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Ecological Intelligence: Thoughts for Class

bluish's picture

I would really like to talk about the relationship between Freire's idea of contextual literacy and Bowers' proposal that "ecological intelligence takes account of relationships, contexts, as well as the impacts of ideas and behaviors on other members in the cultural and natural systems" (45). This connection is really striking to me... To bring in a third text, Teju Cole's notion of "thinking constellationally..." I don't want to give all of my thoughts away just yet, but I am really interested to see what everyone has to say about the progression of this idea through each text we've read. Bowers also mentions "When we pay attention to contexts, interactions, and the consequences that follow from these actions, we are also exercising ecological intelligence" (46). I want us to think about cycles and patterns in ecological understanding as well as in self-awareness.