Ecological Teaching and Learning

The Audubon Expedition Institute (AEI) at Lesley University offers a Master of Science in Ecological Teaching and Learning (ETL), an 18 month program for working educators in schools, museums, and nature centers. Students explore the integration of ecological concepts into the curriculum.

The program starts with a three-week summer field experience in a wilderness setting. During the fall and spring semesters, students take online courses while using their own classrooms as practicum settings. Each semester students meet for a three-day intensive session. The program ends with a fall practicum. Students create a self-designed project demonstrating mastery of ecological principles. This program is approved for Elementary Science Professional Licensure in Massachusetts and may satisfy certification requirements in other states.

Reading for an Ecoliterate World Program Booklist [pdf]

"Ecology is not a course, nor is it a program. It is the foundation of all courses, all programs, all professions. Such a statement can be made because ecology is a functioning cosmology, and cosmology deals with the ultimate self-referent mode of being, the universe itself. The ecology issue is not restricted to one course in education. It is the course, the curriculum, the structure of the entire educational program. It is the basis of medicine; it is the context for law. Ecology refers to the way the universe functions. The universe is the ultimate referent for every mode of being and every mode of activity in the universe. Cosmology is the unifying context and the ultimate referent for all human understanding. It is the entire sequence of education from kindergarten to professional school. It is the comprehensive context of phenomenal existence." Thomas Berry from Evening Thoughts