Mapping Eco-Art Education

Overview & Synopsis

In recent years, the author relates how she had been on a journey to explore the role of art education in fostering ecological literacy. While she had tracked discussions about eco-art education back over three decades in the literature, the author relates how she was still working through exactly what eco-art education is and how it contributes to developing learners' ecological literacy. She had previously reported on a pilot study in this area and had began mapping her journey into this emerging field of study. This map has continued to develop since that time. In this article, the author tracks some of the theoretical and pedagogical discourse she has found most intriguing in recent years. She also proposes new directions in which eco-art education can grow, hopefully encouraging other educators and scholars to expand it beyond its current boundaries, contributing to the greening of art education and to the growth of ecological literacy in general. (Contains 4 footnotes.)