CFP: Pedagogy of Environmental Communication

Call for Book Chapters: 

Pedagogy of Environmental Communication

Co-Editors: Tema Milstein (University of New Mexico), Mairi Pileggi (Dominican University of California), Eric Morgan (New Mexico State University)

We are seeking chapter and assignment/activity submissions for an edited book on the scholarship of innovative and effective teaching and learning in environmental communication.  Each semester, more environmental communication courses are added to higher education curricula.  Overwhelmingly, those of us who teach environmental communication are developing the courses for the first time for our academic homes.  While there have been numerous communities formed through professional associations to assist those of us who teach environmental communication and a few textbooks, the goal of this volume is to reach a wide community of environmental communication scholars and practitioners to provide a resource that helps organize and integrate diverse pedagogical practices, connect and inspire those interested in environmental communication learning, and feature thoughtful, creative, and highly effective approaches to environmental communication pedagogy.

The book will have an international and diverse focus to represent the range of environmental communication learning spaces and approaches, as well as the range of global and local issues our teaching engages. The book currently has interest from a top publisher and the editors are entering the second proposal stage.

The chapter sections of the book include but are not limited to:

(Re)conceptualizing the Environmental Communication Classroom

Diverse Approaches to Teaching Environmental Communication

Transformative Practice: Creating and Empowering Change Agents

An additional section of the book will be devoted to practical sharing of highly effective teaching gifts:

High Impact Environmental Communication Teaching Activities and Assignments

Our call, therefore, is for two types of contributions:

1. Chapters: These scholarly papers will address environmental communication pedagogical practice based on, but not limited to, the themes of: (Re)conceptualizing the Environmental Communication Classroom, Diverse Approaches to Teaching Environmental Communication, Transformative Practice: Creating and Empowering Change Agents
2. Activities/Assignments: These will be particular in-class and out-of-class activities and assignments you as teachers have found highly effective in your own classrooms. They will include a concise essay-like description (400 words max) about the activity/assignment and how it has been effective in teaching, followed by highly accessible and detailed how-to instructions, including learning objectives and evaluation approach.

Consider the following when contemplating your submissions: What are you doing to deepen and connect learning in your environmental communication classes and what innovative strategies are you using that have been highly effective?  What approaches have you used to make learning relevant to your students and the world beyond the classroom?  How do you design your course, your assignments, develop rubrics, and assess student learning to address environmental communication-specific learning outcomes?  How do you include a diversity of voices (race, gender, socioeconomic class, sexuality, global south, animal other, more than human world, etc.) in the learning conversation?  How are you integrating praxis and service? How are you collaborating across disciplines?  How do graduate environmental communication courses differ from undergraduate?  What high impact research and other creative projects have you undertaken with your students?  How do you embed your course in local spaces, places, community, practitioner teachers, and environments?  How do social media or other 21^st Century skills figure in your environmental communication instruction?  If reflection is a key component in your courses, how do you achieve this?  How are you empowering and supporting yourself and your students to be transformative change agents in both thought and action?  Finally, consider how the delivery or format of your submission can be as innovative, interactive, and/or evocative as the pedagogical content you discuss.

Scholars, educators, practitioners, and students across the discipline (and related fields) are invited to submit chapter and/or activity/assignment submissions:

CHAPTER SUBMISSIONS INCLUDE:

(1) a completed version of a paper (5,000-8,000 words including references) or an extended abstract (400-500 words) (APA 6^th edition) and (2) a 200-word bio.

ACTIVITY/ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSIONS INCLUDE:

(1) a short essay-like description (400 words max) and how-to instructions, objectives, and evaluation and (2) a 200-word bio. 
Due date for consideration:  May 11, 2015

By May 11, 2015, email submissions to: either Tema Milstein at tema@unm.edu OR Mairi Pileggi at mairi.pileggi@dominican.edu

Note: All submitters will be contacted with decisions by the editors by June 8, 2015. Those given revise/resubmits and those submitting abstracts the editors want to consider further will be expected to submit revisions and/or complete papers by July 31, 2015.