Eco-Pedagogy: The key to Sustainable Future of Iraq 

 There is a common misconception that talking about sustainability is talking about scientific matters only. Little do most people know that education is the key to having a sustainable society as it is through education we can instill knowledge, skills, and attitudes to safeguard our environment. According to Clarke (2013), in order to be sustainable, we need to learn how we can live and flourish in our environment using the infinite resources that we have with ecologically informed discretion. Critical literacy is the approach we should use to achieve this goal.  Critical literacy to Shor (1999, p.1) is an essential part of teaching pedagogy as it “connects the political and the personal, the public and the private, the global and the local, the economic and the pedagogical, for rethinking our lives and for promoting justice in place of inequity”. The significance of critical literacy is particularly emphasized in today’s context because text retrieval is not only restricted to conventional mass media, but it also includes the internet and its various categories that include YouTube channels, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Therefore, students must be able to critically deal with everything they read, watch, and hear because if they do not do that they become “marginalized, discriminated against, or unable to take an active and informed place in life. In short, the student will not be in control of his or her social future” (Anstey and Bull, 2006, p. 37).  One way we can instill sustainable critical thinking in the education of Iraq is through eco-pedagogy. The concept originates from the amalgamation of two words ecology and pedagogy. According to Torres (2019, p.464), the main aim of eco-pedagogy is “to critically understand the connections between human acts of environmental ills and social conflict (socio-environmental issues) for praxis to end oppression”. Eco-pedagogy is not a way to introduce a scientific subject to students, rather it is a “way to think about the nature of the curriculum itself” by providing teachers and researchers “alternative model of curricular theory and practices that steps away from antiquated industrial images of knowledge and learning and that is more in line with a wide range of contemporary research in the natural science” (kridel, 2010, p.312). Eco-pedagogy draws in its curricular notions and image of environmentalism, landscapes, fields, habitats, generativity, and recycling. Hence, the concept of being eco-friendly should be sensationally felt by the students at elementary stages and even continues in their higher education because if we can positively change students’ perspectives towards their future life, we can at least safeguard their future by being fully aware of the damage pollution causes to our environment. Due to the fact that thousands of students are yearly integrated in the Iraqi system of Education, this powerful resource can be utilized via instilling the concept of sustainability. This can be achieved by developing and upgrading their scientific input to enable them to be fully aware of the concept that the future of an eco-friendly Iraq is their responsibility and change can only be achieved by the help of their environmentally informed output in society.

References 

Anstey, A., & Bull, G. (2006). Teaching and learning Multiliteracies: Changing times, changing literacies. USA: International Reading Association.

Clarke, P. (2013). Education for Sustainability: Becoming Naturally Smart. USA: Routledge.

Kridel, C. (2010). Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies. USA: Sage Publications.

Shor, I. (1999). What is critical literacy. Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice, 1(4), 1-27.

Torres, C.A. (2019). The Wiley Handbook of Paulo Freire. USA: John Wiley & Sons.