For the Love of Nature

Jeff share, PhD has worked for three decades researching and teaching critical media literacy and environmental justice. He was an award-winning photojournalist, bilingual elementary school teacher, and since 2007, he has been teaching in the School of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). With Richard Beach and Allen Webb, Share co-wrote (2017), Teaching Climate Change to Adolescents: Reading, Writing, and Making a Difference. In 2019, writing with Douglas Kellner, he co-authored, The Critical Media Literacy Guide: Engaging Media & Transforming Education. (https://jshare.wixsite.com/jeffshare)

Epigraph – Sarawi Andrango: No Más Humanos/No More Humans – Mandie Torres: Land Acknowledgment – Acknowledgments – Jeff Share: Introduction – Rebecca Solnit: ‘If You Win the Popular Imagination, You Change the Game’: Why We Need New Stories on Climate – Gavin Lamb: Ecowriting: A Fieldguide – Denise Chapman: Let’s Story about Storying – Melissa Greene-Blye: Beyond Nature’s Children: Examining the Environmental, Cultural, and Political Influences that Inform Indigenous Perspectives and Stories about Nature and the Environment – Cindy Jenson-Elliott: Finding a Place in the World: Ecowriting with Elementary and Middle School Students – Antonio López: Ecomedia Video Essays – Peaches Hash/Theresa Redmond: Visual Journaling as Ecowriting – Alejandro Ojeda/Elmer Ortega/Jenifer Ramos/Vanessa Romero/Neida Sandoval-Lopez/Benjamin Thompson/María Verónica Valeriano/Jazmine Vega Lopez: Disrupting Hierarchies of Power and Uplifting Environmental Justice through Collaborative Ecowriting – Rose White: Grand Appreciation for All Things Natural – Kathy Lizaola: A Meaningful Purpose – Gabriela Venegas: The Life of a Fast Fashion Garment Worker – Giselle Villanueva: Is It Even Air? – Neida Sandoval-Lopez: On Vacation – Keimora Nettles: Hard to Appreciate – Antonia Burgard/Ludmilla Semskow/Lea Irina Heuing/Jana Kranz/Philippa Witzenhausen: Feels Like Home – Sara Fernandez: Divisions That Destroy Us – Rucha Deshpande: Water – Vanessa Romero: Elena and the Mountain – Elmer Ortega: The Evolution of the Apple – Esmeralda Orozco Sanchez: Gardening in the Time of Covid – (Alice) Yanan Sun: The Manifestation of Taoism in Environmental Protection – María Verónica Valeriano: Armando – Yaying Wu: I Am a Drop of Water – Arbrean Sears: Dear Diary – Mandie Torres: To Our Beautiful Mother – Nicole Hall: Dear Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez – Sydney Richmond/Andrea Gambino: Introduction to Ecowriting Lesson Units – Sydney Richmond/Andrea Gambino: Ecowriting Unit One: Exploring Our Relationships with Nature – Sydney Richmond/Andrea Gambino: Ecowriting Unit Two: Greenwashing – Disrupting False or Misleading Claims of Environmental Ethics – Sydney Richmond/Andrea Gambino: Ecowriting Unit Two: Greenwashing – Instructional Resources Guide – Recommended Resources – Notes on Contributors – About the Editor.

This engaging collection posits the value of and need for instruction on ecowriting that fosters students’ relationships with the natural world and an appreciation of Indigenous/Non-Western ecological perspectives. The book includes useful essays on teaching various types and genres of ecowriting, including the use of digital media productions such as video and multimodal essays. It also includes examples of students’ essays, letters, and poems from Jeff Share’s environmental justice class that illustrate the instructional methods described in the book. Therefore, this book is a useful resource for teachers to incorporate ecowriting into their teaching to engage students in creatively portraying their experiences with the natural world for having them address the need for action about the global climate crisis.

Richard Beach
Professor Emeritus of English Education, University of Minnesota

Drawing upon Indigenous wisdom and critical pedagogy, For the Love of Nature: Ecowriting the World is both a call to action and an important resource for teaching, learning, and enacting environmental justice. The beautiful collection of essays is a must-read for all K-12 educators interested in advancing educational and climate justice to create a more sustainable and caring world for our present and our future.

Annamarie M. Francois
Ed.D. Executive Director Center X, University of California, Los Angeles