responsible stewards of our environment.

Phase One: Re-Envisioning the Foundational Courses

Sustainability Theory and Practice for Education:

This course examines the intellectual history and current status of the concept of sustainability with an emphasis on the main aspects of environmental, economic, and social sustainability narratives in solving the problems of global unsustainable development.  I intend to explore this material with a focus on achieving sustainability at the community level and better understanding the implications of what sustainability means for community-level policy and practice.  Proposed supplementary reading for this course includes:

• Brown, Lester. Building a Sustainable Society.
• Hawken, Paul, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins. Natural Capitalism.
• Gustave Speth, James. Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment.
• Lovelock, James. Healing Gaia.
• Welch, Bryan. Beautiful and Abundant: Visualizing a Sustainable Human Future. 

Modes of Scholarly Inquiry: Interdisciplinary Graduate Research Design

This course examines, in part, how systems analysis and thinking are critical to effectively applying scholarship to problem solving and social action.  I intend to delve further into the systems thinking on sustainability being done by Fritjof Capra and his colleagues at the Center for Ecoliteracy.  From this foundation I will use the principals of action research to explore the most effective ways to promote community level social learning and change through child-focused innovative design and program development.   Using my hometown of Columbia, Maryland as a case study, I will seek to identify important project-based research that fosters action and community participation, with an emphasis on engaging youth.  Proposed supplementary reading for this course includes:

• Capra, Fritjof. The Hidden Connections: Integrating the Biological, Cognitive, and Social Dimensions of Life into a Science of Sustainability.
•  Capra, Fritjof. The Web of Life.
• Winter, Richard. Learning from Experience: Principles and Practice in Action-Research.
• Winter, Richard. New Directions in Action Research.

Sustainability Education and Transformational Change

This course explores the theories, processes, and conditions through which individuals, groups and organizations learn and transform in ways that support a sustainable future.  This entails an examination of current educational approaches and strategies as well as innovations that challenges traditional assumptions and practices.   I will seek to focus this investigation on the arenas of public and private education and community development endeavors.  Proposed supplementary reading for this course includes:

• Sterling, Stephen. Sustainable Education – Re-Visioning Learning and Change. 
• Sterling, Stephen. Sustainable Education – Towards a Deep Learning Response to Unsustainability. 
• Therling, Sue. Theory And Practice In Sustainability: Building A Ladder Of Community Focused Education and Outreach.
• UNESCO. Education for Sustainability – From Rio to Johannesburg: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Commitment.
• Williams, R. See Change: Learning and Education for Sustainability.

Phase Two: Proposed Courses

Course 1 - Environmental Awareness in Current American Culture

In order to figure out where we are going, it is helpful to understand where we are.  This course will examine current relationships to nature and awareness of environmental issues in the United States to determine the cultural foundation from which we are building a more sustainable global, national and local community.   Proposed reading includes:

• Berry, Thomas.  The Dream of the Earth.
• Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture.
• Carson, Rachel. The Sense of Wonder.
• Goldsmity, Edward.  The Way: An Ecological World-View.
• Kahn, Peter.  The Human Relationship with Nature: Development and Culture.

Course 2 - The Imperative of Reconnecting Children with Nature                    

The children of today are the leaders of tomorrow, yet they are more disconnected from nature than any previous generation.   It is imperative that this connection be regenerated because how the young respond to nature will shape the configurations and conditions of our communities and the health of the Earth.  This course will examine literature on the state of the child-nature relationship in America, the importance of this connection both for the wellbeing of children and the environment, and key strategies for reuniting children and nature to ensure that the natural world will be deeply valued and protected by future generations of leaders.  Proposed reading includes:

• Chawla, Louise.  In the First Country of Places: Nature, Poetry, and Childhood Memory.
• Hart, Roger. Children’s Participation: The Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citizens in Community Development and Environmental Care.
• Kellert, Stephen and Peter Kahn.  Children in Nature.
• Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.
• Orr, David. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment and the Human Prospect.

Course 3 - Ecological Literacy: Educating our Children for a Sustainable World

Efforts to build a sustainable world cannot succeed unless future generations learn how to partner with natural systems to their mutual benefit. This course will use the book of the same name as a starting point to explore the concept of ecological literacy – from the discipline of environmental education to a deeper transformation of the substance, process, and scope of education at all levels—familial, geographic, ecological, and political.  Proposed reading includes:

• Orr, David. Ecological Literacy: Education and Transition to a Postmodern Word.
• Sobel, David. Childhood and Nature: Design Principals for Educators.
• Sobel, David. Place-based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities.
• Stone, Michael.  Smart by Nature: Schooling for Sustainability.
• Stone, Michael and Zenobia Barlow. Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable Word.

Course 4 - Ecological Design:  Using the Principles of Natural Systems to Design Sustainable Communities

Ecological design is an integrative, ecologically responsible design discipline that helps connect scattered efforts in green architecture, sustainable agriculture, ecological restoration and other fields.  By placing ecology and the integration with natural systems in the foreground of design, it provides specific ways of minimizing energy and material use, reducing pollution, preserving habitat, restoring ecosystems, inventing landscapes, and fostering community, health and beauty.  Ecological design provides a new way of thinking about human interventions into the natural world that goes beyond the minimization of human impacts on the natural world to deliberately attempting to improve natural conditions or reverse environmentally destructive impacts.   This class will focus on using ecological design principals in the context of reinventing existing communities to create the conditions for sustainability. Proposed reading includes:

• Kellert, Stephen.  Building for Life.
• Mollison, Bill.  Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual.
• Orr, David. The Nature of Design.
• Van der Ryn, Sim and Stuart Cowan. Ecological Design.
• Wilson, Edward O. Biophilia.

