Terry Tempest Williams on Education, Nature, and Democracy

Terry Tempest Williams’ main political commitment is to include the protection of nature in the concept of democracy, and her early experience as a writer and educator could be used as an insightful example of what Khan defines as “critical ecopedagogy”. In the first section, I will focus on Williams tracing her intellectual genealogy, connecting it to Carson’s work. Silent Spring and The Sense of Wonder provided Williams with the main practical tools for her pedagogical approach. In the second part of this paper, I will then outline Williams’ “critical ecopedagogy”. Considering Kahn’s interpretation of Herbert Marcuse’s “ecopedagogical” critical thought, I will demonstrate how also Williams’ philosophy of education aims at the revolutionary political act of rewriting a more inclusive and ecological concept of democracy, extended to all living beings.