Poetry and Sustainability in Education

Book excerpt: This edited collection offers educators at all levels a range of practical and theoretical approaches to teaching poetry in the context of environmental sustainability. The contributors are keenly aware of the urgency facing the planet’s ecosystems—ecosystems which include all of us—and this volume makes the case that teaching poetry is not a luxury. Each of the book’s three sections works from a specific angle and register. Part I focuses on pragmatic approaches to classroom activities and curricular choices; Part II considers policies and politics, including the role of the UN’s Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) program; and Part III takes a widescreen view, exploring the philosophical issues that arise when poems are integrated into sustainability curricula. This book exemplifies how poetry empowers readers to think imaginatively about how to sustain—and why to sustain—our world, its resources, and its beauty.