How might the idea of intersectionality help us learn about our entanglementsentanglements?

Shared by CONNIE RUSSELL

How might the idea of intersectionality help us learn about our entanglements? Intersectional analyses help us better understand power and oppression, and the complex ways that race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, size, and other identities interconnect and are experienced. A number of scholars insist that intersectional analyses need to “reach across the species divide” (Deckha, 2008; p. 266; see also Lloro-Bidart & Finewood, 2018), although there is some resistance to going beyond the human given the persistence of inequities (Maina-Okori, Koushik, & Wilson, 2018). Lloro-Bidart (2018) advocates a promising approach: feminist posthumanist intersectionality. Indeed, it is feminist educators, including those playing with common world pedagogies, who are leading the way in taking intersectional approaches to teaching and learning about the entanglement of animal, environmental, and social justice issues. (See the reference list below for a few examples.)

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References

Bell, A., & Russell, C. (1999). Life ties: Disrupting anthropocentrism in language arts education. In J. Robertson (Ed.), Teaching for a tolerant world: Grades K-6: Essays and resources (pp. 68-89). Urbana, Il: National Council of Teachers of English.

Corman, L., & Vandrovcová, T. (2014). Radical humility: Toward a more holistic critical animal studies pedagogy. In A. Nocella, J. Sorenson, K. Socha, & A. Matsuoka (Eds.) Defining critical animal studies: An introduction to an intersectional social justice approach to animal liberation (pp. 135-157). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Deckha, M. (2008). Intersectionality and posthumanist visions of equality. Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender and Society, 23(2), 249-267.

Fawcett, L. (2013). Three degrees of separation: Accounting for naturecultures in environmental education research. In R. Stevenson, M. Brody, J. Dillon, & A. Wals (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 409-417). New York, NY: Routledge.

Lloro-Bidart, T. (2017). A feminist posthumanist political ecology of education for theorizing human-animal relations/relationships. Environmental Education Research, 23(1), 111-130.

Lloro-Bidart, T. (2018). A feminist posthumanist ecopedagogy in/for/with animalscapes. Journal of Environmental Education, 49(2), 152-163.

Lloro-Bidart, T. (2019). Intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches to interspecies food justice pedagogies. In T. Lloro-Bidart & V. Banschbach (Eds.), Animals in environmental education: Interdisciplinary approaches to curriculum and pedagogy. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lloro-Bidart, T., & Finewood, M. (2018). Intersectional feminism for the environmental studies and sciences: Looking inward and outward. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 8(2), 142-151.

Maina-Okori, N. M., Koushik, J. R., & Wilson, A. (2018). Reimagining intersectionality in environmental and sustainability education: A critical literature review. Journal of Environmental Education, 49(4), 286-296.

Nxumalo, F., & Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. (2017). “Staying with the trouble” in child-insect-educator common worlds. Environmental Education Research, 23(10), 1414-1426.

Oakley, J. (2019). What can an animal liberation perspective contribute to environmental education? In T. Lloro-Bidart & V. Banschbach (Eds.), Animals in environmental education: Interdisciplinary approaches to curriculum and pedagogy. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., & Nxumalo, F. (2015). Unruly raccoons and troubled educators: Nature/culture divides in a childcare center. Environmental Humanities, 7, 151-168.

Russell, C. (2009). Living and learning on the edge: Class, race, gender, animals and the environment in a university community outreach program. Our Schools/Our Selves, 19(1), 109-112.

Russell, C. (2019). An intersectional approach to teaching about humans and other animals in educational contexts. In T. Lloro-Bidart & V. Banschbach (Eds.), Animals in environmental education: Interdisciplinary approaches to curriculum and pedagogy. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Russell, C., & Semenko, K. (2016). We take “cow” as a compliment: Fattening humane, environmental, and social justice education. In E. Cameron & C. Russell (Eds.), The fat pedagogy reader: Challenging weight-based oppression through critical education (pp. 211-220). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Taylor, A., & Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. (2015). Learning with children, ants, and worms in the Anthropocene: Towards a common world pedagogy of multispecies vulnerability. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 23(4), 507–529.