Queering Environmental Education

Abstract

We wish to initiate discussion on the possibilities for queering environmental education. As a verb, "to queer" means more than simply adding gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered content to environmental education. Rather, queering has, at its heart, the project of problematizing heteronormativity, essentialized identities and the heterosexualization of our theories and practices. In this paper, we provide a brief introduction to queer pedagogy, point to the unique ways in which environmental education can contribute to the disruption of heteronormativity and the problematization of identity and of experience, and describe efforts to queer environmentalism in new social movements and cultural productions.