Course 5 - Child-focused Design: Creating Communities Where Children Can Connect with Nature

The built environment of a community affects children's opportunities to connect with nature. This course will focus on how communities can provide opportunities for nourishing and educational daily interactions with the natural environmental through the strategic design of play spaces, parks, open spaces, school grounds, and community centers  as well as the preservation and integration of accessible wild spaces and agricultural activities.  Proposed reading includes:

• Chalufour, Ingrid and Karen Worth. Nature with Young Children.
• Grant, Tim and Gail Littlejohn.  Greening School Grounds: Creating Habitats for Learning.
• Johnson, Julie.  Design for Learning: Values, Qualities and Processes of Enriching School Landscapes.
• Robin Moore, Natural Learning: Creating Environments for Rediscovering Nature's Way of Teaching.
• Wilson, Ruth. The Wonders of Nature - Honoring Children's Ways of Knowing.

Course 6 - Using Graphic Design to Create and Communicate Visions of Community Sustainability

Graphic design is a creative process through which designers develop images to represent the ideas they want to communicate. This course will develop the graphic design skills that will enhance my ability to visually communicate sustainable design concepts and projects with an emphasis on methods used in landscape architectural analysis, design, and presentation.   In addition to techniques for orthographic drawing, this course will focus on providing a comprehensive introduction to using SketchUp, an architecture computer modeling program. Proposed reading includes:

• Bertauski, Tony. Plan Graphics for the Landscape Designer.
• Ormsbee Simonds, John. Landscape Architecture: A Manual of Land Planning and Design.
• Reid, Grant. Landscape Graphics.
• Tal, Daniel. Google SketchUp for Site Design.

Phase 3: Research and Methodologies Course: Defining the Attributes of a Sustainable Community

As the concept of sustainable communities increases in popularity, efforts are being made to define what exactly a community should do or include to become more sustainable.  For example, the US Green Building Council has a LEED for Neighborhood Development standard and ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) has developed the STAR Community Index, a planning and performance management system that offers local governments a road map for improving community sustainability.  This course will focus on comparing metrics such as these with the approximately 30 towns that have been nominated by Mother Earth News during the past five years as sustainable communities to assess the commonalities between what is proposed for communities to be sustainable and the attributes of communities that are currently perceived to be sustainable. Proposed reading includes the following books which provide additional context for this research:

• Beatley, Timothy. Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities.
• Clark, Woodrow.  Sustainable Communities.
• Hawken, Paul. Sustainable Communities: A New Design Synthesis for Cities, Suburbs, and Towns.
• Kaplan, Rachel.  With People in Mind: Design and Management for Everyday Nature.
• Wheeler, Stephen.  Planning for Sustainability: Creating Livable, Equitable and Ecological Communities.

The core set of attributes of sustainable communities identified by this research will be examined through the lens of those that help to reconnect children with nature to identify potential practica that can be completed in Columbia, Maryland.  Examples of potential practice include: advocating for the creation of community learning gardens or “edible parks” in collaboration with Open Space Management staff of the Columbia Association; supporting the development of nature-based curricula for the Howard County school system, focusing on pre-K through 5^th grade; the creation of a city-wide, family-focused farmers market by engaging the fledgling farmers markets in local villages to facilitate collaboration and synergy;  actively promoting the creation of schoolyard habitats that support outdoor classroom programs by providing design support and coordination with local organizations such as the Maryland Master Gardeners.  To expand on the later practicum idea, schoolyard habitats are naturalized areas on school grounds that are easily accessible to the entire school community. The common qualities of well designed schoolyard habitats are: ecological significance, long term community connection and curriculum integration.  Well designed schoolyard habitats improve the community’s environmental health by reducing storm-water runoff, solving erosion problems, increasing canopy cover, raising the biodiversity index as well as providing children with opportunities for formal and non-formal interactions with the natural world.  Longfellow Elementary School, which serves my neighborhood, is surrounded by ample mowed grass areas and is an optimal candidate for an integrated schoolyard habitat and food garden that leverages Permaculture design principles.

Phase 4: Proposed Dissertation

“Eco-Literacy and Eco-Design: Creating the Conditions for Sustainability by Reconnecting Children to Nature”

Using the learning of the previously described course of study, for my dissertation I plan to use my hometown of Columbia, Maryland as a case study of what communities can do to create an actionable plan for a sustainable future.   Columbia was one of the first planned communities in the United States.  Designed by James Rouse in the late 1960s, Columbia began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life by focusing on human values.  The city was designed around ten villages, each with a center that provided basic daily amenities and all of which were made to be accessible by a network of almost 100 miles of trails.   Revolutionary for its time, at 40 years old Columbia is still a thriving community, ranked as the second best place to live in the United States in 2010 by Money Magazine.  However, Columbia is facing many of the common problems of suburbia and a process is underway to create a master vision for its next 40 years.   As such, it makes for a unique yet broadly relevant case study. 

My dissertation will focus on applying the principles of eco-literacy and eco-design to Columbia’s master planning process to identify best practices for creating a community that is made sustainable, in part, by ensuring that youth have the opportunities to connect to nature in their daily lives both through the education system and through opportunities intentionally designed into the fabric of the community.  The outcome will be an actionable vision plan that Columbia, as well as other communities, can use to ensure that the experiences and lessons gathered in children’s developing years stay with them throughout their lifetimes, preparing them to take active roles in addressing the complex environmental and economic challenges facing our world, and instilling in them a sense of responsibility for and stewardship of the open spaces, waterways and natural resources that so richly shaped their childhood.